How to Choose the Best Genre for New Music Students

Many people feel that when you first start taking lessons, there are certain styles that you should focus on in order to learn to play your instrument properly. Or, students and parents assume that their teacher will only teach them the music of a certain genre based on the teacher’s preferences and experience. As pervasive as these assumptions are, I’m here to tell you that they’re misguided. 

When thinking of starting music lessons, you want to enroll with a school that will cater their music lessons to your tastes and musical interests. If you’ve been made to believe that certain styles are better than others when first picking up an instrument, you’ll want to read on to see what truly matters when you’re first getting started.

What Matters: Your Teacher 

A great teacher is able to teach in multiple styles, and draw techniques from all different kinds of music. While a teacher may specialize in a particular type of music, they should be knowledgeable and passionate about more than just that genre. Unless you have made the choice on what specific style YOU want to master,  It’s best to look for a teacher with a broad sense of music appreciation and a depth of musical understanding that goes beyond a particular genre. 

You also want to find a teacher who gets lit up by showing their students exactly what it is they want to learn. I have always said to students, parents, and members of our teaching staff that you always want to ‘ride the wave of enthusiasm’. That means drawing on a student’s excitement for learning their favorite style of music. 

What Doesn’t Matter: Your Instrument

So what’s the best style to learn on piano, or guitar, or drums? The answer for all three is the same. The best genre to learn is the one that you are into. Think that just because your child is learning the violin, they need to study classical? What about Bluegrass, or Hip Hop, or Death Metal, or whatever this is? The most important thing is to find the style that speaks to the student.

Some students have the notion that they are limited by their instrument. While I do often recommend finding music that pertains to your instrument, you can challenge yourself to imitate other instruments that are commonly used  in your favorite style. For example, if you’re a drummer, but you’re really into EDM, you could find an electronic drum set that is capable of producing the same drum sounds you hear in dance music. 

What Matters: Your Passion

At ATL Music Lessons, our guiding light is to follow a student’s passion. It is so much easier for a student to commit to practicing their instrument when they are learning music that matters to them. I didn’t learn to read music until high school, and played only classic rock and punk music until I was about sixteen. I wasn’t the most knowledgeable musician in my age group, but what has kept me involved in music throughout my life is that I continue to find music that excites and inspires me. What motivates me to practice is seeing other musicians, across multiple genres, do what I would like to be able to do. 

Keep in mind, there are certain things in music that are universal to all genres. That’s one of the most beautiful things about learning to play in multiple styles. You begin to realize that all music is related, and the lines dividing genres are extremely fluid. For example, the same chord progression can be used in a piece of classical music just as well as in a pop song.

What Doesn’t Matter: Your Genre

It’s not uncommon for new students to confuse musical fundamentals with certain styles. For example, a lot of folks think that if you want to learn to read music, you should study classical. But we use notes on the staff for every genre of music. Learning to read music is the same as learning to read a spoken language. If you want to read a book, it doesn’t matter whether it's fiction or nonfiction, or romance or adventure. The book is going to be written using letters, words, and sentences. The same is true with music. Keep in mind, though - you don’t need to be able to read to communicate with others.

Another common misunderstanding is that to learn to improvise, you need to study jazz. While Jazz could be considered the most improv-heavy style, there’s plenty of improvised solos to be had while playing blues, bluegrass, country, rock, or neo-soul. 

What Matters: Finding the Right School with the Right Teachers

At the end of the day, playing music is about having fun and feeling awesome about yourself. At ATL Music Lessons, our goal is to inspire kids and adults to find the music that they love most, and appreciate styles they may have otherwise never taken the time to appreciate. One of the greatest gifts of learning to play music is being able to explore the vast ocean of different styles from all across the world. Our job is to inspire students to be curious and excited about music in general, not to feel limited by one genre. If you’d like to find a teacher who is open to all styles and musical tastes, give us a call or book your trial lesson today.