How Do You Like to Learn?
As you go through your music lessons and at-home practising, you may begin to notice some interesting things about how you absorb information. Maybe you’re struggling with a particular passage of music, but can easily understand it after you watch your teacher demonstrate it? Maybe you figure out a way to overcome a technical challenge after focusing on how your different parts of your body feel while playing or singing? Maybe you finally figure out what’s been holding you back on a piece of music after recording it, and listening to yourself play?
What I just described is visual learning, kinesthetic learning (feeling and the physical side of music), and auditory learning (having to do with hearing and sound). If you can begin to be aware of how you process information from these different angles then you can take advantage of them to spur great musical progress and growth!
I personally seem to have a preference for visual learning, so I often practise in front of a mirror so that I can see what my hands and arms are doing. I have a much easier time understanding something when I see it being done, so as a student I liked seeing my teachers demonstrate concepts or passages of music, as well as watching them perform live. Today I find youtube drum videos to be extremely helpful, and I wish I had them when I was growing up!
At the same time, I try to explore the other learning styles. I spend some time during my warm up focusing on the feeling (kinesthetic) of the sticks, my hands, fingers, forearms, and shoulders. As a drummer it’s essential that I develop an awareness of where I might be holding tension (my shoulders and jaw are prime offenders) so that I can eliminate it. For the auditory side of things I often record music that I’m working on, and listen back to help make adjustments and corrections. I try to set aside dedicated music listening time - whether for the sake of understanding what other performers are doing, or for learning drum parts by ear.
Understanding what makes learning easiest for you is extremely important, but you can also work to develop the areas that are more of a struggle. I’m not always as comfortable with auditory learning, and figuring out drum parts by ear is a particular area that I have difficulty with. To help develop my ear a little better I set a small, manageable learning goal like trying to figure out the introduction to a song by ear. I work on it for a limited amount of time to help avoid fatigue and frustration, and then return to a more comfortable learning mode for the rest of the practise session.
I always try to help my students understand how they learn best, and I encourage you to explore these different angles as well. Happy practising!
