Be a Good Musician? But How?

  Have you ever see a musician, and you just sitting there and you just like: "How in the world he do that solo!?", "his arrangement and musics just too insane and kinda love it!", "Fvck this sh!t, i just too noobies in music." or some kind of that feeling?

   I do.

  And it makes me to think like: "I know this beach like i know myself, but there's deep and vast sea that i haven't recognize it yet."

  So, as a fellow musician, i just wanna share to you, about how to be a good musician. Good is relative, but improve is what we should do everyday. Here’s my list of suggestions for upgrading your musical abilities:

1. Listen.

This is the vital point to improving your skills. Much of how we play is dictated not only by how we practice but also what we listen to. Absorbing music is far more important than actually playing, so expose yourself to all kinds of music! If you wanna do the music, you first have to know how it’s supposed to sound and feel. Having vast vocabularies of music will significantly improves your abilities. Simply pay attention and listen, hard. Don’t over think but, rather, let your body and your ears tell you how to feel the music. Listen it anywhere, anytime. On the road, when doing your home activity, when do some jobs, at any given time. Music is not mathematically and logically, it's emotionally. Feel the grooves, grab your tools, and just do it.

2. Learn.

Like i have mentioned it before, to become a great musician, you must have a deep sense about all of kinds of music genre, because every single genre has its own vocabulary. Learn a little from lots of genres, and when you're ready, learn lots from a specific genre. And believe me, this is involves lots of listen, too. Learn about how professionals play. How they express their emotion. Watch them on live concert, or on the internet. Learn and feel their music, and learn to express them by yourself.

3. Practice.

Yep, people say that practice makes perfect, but for me, nothing is perfect. Perfection is only for God. Hahaha :D But i mean, by practicing, you will improving, improving, and improving, as the time goes by. When you are still in the very first step in playing instrument, I believe that you all start with stiff and slow finger. Teach them how to dance on the fretboard, follow the rhythms, explore some solos. Do it daily, and you will amazed by how they actually 'fly' on the frets!

4. Buy instruments that is suitable for you.
For the first-timers, maybe this is not an easy choice. But you can always search about the perfect tools for you. I prefer browse about instruments at youtube (since we need to listen to the sound itself) and forums. Yeah, forums is a great place on internet to find any information about your instrument of choice, and they provide almost every answer to your questions, since they are groups of musicians. Learn from the professionals is always be a very good start!

For the experienced, choose the instruments that really speaks to you. There is a tendency to get caught up in the collector mentality and think that we need an arsenal of instruments. Unless you have unlimited amount of gold, you should choose wisely. Shape your skills on one instrument until you find one that really speaks to you (believe it, you’ll know when that happens). Same instruments as your idols doesn't mean you always could bring the sound that you adore. For me, your hands, fingers, and ears, they are the most important things in your sound-shaping arsenal, not the instruments itself.

5. Play with another fellow musicians.

By playing with another bandmates in your band, you will significantly shaped your musicianship. Yes, you will try to keep your tempo, listen to another musicians' voice, keep on tempo, arranging music, and socializing each other! There are lots of things that you will learn in your band, and i couldn't mention them one by one here. Just play along, and you will feel the effects and the improvements! 

6. Soul and Groove!

Guitarists with ultraspeed shreds, and bassists with extremely fast slaps, all of them will bring some 'whoozah' to you. But a player that play with soul, and emotionally play the lines, that's what makes them unforgettable. A single note with 'soul' in it, and a groovey slow basslines, that is the exactly what people love. Learn more on getting yourself 'inside' the music, but never leave licks and finger-practices also. When you get your tone on it, yeah! That's what the music is talking about! Play with emotions, not just skills! Got their attention with your mojo!

"Groove is that rhythmic feeling that everyone agrees is the perfect feeling for song, [though it’s] an unverbalized agreement. It’s like great food. When all the ingredients are there and it works perfectly to excite your tastebuds exactly the way they should be stimulated, you know it. You can’t define the amounts of the ingredients that are going into it or even what the ingredients are." - John Clayton

That's a few tips from me. Remember: "A thousand miles journey begin from a single step"- Lao Tzu. Have yourself a very great jammin' time! Groove!