Mike Moxcey ©2005

Music as a Hobby

I play music as a hobby. It’s fun. I can do it by myself or with other people.

You can too.

Playing music is a hobby that’s similar to playing cards or fishing. You can do it by yourself as Solitaire or as a relaxing day alongside a stream. You can also have a lot of fun when you do it with others. Music isn’t necessarily one of those solitary collecting hobbies such as stamp collecting or numismatics. But it can be if you want. Many people play purely for their own enjoyment.

Playing music is as difficult as playing cards or fishing. There are probably some people out there who cannot play cards or fish. It may be a physical impediment such as an inability to hold a hand of cards or a fishing rod. It may be a mental one such as an inability to understand the difference between suits or an aversion to putting a live worm on a cold steel hook. But just as most people can play cards or catch fish (if they’re lucky), they can also play a musical instrument.

If you can drum your fingers on the table, you have the physical dexterity to handle any musical instrument. If you can count to four, you can maintain rhythm. If you can count to five, you can even understand music theory, but that isn’t a requirement. You don’t have to understand probability and statistics to play cards nor do you have to understand fluid dynamics to fish. Of course, if you’re going to do either for a living, you’ll need to understand a lot of stuff. And often, the more you understand, the better you get at anything, but you don’t have to understand too much just to get started.

Hearing Music (Talent)

Music can be learned in many ways. Learning by ear is one way. It used to be the only way and if you didn’t start off with a good ear, then you weren’t “musically inclined” and you never learned to be. An ear can be developed, just like a voice or a muscle or anything learned by your mind.

So don't worry if you've been misdiagnosed as tone deaf or you can't keep rhythm if your life depended on it. Those are skills that can be learned just like cooking or complaining

Some of the exercises I give are to help you to learn to hear music.

Jamming also helps you to hear it.
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