The holidays have come and gone so quickly, and now we’ve started a new year and even a whole new decade. We enjoyed our holidays and hope you did too! When I was a little girl, I loved to make a new list every year of a few things I wanted for Christmas. I also made these lists for my birthday. As I grew older, my wish lists started changing. I stopped wishing for things for Christmas, and I started making lists of books or movies I wanted to read. I even started making lists of goals I wanted to personally work on and change.
All of us make lists; to do lists, queues of movies or shows to watch, bucket lists, or reminders. Our lists differ from each other, but the fact of the matter is we all make lists. Maybe one of the most important lists a music student might make is a music playlist of the pieces they want to learn.
Of course, it is very important for students to counsel with their teachers about which pieces to play, but it is fun and helpful at times to pick out your own songs. This helps students discover what genres they particularly enjoy playing as well as their strengths and weaknesses. It helps us identify what holes we might have in our repertoire and explore new composers and music that we might not have otherwise played. Building a music wish list is fun and something that can occur over a long period of time. Today we’re going to briefly talk about three different ways we can build this music wish list.
Listening
With the many different platforms of technology and social media so readily available, this is a great one in today’s day and age. Radio stations, playlists, and various album compilations are very helpful in discovering new music. Hear something you like? Write it down or create your own playlist! Find a way to save it. If it’s a piece that’s too difficult, that’s okay! Save it anyways. You don’t have to learn it right now, but if you really love it, you’ll want to remember it in the future. Listening to various music platforms is very helpful because some personalize your music feed or suggest music you might like. Because we’re regularly listening to music, this is a particularly easy, fun, and consistent way to build your music wish list.
Concerts
We know concerts help music students grow in so many different ways, but that is a discussion for another time. Concerts are particularly helpful for building a music wish list because we get to experience and truly feel the piece. We can feel the different moods, witness the various techniques, and sometimes can even picture what the piece is trying to portray. It allows us to envision ourselves playing a piece. Was there a piece that really moved you in a concert? Write it down. Add it to the list! Let it become a part of you.
People
As music students, we have friends, classmates, and teachers who are also involved in music. They might like different types of songs or may play different styles than we might. The people around us are an amazing way we can discover new pieces. The particularly cool thing about this outlet is that we have the chance to witness their process of learning the piece. We can gain ideas, tips, and methods from them about how they’re playing and what has helped them. Is your classmate learning a cool piece that you really like? Add that to your list too!
Do you have a music wish list? Share it with us. We’d love to hear it! Plus check out some of our playlists here!