Natwerk Designs

Learning music vs. learning to write - which is easier?

Background: I was a lousy writer growing up and through practice picked up some pretty good skills - I can usually find errors in a copywriters resume. I was never visually creative growing up but now I'm a web designer and I have a very good eye for a good design which I developed over 5-7 years of doing hundreds of websites. So my questions are: 1) Can I expect similar results with music?...because I don't really have a good ear...I can't listen to a pop song and hear the tonality of the chords. 2) Will music require the same...or perhaps more...commitment to mastery than writing and web design did? Is it something that would need hours a day?

Public Comments

1. yes music is more difficult because sometimez the notes are blended together and if theres more than one instrument u have to know which sound belongs to which instrument
2. learn the basics of chord progressions it makes it easier
3. Similar concept - Similar level of difficulty. Music, beyond the most basic fundamentals, actually can become a science.that is, in the long run, undoubtedly more difficult.
4. I've always believed the very best musicians, writers/songwriters, and so forth have a 'natural ability' for the performing arts. For example, Paul Simon is a naturally brilliant and creative songwriter/performer, and any schooling regarding music and writing would really have been unnecessary for him, with the exception of maybe learning how to actually write chords and so forth, but lyrically, it was basically already there. The same goes for writers, in general, like screenwriters and so forth. Except to hone their grammatical and proofreading skills, their creativity, I believe, was something they were either born with or not, with very few exceptions. So with regards to your question, I would say obviously, it would be much easier to learn music than learn to write it. You could write musical notes all day, actually, but whether or not it was even worthy of listening to would be a whole different story all together. Creativity can only be a learned process to an extent. It's basic components must already be in existence within you, and of course, can be ultimately perfected with practice and experience. And having 'an ear' is really like oxygen in music; if you don't have one for it, it's really useless to pursue any meaningful career in it, as it will most likely be a complete waste of time. On the bright side, however, you do sound like you have a creative nature that you obviously discovered with your web design career, so I wouldn't necessarily rule out music completely. If you have a natural love and respect for music as a whole, I would at least explore the depths of my musical ability, and then judge for yourself whether or not you feel it's something worth pursuing further.