When Wasting Time Wasn’t Wasted

SEP 05, 2025

I started learning music in two completely opposite ways, right from the beginning.

As a kid with a violin, there was the formal side: school orchestra, solo recitals, everything on the page, clean and proper. That was one world.

But at the same time, there was the other world — hours alone in my room, plucking the strings and playing along to top-40 radio. No key signatures, no theory, no sense of “practicing.” Just chasing the sound until something clicked. It felt like wasting time, and I loved it.

It’s the same split you see in language learning. One approach is classroom grammar drills; the other is being born into a culture and learning to speak as a baby — first babbling, then forming words, then eventually becoming a fluent, natural speaker. That method is virtually foolproof. School gives you the rules. Immersion gives you the language. I can tell you my high school Spanish lessons never really stuck, and my baby babbling turned into the words you’re reading now.

I brought both approaches to the guitar. First, Cowboy chords, barre chords, pentatonic leads. Then private lessons, real-book jam sessions, the official jazz route: chord grids, ii–V–I drills, form charts, the whole structure.

But I never left that first instinct behind. The ear-playing I started as a kid stayed with me, and at some point it became a permanent part of how I play. I move back and forth between both worlds now, depending on what I want from the music.

And the contrast is always there.

The reading-and-charts method gives me structure. I can remember the melody, hit the changes, start a song cold when someone calls it.

The ear-first method gives me life. I might take unexpected turns, leave space, stretch the harmony. The music breathes in a way the charts never give me.

So I use both. Landmarks when I need them. Ears when I want the real thing. Sometimes both in the same tune — a quick glance at the page, then eyes closed, trusting the sound.

Two completely different ways of learning and thinking about music. One planned, one accidental. Both still shaping everything I play.