How do you go about learning a new skill?

Aaron O'Leary
23 replies
Hey all, recently I started learning the guitar, being a musician myself I've always had an interest in it, it's a steep learning curve coming from percussion and I'm wondering how do you set yourself up to learn a new skill effectively?

Replies

Ste
Just show up. When I started learning to code, after not learning anything at this scale since uni, I hit that steep learning curve. But I stuck to it, showing up every day, even though nothing made sense. I tried seeing what my frustration limit is. And always pushing it a bit further every time. Then, after about 6 months, it started making sense.
Aaron O'Leary
@stelian_dobrescu1 find that's best for me, not just show up but show up consistently and intentionally, make sure what you're doing has an intentional learning benefit
Rehan Choudhry
Combination of skills learning, practice, and performance. 1. Skills Learning - make sure you're taking one day a week to advance your index of basic skills. Scales, chord progressions, sight reading, etc. That gives you the template for the next week of practice. 2. Practice - one day of skills learning = 6 days of practice. 30min/day. But focus on practicing the skills you just learned. Miss a week of practice? Then you have twice the learnings to cover in half of the practice time. 3. Performance - this was always my favorite when playing the guitar. Develop a regular cadence of putting yourself out there publicly. Rehearse separately for that. Play one song in front of friends, practice for 2 weeks to do it. It's like product releases -- you're trying to figure out what you're getting wrong, and where you need work. But nothing accelerates learning like the pressure of getting in front of people. I played the guitar for most of my life and applied the same approach to my work as an entrepreneur. You're going to do great, especially if you're a percussionist already.
Aaron O'Leary
@rehan_choudhry1 Totally agree with this, had the same approach when learning drums, glad to get this validation in my process haha
Harsh Parmar
I try to take it slow because learning a new skill takes time. Patience is the key.
Khayyam Sajid
By being consistent.
Harsh Siriah
This has always been an interesting topic for me as I have tried learning various different things and end up leaving them eventually. It would be interesting to see people's perspectives on this topic. For me, learning guitar was a long process. It took me 3-4 years from taking a guitar in my hand to performing twice in my college, to eventually getting busy and not getting enough time to play it more often. I started out by learning short tunes and songs on tabs, then progressing to chords that I learned from Youtube to solos in rock songs. But this did take a lot of time and effort. I'd suggest that you just master the basics first and then keep learning and mastering songs that you love. This will make sure you're motivated and don't give up soon. Good luck!
Aaron O'Leary
@harsh_siriah1 Interesting topic here actually about getting busy, how do you find guitar now if you went back after say a few months?
Harsh Siriah
@aaronoleary So if I try to go back to it, I am able to play some tunes that are a part of my muscle memory I guess, something like the chords to Boulevard of Broken Dreams or the tabs to Smoke on the Water. But, of course, it wouldn't be as good as it would've been if I had been practicing regularly.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to learn a new skill depends on the individual and their learning style. However, here are some general tips that can help you to learn anything new: 1. Set achievable goals - When you are trying to learn a new skill, it's important to have short- and long-term goals in mind. Make sure that you are setting small goals that you can easily achieve and that will help you move closer to your larger goal. 2. Practice, practice, practice - The best way to learn anything is by practicing as much as possible. Practice until you can do the task quickly and without error. When you are able to do this, it will be much easier to apply what you've learned in the future. 3. Use flashcards or other flash memory tools - Sometimes it's hard to remember things when they're not immediately visually apparent. That's where flashcards or other visual memory tools come in handy - they allow you to store information in a way that is easy for you to access and remember. 4. Make use of online resources - There are many online resources available that can help you learn new skills faster and more efficiently than ever before. Whether you're looking for video tutorials, audio recordings, or written materials, there's bound to be something that suits your needs. Hopefully, these tips will help get you started on the right track in your quest to learn anything new!
Aaron O'Leary
@heykav Yup definitely some great tips here, especially flash cards! I used them for practicing rudiments
Bhavna Singh
I have a very basic opinion and understanding related to learning anything and it goes like this, discipline and consistency are two gems which make things possible.
Mr V
Youtube, its great if your a visual learner.
Joyce Taylor
Humans are natural learners—and we learn best when we perform the tasks we’re trying to learn. No matter how good your grades were at college, most of your learning takes place once you enter the workplace and start applying what you've learned. Let's say you’re trying to learn SEO. Don’t invest all your time in learning the jargon and theory—dive in as soon as you can to master the skill through trial and error. Start a blog. Write a few posts. Find out for yourself what works and what doesn’t. The more you do it, the more you learn. mythdhr Better yet, build new habits to enforce your new skills. Start small and reward yourself to start building a pattern of behavior that will reinforce what you're learning.
Tanya Kapoor
I really enjoy learning new skills. Recently, I have started learning the Spanish language. I find it interesting.
tneogi
I find that the following work well - - joining a group of people who are similar stages in the learning journey - Going through lots of videos - Practicing it as early as possible Of this, the direct practice has worked the best for me in terms of efficiency !
Roberto Morais
I will be honest that I usually spend a lot more time than I should reading, researching and watching videos to learn something. It's a lot easier to consume than to practice and also it help you get more confident that the skill you want to learn is the right one and that you find good content to learn it. That being said, I've learned anything without a lot of practice. What works for me is to pick a time for at least 3 days per week and stick to it. I've learned spanish like this, iOS coding and so on. I wrote about it 10 years ago but I think it's still relevant: https://medium.com/@robmoraisjr/...
Fran Borg
It's great that you're starting to learn guitar! Personally, I research what I want to learn and begin to understand where I should start (what are the fundamentals that I need to build on - this is important for me because I've tried to skip corners, and this always leads to unnecessary frustration). Then I start with that, and I keep practicing the fundamentals until I feel comfortable. After the fundamentals, I keep building on this. Sometimes I have an end goal in mind, and I create small goals leading me to the big one. If I find video tutorials/courses that are useful to me, then I'll definitely follow them (this was useful for me with web dev). However, this really depends on what you're doing and how you learn. Good luck! 🍀
Daniel Pessin
Learning new skills can take time and patience, as well as motivation to succeed. We should practice constantly and evaluate what we have learned. I am the founder of https://digitalmindinc.com and the NFT project Metafrens. But, these days I am learning to trade and the stock market. Everyday is a new opportunity to learn a new skill.
robiul haque
i am very interested to learn new skill