Is It Hard To Learn Music?

Is It Hard To Learn Music?

Many people have gotten the idea that it is difficult to learn music. So often, after hearing a great performance, you hear someone remark that the person playing was 'lucky' because they had been born with talent. You hear people say that they could never do that because they have no talent. Society holds up the picture of the child prodigy who plays, presumably without ever having lessons. Musical groups are represented as a bunch of friends who just got together and became an overnight sensation.The truth is, everyone learned somewhere; the people in these musical groups had lessons and rehearsed and even Mozart took lessons from his dad. One thing that has made it seem hard to learn music to the average person is the 'snob nomenclature' that develops in activities such as music. Nomenclature is simply what things are called and 'snob nomenclature' occurs when people within a given study start using or making-up really technical sounding terms for basically simple stuff. They do this to make themselves feel more important; like they are 'in the know' and to impress others and give them the feeling that what is going on is simply too complex for them to comprehend. It is interesting that when musicians get really good, they start to use slang for these terms because they have seen through the false importance of terminology in general.A few bucks will buy you a good musical dictionary and then problem solved. Also why there is a glossary on this website.

The other thing that is taught in Europe and generally missing from music lessons in this country is something called Sight Singing and Ear Training. Sounds a little complicated but it's just a collection of simple melodies that one sings or hums and some rhythmic  drills that one taps out on a desk or their knee. There are many good Sight Singing and Ear Training books available and, using this practice in conjunction with learning music brings immediate results in the form of being able to learn music. Leaving this out brings very haphazard results that often leave the student very frustrated.
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