We always wonder on the musicians, who perform extraordinarily in the stage. We too wonder how those musicians have acquired such high-level skills. Most highly professional and high-performance musicians have undergone training right from their childhood. However, interestingly there are many musicians, who are self-taught and didn’t undergo any professional training. For example, the great musicians like Prince, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix claims themselves to be a self-taught guitarist, which is something very unbelievable for most music lovers/music artists.
In another interesting confession, Banks of Californian R&B sensation said that she learnt to play the piano with the toy keyboard that was gifted by her mother at the age of 14. These are some of the examples to reveal that many musicians are self-taught. A study conducted by Peter MacIntyre and Gillian Potter reveals that informal practice and excess motivation played a crucial role in developing the skills. It seems that most informally trained musicians have increased abilitycapability to create their own piece of music.
Many people believe that it is impossible for an individual to attain such heights in music field without formal training. However, research finds that many professional musicians have their skills subconsciously or have the talent inborn. For example, a famous guitarist John Frusciante learnt to play the songs in guitar by himself, without knowing what he was doing. In fact, he does not know to describe the how to play the songs verbally or in a step-by-step process.
People, who have acquired the skills implicitly, are able to perform on stage better than those, who have acquired the skill explicitly. It is because those who learnt formally need to control and remember many things, while those learnt implicitly have their automatic mechanism that takes care of many things. Formally trained people are more conscious and under pressure, while the self-learnt and inborn talent people are able to perform freely.
Self-learnt people do not follow the grammar of music. However, the final output or final product is livelier and amazing. Self-learnt professionals not only exist in the field of music, but in other fields as well. A professional golf player – Bubba Watson, who won the US Masters title for the second time, says that he never learn to play the sport formally.
This does not mean that instructors and teachers are not necessary. Not everyone can be a self-taught musician. There are many people, who wish to master their music skills, but do not have the inborn talent. For such people, teachers and instructors are much needed. However, the role of the instructor should aim to enhance the creativity and enthusiasm of his students rather than stuffing or overloading with unwanted stuff. A good instructor will provide needed freedom to his students to perform freely rather than being restrictive.
Music is an art and not an educational subject that can be imparted verbally. An individual can be good musician only if he has good musical wisdom. If you want to be a great musician, you should spend more time on practicing implicitly. Whether it is vocal or instrument, you should never feel hesitate to try on your own.
