Build a repertoire, practice it and build on it.

Learning is building a set of skills, and continuously adding to it.

A musician's goal is to be entertaining. He does this by playing songs. Whole songs. You have to start by learning one song. When you have that one down, learn another. Slowly you will build a repertoire. You will build a set. You will build what the old school big bands used to call a book. You'll have enough to be entertaining for an evening.

That is your goal. Everyone knows lots of people that can play first 25 seconds of the intro to stairway to heaven, or the opening riff to smoke on the water. That is not skill. You need more than that. That is a start. Many never get past that point.

Learning is the same. Build a worthy skill, then add to it. You will eventually have an orchestra of skills you can use.

A band must often revisit, and practice the old songs. They use the skill they learned from the old songs to conquer the new ones. This is a great example of spiral learning. Humans can't be expected to retain new knowledge if it's not reviewed.

Woodshed

Woodshed is an old school music term. It means to go off by yourself and practice. One musician will tell another you need to do some Woodshedding. That means go off, lock yourself in the woodshed, away from others and learn your craft. This is a time to make mistakes, push yourself, try something new away from the glare of others.

It is valuable time. It is time well spent. Yes, it can be painful. Woodshedding can be equivalent to solitary confinement. Just you and your instrument spending quality time with each other.

But, if woodshedding is done correctly the hours will pass like seconds. You will appreciate it. Time will fly and you will have to be pulled out of the woodshed by your loved ones. They will bang on the door and flick the lights to get you to knock it off. You are in the zone.

When it's bad, hours pass like year. It is like torture.

A learner must be ready for both. Woodshedding is a practiced skill like any. It gets better with time. It gets better with a challenge. When it comes right down to it is the perfect way to learn.

After a good time woodshedding you are prepared to share your learned skill with the world. And have it evaluated.

This could send you, once again, happily or unhappily to the woodshed.