From child to musician: Skill development during the beginning stages of learning an instrument.

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0305735605048012

Students development through early music learning experiences are not limited to their
own processing and mechanical function, but are limited by the teachers who they learn from
and choose to engage them in these topics in the classroom. This article covers three years of
study with the involvement of 157 children in grades 3 and 4 who are learning in one of eight
public school music programs. This is an article by Gary E. McPherson, a professor at the
University of New South Wales.
This early musician development will help them become more developed as a musician
and take a lot of the harder steps early on, leading them to a better time as a lifelong musician. I
challenge the idea that it will enable them to think more musically, but will challenge them to just
think more critically in general helping them round out their skills at a younger age.

Is Your Child Ready to Learn a Second Instrument? (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.metrokids.com/MetroKids/Is-Your-Child-Ready-to-Learn-a-Second-Instrument/

This is an article that takes on the voice of parents in the situation of learning another
instrument. This article is by Susan Stopper. Starting off it discussion the motivation students
have. It is important to have this drive and family support because students who learn multiple
instruments will find it challenging if they are not organized and prepared. Andrew is currently
learning drums, piano, and bassoon, all because he has a goal to learn an instrument from each
category. The Dean of The Music School of Delaware states, they encourage students to learn
their previous instrument for about 2 years before moving onto another.
I think that this article is a good source, but I need to be aware because it does have an
emphasis on parents opinions, which most of the time are not music experts, also are not
educational experts. However, I think it's important to bring the parents perspective into play
when discussing something like this.

Fistula, L. (2012, November 08). Learning two or more instruments at once - Adult Learners.
Retrieved from https://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=52193

This is a discussion board on the topic of “Learning two or more instruments at once” I
would like to first point out that a lot of things talked about on this board cover a wide variety of
opinions. Most of these people are adults who are holding onto most of the instruments they
learned as kids. These adults have opinions who talk about how now they mostly work on just
one instrument later in their years, others discuss the adults who still very much enjoy dabbling
back and forth on all their instruments and find it useful to jam with friends who also dabble a bit
with a few instruments.
Students who are still engaged in both of their instruments highly recommended being
engaged in learning more instruments at a younger age, especially ones that pair together for
example guitar and piano. I think this is a source I should be careful with but still pulls real
opinions from the body of people who have done this hands on.

Hangout Network Help. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/287857

In this discussion, musicians who are engaged in multiple instrument music learning,
have taken up a different approach then others. They decided to learn instruments similar to
each other in order to use as much information from one instrument to relate to the others.
Individuals in this discussion board have been talking about learning banjo and then moving to
guitar or even mandolin. This is also a nice approach because you get more overlap in the
process as opposed from to going to piano from flute for example.
I enjoy this source because It seems like a lot of older folks who still seem very engaged
in their life long musicianship. I think this is also a good example of always having the ability to
be engaged as a musician from 1 to 100.

5 Benefits and 5 Problems of Playing Multiple Musical Instruments. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.vibemusicacademy.com/blog/2016/5/17

This is a more neutral point on the discussion for my topic. This goes over some strong
points of why and why not we should learn multiple instruments. This seems more focused on a
teacher's point of view, specifically with running a private studio. It talks about understanding
and having a larger studio and being a more efficient band leader. It also talks about how you
never get the opportunity to master an instrument because you become the “Jack of all trades,
master of none”. It also talks about all the extra practice and the confusion of crossed
techniques between instruments.
I like this one, again because it adds another perspective to the view that even musical
experts struggle with the development of multiple musical atmospheres. I think this is not the
best source however for the general group, because again we are pretty much the 1% of
musicians at this point.

The Benefits of Learning More Than One Instrument. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://powaymusiclessons.com/free-guitar-resources/the-benefits-of-learning-more-than-one-
instrument/

This one basically reinforces ideas and my thought process for all the pro points it also
incorporates a little bit on noodling. Surely taking some time to hold the instrument and press
your fingers down and blowing a bit. It also makes you so much more marketable for your
ground level music skills.
I think this source was healthy because it was from a music lessons website designed
Glen Sutton who has his own music studio and is a guitarist. I didn't think this article had a lot
but I liked the few points that were different, which is why I included it into this paper.
Team, U. (2018, July 13). About Playing Multiple Instruments. Retrieved from
http://www.musical-u.com/learn/about-playing-mul

This is a podcast between two musicians named christopher and Andrew. In this podcast
they discuss playing multiple instruments and the toxic atmosphere where we believe we have to
pick one and master it. However they bring up some really good different ways to think about
music between learning multiple ones. For example, they talk about the chords on piano and how
much theory they incorporate, but then on the accordion, they do simple things like press one
button and a whole chord plays.
I enjoyed the podcast because I could better understand their points because they were
giving real time questions and answers, also they were better at explaining their question other
then trying to type it all out in a fancy long paper, It really allows you to get your hands more
dirty as a teacher and listener.

Nes, I., KheltonHeadley, Milton, M., Evans, W., Boyen, & Stermitz, T. (1968, January 01).
Learning 3 instruments at a time. Retrieved from https://thesession.org/discussions/39301

This is a discussion board about a 16 year old who is interested in picking back up his
piano skills he use to play with his other instruments. In this one you see many different pears
commenting and encouraging that he take the time to study these instruments together. One
individual stated that this is going to be the most time and energy he will ever have in his entire
life, and that he should take advantage of it, I saw a few comments about how hard it is to focus
on multiple instruments, I think that is because we as young musicians we don't get the
experience to play multiple instruments, I think starting at this age, gives us the experience to
develop a routine and soak up all the information like the sponges we are.
I enjoyed the discussion between the young mind and others, I think it was interesting
reading the opinions of the people about learning multiple instruments as a young kid. I think the
voices of the people, are the most important ones because these are the people supporting the
children and engaging them at home with music on the radio and paying for their instruments.

White, A. (n.d.). Jumping Into Multiple Instruments. Retrieved from

https://www.awsom.info/blog/2016/7/29/jumping-into-multiple-instruments

This is an article by Andrew White who is a guitar player and designer. The one point I
like about the main ideas he has, is that it talks about the opportunity that is given in the ability to
play in multiple atmospheres with new instruments. This is very true particularly for things like
guitar. This is covered in a few ways of this article, I think it's important to include the ways that
we can use the new instruments and use it as a gateway to a new musical experience, and I think
the best way is to play in an ensemble you couldn't originally play in.
My favorite point is that you can start a one man band. It can be hard to find others to jam
with, and in the case of knowing enough about a few instruments, you can write your own parts
and use some loop pedals and soon you will have your own one man band.
Elephant journal. (2012, September 02). Eight Benefits of Learning to Play Multiple Instruments.
~ Suzy St. George. Retrieved from https://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/09/eight-benefits-of-
learning-to-play-multiple-instruments-suzy-st-george/

This is an article that covers most of the same points to why it is important to cover many
instruments as musician. This covers points to go and cover completely different instrumental
groups. Covering different instruments allows you to really learn the most you can, but its really
difficult and can be very overwhelming if you don't get the right amount of time. This also talks
about the use of playing instruments from your school so you can easily access them.
I like this because it's basically a final list that compiles all the information that I went
over into one simple list. It covers things like the one man band, and the process about becoming
a resource to other musicians.