4 tips to teach yourself to play a new instrument

Learning a new instrument is exciting. Whether you are young or old, it's a chance to challenge yourself and get your body and brain to develop a new skill.

• Taking music lessons is the first step to mastering a new instrument, but there are also many things you can do on your own to help yourself get better.

Here are some tips for practising a new musical instrument.

Just like playing sports or exercising, you have to warm up when you are practising a new instrument. After all, you are working your muscles in new ways.

• You have to stretch out the muscles in your fingers, hands and wrists to get them prepared for the workout.
• Warming up can be as simple as playing scales or a basic song that you know already before you start learning something new.
• You want to be sure to start slowly so that your muscles will get warmed up and reduce the chance of pain or injury.

Taking breaks is a very important part of practising. You don't want to practice for extended periods without letting your body recover from fatigue.

• Taking breaks will ensure that you can practice longer and get more out of your practice sessions.
• Get up from your seat, walk around, gather materials, or plan out your next hour of practice: anything besides performing the same movements that you have been for the last hour will refresh you.

Recording yourself is a great way to monitor your progress and track your improvement.

• It's the best way to identify problems in your playing and to make sure you are addressing them.
• Simply set up a recorder at the beginning of your practice and label it with the date so you can tell how you are doing over time.

You should have goals for each practice session.

• They can be as simple as playing three scales ten times each or as complex as learning a new song or chord, but you should have a concrete idea of what you are trying to accomplish with each session.
• This will help make sure that you don't get sidetracked during your practice and also help give you a sense that you are progressing.