How To Use The Science of Motivation To Stay Fired Up To Play Music

Every day, thousands of people pick up a musical instrument for the first time. Some people are hooked for life, but according to some estimates, 90% of beginners don’t stick with music for more than a year. In a way, what’s surprising isn’t that 90% quits. It’s that 10% doesn’t. What motivates that 10% to spend hours and hours learning to play an instrument? And what’s the difference between long-time musicians and people who quit after a few months?

The answers to these questions can help both beginning and more advanced musicians. They can help beginners pick the right approach to learning music, while knowing more about motivation can help more experienced players who are stuck in a rut or just don’t seem as fired up to play as they used to be. So in this article, we’ll explore the science of motivation and see how it can help us to stay excited to play music.

Two types of motivation

Before we look at how we can motivate ourselves, we need to distinguish between two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Punishments and rewards are typical examples of extrinsic motivation, where we’re motivated to do something because it leads to an outcome we want. But we can also be intrinsically motivated, where we perform activities for no other reason than them being inherently interesting or enjoyable to us.

For example, you might read a book about the French revolution because you simply find history fascinating (intrinsic motivation), but you might also read it to get a good grade on a test or to impress someone (extrinsic motivation). In short, the reason you’re doing something shows whether your motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic.

What type of motivation is the best?

Now, according to the research, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are not equal. Intrinsic motivation leads to higher quality learning and greater creativity. And that makes sense: it’s easier to remember things when you really want to know them, right? Further research also points towards intrinsic motivation being the main driver for musicians to keep learning and developing their skills.

In short: when you’re intrinsically motivated to do something (such as play music), you’ll not only learn faster, but also stick with it for longer. So, our question becomes: how can we increase our intrinsic motivation? According to the science, there are at least two critical ‘ingredients’ that we need: competency and autonomy.

Ingredient #1: Competency

Competency is a bit of a technical term. But it simply means that we’re more motivated to do something when we feel we have the skills needed for success. Notice that I used the word ‘feel’: competency is about our own sense of ability, not some objective measure. So a beginner piano player who’s steadily improving might have a greater sense of competency than an experienced player who’s stuck in a rut (even though the more experienced player is objectively more skilled).

So how does this relate to making music?

First, if you’re just starting out, be sure to go for some quick wins by learning some easy songs. There’s nothing like that feeling of being able to produce a tune with nothing but your own two hands and a musical instrument. That thrill gets people hooked. It’s why the ‘Smoke on the Water’ riff is such a common song for first guitar lessons, or why Yann Tiersen pieces are so popular with piano students. They aren’t the most difficult pieces to learn, but they sound great.

Second, it is crucial to adopt a ‘growth mindset’ for your musical journey. Without going into too much detail, a growth mindset is a belief that your skills are not the reflection of natural, inborn talent, but a result of practice. This TED talk by Carol Dweck provides an excellent explanation.

Ingredient #2: Autonomy

Autonomy refers to our freedom to make our own decisions and self-direct our learning. All external forces that might push us to do something will diminish this sense of autonomy. That includes rewards, deadlines, (strict) instructions and competition, because we experience them as controlling our behaviour. For most adult learners, this isn’t a problem. They’ve made the decision to learn music themselves. But issues can arise as soon as teachers get involved. Here are two things to keep in mind when choosing a teacher.

First, many teachers are used to dictating what the lessons will be about. They have a ‘fixed’ lesson plan that doesn’t take into account your taste or your musical goals. As a result, you’ll find yourself practicing things because a teacher told you to, instead of an inner urge that says it’ll be awesome to learn this or that song. So when you’re looking for a teacher, ask what music you’ll be studying. The answer you’re looking for is: the music you love. A good teacher can take the music you are passionate about and use it to teach you anything about music. For beginners, that might involve taking a song you love and making it simple enough for you to play. Later on, a song you bring to your lesson might be an opportunity to learn about strumming, improvisation, or music theory.

Second, a good teacher will strive to make you as independent (i.e. autonomous) as possible. Instead of telling you how to practice, they’ll teach you the principles behind effective practice. Instead of telling you how to play a classical piece, they’ll teach you how to interpret sheet music. And instead of giving you guitar TABs for everything, they’ll teach you how to learn songs by ear. In other words, they should be preparing you to venture out into the jungle of music on your own as much as possible.

Final words

Hopefully this article has given you some insight into how motivation works, as well as some ideas on how to make sure you stay excited to play music. Of course, it’s perfectly natural for your motivation to ebb and flow, so if you have periods where you’re simply not feeling it: that’s okay!

If you’re in a motivation dip right now and want to get back into it though, I’d recommend you look for the thing that initially got you excited to learn music. Sometimes we get so hung up on all the things we feel we should learn, that we forget why we started this journey in the first place. So, return to the music you love and let yourself be inspired!

Just Rijna is the founder of StringKick, an online training academy for guitar players. StringKick is focused on helping you to train your ears, learn music theory and develop your musicality, all with the goal of making your musical journey more fun and ful

Published on September 12, 2022