Rhan Wilson: All In Good Time || "The Five Musical Senses"

The five musical senses.

Offhand, I would say that a good musician utilizes five basic skills (or senses), and with the large groups I have been working with lately, the order of learning is often in this order:

Chords (Learning basics: C, F, G, etc)
Group Playing (Singing a song together)
Rhythm (Being in sync and knowing where the beat is.)
Awareness (Knowing where others are rhythmically and hearing everything going on around you.)
Dynamics (Being an artist. Loud, soft, tender, long, short….)

The reason the Ukulele is so popular is because it is so easy to learn the basic chords one needs to start playing music. In little time at all, the beginning uke player knows C, F, and G7 and that is all they need to play hundreds of songs. The joy of singing and playing together in a group is infectious and the group singalong captivates everyone’s interest. Playing chords, strumming, singing, and reading a basic chart offers a challenge to keep up with.

Often, the other three musical skills: rhythm, awareness, and dynamics – get left behind in the pursuit of learning more chords and finding more singalong situations...

(To see the remainder of Rhan's thoughts click, here.)