The best way to learn how to play

Taking on the challenge of learning how to play an instrument can be daunting. There is so much to learn. There is so little time to practice. There are so many people better than you and people who spend their entire lives devoted to perfecting the instrument that you don't even know how to tune or hold correctly.

In my opinion, the first, and most important step in learning how to play an instrument is to put it down, and grab a pencil and piece of paper. This doesn't work on a computer screen; you must write it down and see what you wrote. Also, be completely honest. This isn't something you need to broadcast to the world. You should answer these for your own benefit alone. If you decide to share this with anyone, it will create a sense of accountability, but that is your own decision. Answer the following questions:

1) Why do I want to learn how to play this instrument? You can answer any way you choose. For example, I wanted to learn the guitar when I was 15 because I wanted to impress girls. True story. Later on, I wanted to learn the ukulele because I loved the way it sounded and wanted to understand how it works, and I want to be a great ukulele player.

2) What are my favorite styles of music? This question is important because even if you listen to "all styles of music," few people really enjoy ALL styles of music. Pick your top two or three genres, naming your favorite artists, favorite songs, etc. This question is so important because you're going to improve when you hear that your playing is consistent with what you listen to. Also, using the ukulele as an example, I felt pressured to play more "Hawaiian sounding" music until I realized that you can play any style with it. It has it's distinct sound, but doesn't limit you to a genre.

3) How will I meet my musical aspirations? This is a really tough question to ask yourself because your aspirations may be broad, and you don't know what it will take to "conquer the world with your axe!" But let me assure you that the best and brightest and most gifted musicians are the ones who put in hours upon hours of practice. Make a plan to practice, or learn a new song every day, or sign up to take lessons. Maybe you have a friend learning an instrument that you should plan jam sessions with, or however else you want to improve, write down some ideas on how you will learn. Try to recognize your own learning style and make plans to learn THAT way. You're more likely to learn and succeed if you take the initiative to do it yourself, rather than someone forcing you to do it against your will.

By sitting down and thinking about why you are trying to learn to play, it will help you navigate the road to becoming as good as you want to be. These questions will apply at all levels of learning an instrument, even if you're a rock star, or jazz musician, it's always nice to figure out why you want what you want, and where you still want to go.

All that said, when you buy your ukulele, it's always nice to get the entire package to get you started, included lessons, tuners, CDs, etc. You're less in the dark when you have a direction to go.