6 Principals To Supercharge Your Growth (Learning 101 - Part 1/2)
Does your music don’t progress? Does it feel stale like you written 1 song over and over? Do you fill stuck with the songs that you write?
It wasn’t long ago that I was fed up with songs that I wrote. I recently completed a new song and listened back to it. I was devastated. My songs didn’t have the impact I wanted. As I compared them to songs on Spotify, they felt amateurish. All the time I put into this song felt like a waste of time. I knew I need to level up my songwriting.
So that day, I started to learn about everything in music theory to make sure this never happened again. I got online and learned. Harmony, voice leading, lyric writing, etc. I bought courses and online classes. If there was a video I could watch about music creation, I would watch it.
But after some time, I got back to writing music again. I felt confident that I can write better songs now. I poured my heart and soul into this next song. I spent a whole week on it. As I finished it, I was sure that this one was the best song I’ve ever written. Listening back to it, I compared it with the song I wrote before. There was no difference whatsoever. It was all the same.
I asked myself:
What the hell am I doing wrong? Do I even got what it takes to be a musician?
I learn so much about music, but I couldn’t manage to create something new. I couldn’t manage to use the things I learned.
It took me some time to solve this problem. The problem was not that I lacked the abilities or that I wasn’t determinate enough. The issue laid in the way I choose to learn and the lack of practice I needed to put in.
Today I will show you how I dealt with this problem. I’ve split up this topic into 2 sections. In this week's newsletter, we talk about how we can learn most effectively as musicians. Next week, we will talk about pitfalls to watch out for while studying and creating music. So let's get going.
Active vs. passive learning
To start off, we need to talk about the ways we can pick up on information. Learning methods can be grouped into 2 section. Passive and active learning. These sections will determine how we interact with information presented.
Passive learning is like a one way street. The information only gets transferred in one direction. You attend a course, read a book or watch videos. The learning gets done with little involvement on your part. You just sit there and the information drives towards you.
Active learning transforms the one ways street of passive learning into a roundabout. Now, travel in both direction is possible. Active learning forces us to interact with the knowledge. As we interact with new ideas and methods, questions will arise that need to be answered. We drive along this roundabout until we mastered what we wanted to learn.
One method of active learning is most effective for us musician. It’s practice. This means after we learned about a new technique, like voice-leading, we used it shortly after. We practice it until, it gets ingrained in your memory. This forced us to understand the topic in a deeper way. It reveals memory gaps and unanswered questions.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. - Confucius
To summarize, passive learning is like watching videos about working out. Active learning is doing the exercises that the video demonstrates. You can’t expect to get in shape if you don’t train. So don’t expect to write a better song, when you don’t use the theory and techniques you’ve learned.
Active Learning For Musicians
We learned about how we can group learning methods into 2 sections and which is most effective. Now, I want to show you my approach that helped me to level up my writing.
1. Learn only what you need
The best way you can level up your craft is to only learn what you need. The focus is always on creating. If you struggle with writing chords, you learn about how to write chords and progressions. You don’t need to take a whole collage course on music theory to write a song. This a waste of time and won’t help you to finish your song. When you’ve learned the basics of rhythm, harmony and melody, you're ready to start writing.
As you write songs, you will hit roadblocks. The first thing you need to do is, to find out what the problem is. The road block can only be destroyed if you know what it’s made of. Sometimes the song doesn’t sound “right”. Zoom in and uncover what issue you face. After you know that, you can search for information to target it.
Zoom in.
Solve the problem.
Move on.
But this can also work in the opposite direction. You can start off with learning and then apply it in your writing. If you write at least one song for every lesson you learned, your body of work will grow drastically. And as we've learned, the information will transfer into your long term memory better.
2. Find Qualified Information
The internet is the most powerful tool we can use to learn about music. But we need to watch out for unqualified advice. It’s like a sea full of fish, the types, and quality of information varies quite a bit. We are the anglers that need to catch the fish that fits the bucket. We need to choose the bait that lures the right fish towards us. If we catch the wrong fish, we can end up with information that enforces bad habits.
The best thing you can do is to find 2–3 mentors. Musicians that can explain music to you in a way that connects. What I mean with that is, every one of us talks and explains differently. And every one of us picks up on information in a different way. If you're an analytic person, a mentor that explains music on a technical level might be best for you. In contrast, if you're more emotionally driven, look for a mentor that explains with emotions. Learning should be fun. If you fall asleep while watching a video, look for a teacher that can explain in a more entertaining way.
The second thing you need to watch out for is, that your mentors practice what they preach. They need to write songs as well. The best advice you can get is from someone that does the work you do and has a lot of practical experience. Try to avoid teachers that never write with the techniques they teach. It all comes back to our learning example. As we learn new techniques, new problems with arise. A good mentor can teach you the technique and help you solve the problems that follow.
3. Save What You Learn
Everything you learn will end up in your short term memory. The goal is to transfer what you’ve learned into our long-term memory. As I said, the best way we can do this is to practice what we learned. But we can aid this process, when we take qualified notes. Write down everything you learn in your own words and save it somewhere you can retrieve it. As you write your notes, question yourself on the topic. Make sure you understand what you’re writing down.
Sometimes it enough to know where you stored information and brush up on things. This suits more advance techniques that you use in 1 out of 10 songs. Not everything needs to be learned until you can cite it in your dreams. But I want to encourage you, to make fundamental techniques second nature. Chords, Chord-functions, basic scales, etc. are the fundament your song will build on top off.
If you want to level up your note-taking even more. Look up different techniques online. Only writing down the information presented is not the most effective way.
4. Direct Application
Don’t wait too long to use what you learned. We want to use what we learned when it’s fresh. Plan writing session after learning session. When we wait days, we run the risk of losing much of the information we tried to learn. I want to emphasize this:
Learning = Change In Behaviour
If you write songs and run into the same problems over and over, you haven’t learned.
5. Consistent Growth
The best way you can evolve as a musician is to expose yourself to new ideas and concepts. I created a habit to learn at least one small lesson every day and one big concept each week. This keeps me growing and even helps me generate new ideas.
Small lessons can be different ways you approach a song, or a new chord progression. While big concepts are more overarching. Think of methods that combine many elements to achieve on outcome. Like borrowed chords in harmony in music theory, or even marketing strategies.
Learning new ideas, approaches, or techniques will keep you on the edge. It ensures that you’ll have at least one new element to bring to music. It’s a recipe that makes sure your songs won’t get stale.
Refresh Information
As we progress, will lose some of the knowledge we gained. Information we don’t use on a regular basis gets tugged away. Like a locked chest, you need a key to retrieve it. Brushing up on our notes is all it takes to unlock the chest and make the tool useful again. The longer you wait, the more detail will get lost in your memory. Check in once a month on the tool you use rarely. Our goal to build and grow our toolkit on a day-to-day basis. This toolkit will only be useful if we know where the right tool can be found.
Supercharge Your Growth
In summary, the results of your learning are directly link to the way you interact with the knowledge presented. Every time we learn, we want to do so in an active way. For every lesson you learn needs to follow at least one action. Stick to the 6 principals we covered today:
Learn only what you need
Find qualified Information
Save what you learn
Directly apply every lesson
Seek out new knowledge weekly
Refresh information on a monthly basis
Now you got everything you need to supercharge your learning. Watch out for next week's newsletter, where we discuss pitfall you need to avoid, when learning. I will see you there.
Stay sharp!
If you got something out of this, share this with someone who you think can benefit from this advice. We all need to watch out for another.
BECOME A SONGWRITING MACHINE!
— Max of Current Mindset
