If you're just starting out with an instrument, what should you focus on to stay motivated in the long run? For example, should you balance technical practice with theory, or does playing songs that appeal to your ear boost motivation more? Where would you invest your time: reading sheet music, ear training, or trying out pre-recorded backing tracks?
What should beginners pay attention to when starting to play an instrument?
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I think playing directly on recorded backing tracks is really demotivating. Just like how theoretical things are rewarding when memorized, playing along with a song is the same. For example, when you nail the rhythm of a simple song on bass guitar without forgetting fingerings, you feel like "Yes, I can do this!" in that moment, which pushes you to keep playing. It wouldn’t hurt to invest a little in ear training either—once your ear improves, everything gets easier.
I think if you're just starting to learn an instrument, diving straight into theory would drive me crazy too. When I first started playing guitar, I completely ignored the notes and focused on playing simple chords of songs I knew—it was incredibly motivating to be able to play those simple pieces. I’ll never forget the feeling of playing those four basic chords of a simple song like "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" for the first time.
Of course, later on, I did start working on reading music and ear training to improve my technique, but I did it without losing that initial motivation. And hey, playing along with recorded backing tracks turned out to be super fun—it really helped me develop a sense of rhythm too. So, in short: if you feel like you have to learn everything at once, your motivation will fizzle out quickly. My advice? Start with the simple, fun stuff you enjoy, then gradually move on to theory and the finer details.
Playing an instrument is actually a lot like programming, bro—you gotta figure out the system logic first, and once you start practicing efficiently, you make way better progress. I always tell beginners this analogy: Just like syntax and basic structures matter when learning to code, an instrument has note reading (syntax) and fundamental techniques (basic code blocks). Sure, jumping straight into pre-recorded backing tracks might boost your motivation short-term (like playing a ready-made song), but if you don’t eventually incorporate note reading and theory, you’ll hit a wall and get stuck.
With instruments, just like in programming, if you don’t have a solid foundation when you’re trying to figure out "how do I make this work?"—you’re gonna struggle. But if you just ignore theory and spend hours memorizing notes, it gets boring fast. You gotta balance both. Like, spend 2-3 days a week on note reading and exercises, and the rest on ear training with simple pieces or backing tracks. Just like a developer learns basic algorithms before tackling real projects, you should start with simple pieces to stay motivated, then reinforce theory. For example, after I started drums, I first played simple rhythms with backing tracks, then later learned sheet music and theory. If you’re just in it for fun, keep going with backing tracks, but if you want to seriously improve, don’t skip note reading and theory.