Basic Saving Tips

Know what key you’re in
Following on from the last point, if you’re planning on jamming with other musicians, it’s important to be able to identify which key you’re playing in at any given time, and adapt your approach accordingly – unless you’re the drummer of course!

Learning scales can help you to stay in key during a jamming session. As the more experienced musicians among you will know, each musical scale focuses around a specific key. So, the more scales you know, the better you’ll be at staying in key, improvising on a track, and making sure you sound great playing alongside other musicians.

Patience
Perhaps the most important quality in a musician looking to perfect their instrument is patience, especially if you’re just starting out. No one becomes a virtuoso overnight, so if you hit a wall, don’t worry, just keep going until you get it right. It takes a lot of time and effort to be a truly great musician.

Practice techniques

This may seem like an obvious one, but the point we want to make is that simply playing your instrument is necessarily not the same as practicing.

When a professional musician practices their instrument, they go through scales (or rudiments) repeatedly, working hard to improve their technique. Set yourself a dedicated practice or warm-up regime for each day to burn those scales into your memory.

Not only should you practice scales and exercises to maintain your abilities, but you should also challenge yourself to master something new as often as possible.