Don’t Judge a song by its notes!
Have you ever heard the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? The same meaning of this phrase also can be used when looking at a new piece of music. Written music can be deceiving when first looking at a new song. What may look impossible on a page may turn out to be a simple pattern over and over again. This also works the same for music that looks very simple, it may be more challenging that what is first assumed.
Musicians never really know how challenging a new piece of music may be until we sit down and try it. When I was first learning piano as a student, I felt afraid of pieces that had many notes on the page or a large amount of sharps and flats in the key signature. This fear kept me from learning new songs that I thought would be too hard for me. With the help of my piano teachers I was able to overcome my fear and tackle new and challenging music.
As a piano and guitar teacher, I like to tell my students when they feel slightly timid about starting a new song that looks hard on the page that it is only just notes. There may be a lot of notes on a page, but they are just notes.
A helpful way to overcome this road block is to break up the piece of music into smaller sections. Look for patterns and sections that repeat. Sometimes when a song is broken down into smaller sections it is easier for the student to tackle the new music.