Learn skills by being your own project manager
Learning a new skill or subject new can be extremely daunting. To comfortably learn something new without dedicating every waking hour to it, careful planning is key. This is especially true if you already have a job and maybe some significant others that you must share your time with.
For example, what might a basic project plan be for learning to play music without any prior knowledge?
Project 1:
Schedule 20–40 minutes to complete steps 1–4
Purpose: Learn most fundamental components of western music and how they can be played on an instrument
- Learn how to name notes
- Learn the definition of a major scale
- Listen to examples of major scales on youtube or instagram
- Play a major scale on some instrument where it is easy to visualize the notes like the piano or even a piano app. Start with C major on the piano because it is easier to visualize than the other major scales.
- Play a major scale in a few other keys like G and D to ensure you understand how to construct the scale rather than relying on memorization of what C major looks like.
- Review tasks 2–4 a few times throughout the next couple of weeks to reinforce the knowledge
Project 2 (can be started after step 5 is completed once):
Purpose: Learn how chords relate to scales and how basic songs are made of basic diatonic chord progressions.
Schedule 40–75 minutes for steps 1–6
- Learn the definition of diatonic chords, or chords that naturally occur in a major scale.
- Learn the diatonic chords of C Major
- Play them on a piano
- Play the diatonic chords of G Major and D Major
- Look up 3 basic diatonic chord progressions
- Play those progressions in C Major
- Review tasks 2–4 a few times throughout the next couple of weeks to reinforce the knowledge
Project 3:
Purpose: Learn how to play melodies and improvise over chords
Schedule 40–75 minutes for steps 1–6
- Learn definition of a mode
- Learn how modes associate with diatonic chords and the major scale
- Play a few modes
- Play a few modes with the right hand and the corresponding chord in the left hand
- Review tasks 2–4 a few times throughout the next couple of weeks to reinforce the knowledge
Low priority tasks :
- Learn the proper fingering for 2 major scales
- do all exercises with a metronome (use app)
- Learn chord extensions after project 2
Now, you may be thinking that of course it is obvious how to create a project plan once you’ve already finished the project but how could I make a project plan without any knowledge of the subject?
Indeed, I have thought about how a person should learn music but the sequence of these subtopics can also be found in the table of contents in a fundamentals of music theory book, a jazz theory book and several online resources. BE RESOURCEFUL!!! Between youtube, instagram, educational sites, forums and meet-ups, it is very likely that ANY skill you’d like to learn will have a number of relevant resources. Use those resources to identify the key basic concepts or techniques that allow you to start to plan clear projects that can be completed within some manageable amount of time.
Well organized music theory site with interactive media
Seminal Jazz Music Theory Book
Of course deciding on the time to give to a new project of uncertain difficulty is not trivial. At first a compromise between how much time you feel like giving and how much time is recommended by said resources is a good start. But to put it in agile start-up terms, if a project or task takes too long, then it hasn’t been broken down enough. You can usually find a task that can be done within 30–90 minutes with significant gain in understanding and ability. That time interval is much easier to commit to then 2+ hours and the easier it is to give time to your project, the more likely you are to complete it.
BE A NICE PROJECT MANAGER
One last thing to say about managing your skill acquisition projects, is that there is a risk of causing yourself anxiety if the projects don’t go as planned. Remember that skill acquisition is a beautiful bonus of modern life and even just thinking about how to learn a skill and maybe doing the research to do so is infinitely valuable. If you start to hear your self-manager voice become a bit too negative or aggressive, make some space from the project and switch to a task of lower pressure with more reliable enjoyment.
NOW GO LEARN STUFF ;)