TOP 5 Musicians' Fears

1. I am not talented enough

I don't mean this literally, but approximately one per cent of the human population has perfect pitch and another one per cent is completely tone-deaf and lacks musical sensitivity. This means that the vast majority of people show some talent (which includes precision and accuracy in distinguishing tones or a sense of rhythm) mixed in various proportions.

I understand that it's frustrating to try to play a song by ear on guitar or bass at first, to convince your fingers to play piano etudes, to get your head around the tea scattered over the stave (I mean, trying to read sheet music) or to try in vain to imitate your favourite vocalists. Beginnings are always challenging, and what you really need is a lot of passion and commitment to stick with it long enough. Perfect pitch is fine, but it won't make you a virtuoso.

2. I'm missing the boat or I'm getting old

Many of my students tell one of the two recurring stories. One is about returning to an instrument they had to leave behind when they were younger due to family or work obligations. And the other is about the simple joy of a new hobby, which in our case is playing the bass guitar. I won't lie to you and repeat the rather annoying cliché about age being a mere number. When you are over forty, you will feel your age in every way. If you choose to play an instrument you've never played before, it will take you longer than it takes school children or teenagers to learn. That's a fact.

However, age brings one huge advantage: you have experience and you know very well that some things can't be cheated. If you decide to practice guitar, bass, drums or ukulele, your approach will be very pragmatic, to the point and, above all, responsible. You'll save yourself a lot of time that you would have wasted as a hot-blooded youth, and you'll probably head straight to your favourite musician for lessons (checking and researching beforehand, of course, to make sure you know where you're investing).

3. Patience matters

We are all of different natures and our patience runs out at different speeds. Practising challenging etudes on an instrument, mastering breathing through a straw in singing lessons or endless hours with mallets in hand in a basement are not tasks you can successfully manage without a huge portion of patience and, most importantly, determination. I have always tried to overcome moments of restlessness and distraction by envisioning where I wanted to be. I knew I wanted to play on stage, and therefore I had to endure the process of learning new songs for the ever-changing setlists, for example.

Believe me, playing music is amazing, but getting ready for a two-hour gig where you're just filling in requires a great deal of patience. So is waiting for your big chance in the music business. It can take years before your dreams of big stages, legendary studios or surreal backstage experiences come at least partially true. Patience brings roses, or in our case, patience turns musical dreams into reality.  

4. Where to find the time

An eternal and in today's mega-speed world extremely pressing question. Practising an instrument, rehearsing with a band, travelling to gigs and promoting on social media. It all takes up a huge amount of time. Here it pays off to be really dry, pick up a pencil and a piece of paper (or whatever technological innovations have replaced these dinosaur tools) and write down your priorities, assigning each a clearly defined time slot for each day of the week. If you rely on sitting down to do this after work or at the weekend, I guarantee it won't work and you'll just let it fizzle out after a while.

If you are starting out on an instrument, your goal is to play six times a week. Yes, that's right. Six times a week you need to sit down and play. Do you only have ten minutes a day to do that with your busy management job, newborn triplets and training for an ultramarathon? Unless you're one of these hyperactive freaks, I'm sure you can find a little more than just ten minutes a day. I believe in you. But you can only miss once in an entire week.

5. The comparative hell of social networks 

Don't compare, don't compare and don't compare. I repeat this mantra to myself every day and fail every day. Social media is like heroin. It can completely consume you, suck the joy out of your life, and throw you into a depressing mode when you feel like "I can never achieve this", "I'm just not going to be this good and successful" and my favourite "screw it, it's not worth it". Yes, you can be inspired by amazing YouTube tutorials, players and tutors or listen to hours of podcasts with the best in the business. But that doesn't make you a master. You have to dive in, find your own way, your own style, and let go of the fact that you might not have millions of subscribers or likes.

Trends change, people change and you change over time. Go your own way step by step, turn off the endless stream of judgmental comments in your brain for a while, turn off your cell phone and computer, and just enjoy yourself.