Questions to Ask a Musician
Questions for learning the craft from a working musician, covering how they practise, what they use theory for, playing by ear, performing under nerves, and the habits that took longest to unlearn.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What instrument did you start on, and who taught you?
Why ask it
A plain opener that gives you their lineage. Self-taught players and conservatory players describe the same skills in different vocabulary, and knowing which you are talking to changes how you read every later answer.
What did your practice look like at the start, compared with now?
Why ask it
Beginners assume experts practise more. Usually the hours went down and the precision went up, and hearing exactly how tells you what to change about your own hour.
On a normal day, how long do you actually play, and how is that time split?
Why ask it
Ask for the split, not the total: warm-up, technique, repertoire, improvising, listening. If the whole hour is playing pieces they already know, that is worth noticing too.
Is there a drill you still do that you learned as a beginner?
Why ask it
The exercises that survive twenty years are the ones that work. It also quietly tells you that fundamentals are not something advanced players graduate from.
How much theory do you use in a normal week?
Why ask it
Answers range from constantly to almost never, and both can be true depending on the setting. Push for a concrete example, since a session player naming chord charts is telling you something a general answer would hide.
What is the fastest way you know to learn a new piece?
Why ask it
Look for a sequence rather than a virtue: hands separately, slow with a metronome, last bar first, structure before notes. Answers that amount to repetition mean they may not have thought about method.
How do you practise something you are bad at without losing patience?
Why ask it
This is the real bottleneck for most learners, not talent. Useful answers are small and specific, such as a fixed number of repetitions or ending a session on something that already works.
How do you know when you have learned a piece rather than memorised it?
Why ask it
The tests people use are revealing: starting from any bar, playing it slowly, playing it after a week off. If they have no test, they may be relying on muscle memory that fails on stage.
How do you build time without a metronome?
Why ask it
Internal time is the skill non-musicians never think to ask about and bandleaders hire for. Expect subdivision exercises, playing along with records, or years of drumming on a steering wheel.
Walk me through learning a part by ear, step by step.
Why ask it
You want the actual procedure: find the lowest note, find the bass line, guess the key, slow it down. Players who do this well usually cannot explain it until asked to narrate it.
What did a teacher tell you that only made sense years later?
Why ask it
The delayed lessons are the deep ones, often about relaxation, listening, or leaving space. Ask what changed to make it land, since that is the part you can look for in yourself.
What bad habit took you longest to unlearn?
Why ask it
Almost always something physical or rhythmic that felt fine at the time: gripping too hard, rushing fills, ignoring the left hand. Hearing it now may save you the same detour.
How do you look after your hands, ears, and voice?
Why ask it
Hearing damage and repetitive strain end more careers than lack of talent. A vague answer from someone who plays loud rooms nightly is itself the warning.
What do you do about nerves in the ten minutes before you go on?
Why ask it
Look for a routine rather than a philosophy: breathing, a specific warm-up, avoiding the room, eating at a fixed time. Players who say they are never nervous are often describing a routine they no longer notice.
What do you listen for when you record yourself?
Why ask it
Recording is the cheapest teacher, and the answer tells you what to listen for in your own playing: timing against the beat, dynamics, note endings, breath. Most learners only hear mistakes.
What is the difference between playing well alone and playing well with others?
Why ask it
Ensemble skill is largely about volume, timing, and leaving room, none of which practice rooms teach. Expect an example of a technically strong player who was hard to play with.
How do you follow someone else's lead in a group?
Why ask it
This is the mechanics of listening: watching the drummer's hands, the bass player's neck, a breath before an entry. It is teachable and rarely taught.
If you had to rebuild your playing from nothing in a year, what would you do?
Why ask it
A thought experiment that reorders their priorities out loud, usually cutting most of what they were taught. What they keep is the syllabus you should be following.
What do you say to a student who wants to quit?
Why ask it
Teachers hear this at predictable stages, and the good answers are diagnostic: unclear goals, a piece too far above level, or practising alone for too long. Any of those may describe you.
What are you still not good at, and what are you doing about it?
Why ask it
Ask last, once trust is there. A working musician naming a specific weakness and a current exercise for it is the clearest demonstration of how the craft actually progresses.
Getting Real Answers About the Craft
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
When to ask
Not right after a show
Straight off stage, a player is drained and being pulled in five directions. Ask for ten minutes at a rehearsal, a lesson, or over coffee, where they can think about method rather than perform.
Say what you play and where you are stuck
A musician who knows you have been at it for two years and cannot get through a barre chord change will give you a specific exercise. Asked in the abstract, they can only give platitudes.
Bring your instrument if you can
Most of the useful answers to technique questions are physical. Being able to hand it over turns a five-minute explanation into a thirty-second demonstration.
How to get past the polite answer
- Ask for the last time they did the thing, not what they generally do
- Ask for numbers: how many minutes, how many repetitions, how slow
- When they name a concept, ask them to show you one bar of it
- Write it down at the time, since practice advice evaporates within a day
- Try one change for two weeks before asking anybody else anything
What not to ask
Whether talent is real
It leads to a conversation neither of you can settle, and it lets them off giving you a method. Ask what they practised at your stage instead.
Their opinion of your favourite band
It burns the time you have and often ends somewhere awkward. If you want their listening habits, ask what is on in the van.
Gear before technique
Equipment questions are the easiest to answer and the least useful to you. Leave them until the end, when you have something to fit the gear to.