• Playing music is only for musicians

The belief that music is just for musicians is a common idea between people who want to start to play percussion, but they doubt whether or not they will be able to fulfill that wish.

I´ve verified myself in the different activities and projects I developed, in which I taught to play percussion to people of different ages, from little kids to seniors. People that obviously didn’t have any kind of musical background and for whom that was not an impediment and who were able to happily fulfill to start their learning path in percussion.

As I said in previous videos, the ability of expressing musically is innate in us, and it can be awakened and developed through music learning and practicing in any stage of our lives.

So, It’s always a good time to start.

You just have to face the challenge.

• I don´t have a musical ear

I don’t have a musical ear is one of those limiting beliefs that strongly resonate in a lot of people who has the desire to start learning and making music. And in most cases that belief makes them give up trying to start or even quit learning when they are just starting their learning path in percussion.

To make it clear, having a musical ear is not an innate ability, on the contrary is an ability that each of us acquire and develop along different musical experiences.

Let’s think about this for a moment. Music is a language, like for example spanish, english, chinese, among others.

And in a way the process of learning the music language, in a sense, is similar as any other language you want to learn,

So, Can you say that you don’t have an ear for english or, maybe, spanish language, or for chinese?. Of course not.

Actually, If you don’t understand any of them it is because you never studied or used them. And obviously, when you start to learn to write, read and speak any of them you are going to be able to gradually understand them more.

Well the same criteria applies to the music language. Music also is learned progressively and by practicing.

So what is commonly known as “Musical Ear” in fact is an ability that any of us can start developing in any stage of ourr life and that we can improve with the progressive study of a musical instrument.

• I don´t have talent for music

I was born with no talent for music. That is a really dark and negative idea, and also a really hurtful thought.

Everyday we watch hundreds of people that show us a specific ability that they have or something that they can do. When we see them our desire to learn to do that arises.

Also, at first glance it is simple and easy to do, but then when we try to do it but we don´t get it right at once, we get frustrated and quit doing. Mostly is in that moment where the “Lack of Talent” belief arises reinforcing in ourselves the wrongful idea that we´re not talented enough.

As I said before, that’s a big lie.

What Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok videos don’t show is that in order to achieve to do what is shown in the video any person has to go through a learning process in which there is a lot of trial and error, a plan and a learning path and a lot of time of practice.

In any case, the key factor in this it’s not if you have a specific amount of talent or not, but to ignore the limiting beliefs and take action and be consistent with your desire. Because you´re going to be able to achieve it, on your own time and terms.

To sum up, there is no hard evidence that supports the idea that from the beginning you do not have the talent to do that thing that you wish.

So, You just have to propose it and start your own learning path to achieve it.

• To learn to play percussion you need to know how to read music

Again another great limiting belief.

I say it loud and clear, reading music is not necessary to begin learning and playing music.

Therefore, musical language is capable of being learned in the same way as any other language, through listening, exploration and practicing, like in the case of the spanish, the english and the chinese that we talk about before.

• I´m not creative enough to play percussion

What a heavy and dark thought, no?. And so unverifiable!.

Let’s take a moment to see how limiting beliefs work and affect us.

In general with limiting beliefs what we do is assume that something that has no real support or can be verified is true and that we debunk any other argument.

In this case, if you take a minute to think you going to see clearly that actually making music and playing percussion is what will help you be more creative and not the other way around.

Therefore, to begin your learning path in percussion there is no requirement that you “have to be creative”, however make sure that you´re going to be more creative once you´ve gone through that learning path.

You´ll be surprised what people can achieve once they leave behind this limiting belief and give themselves up to the challenge of creating and playing their own rhythms and music on percussion.