The Complete Musician

Music Is Bigger Than Any One Instrument

Why singing, keyboard study, additional instruments, and conducting can broaden musicianship.

Specialization matters, and musicians can also learn from encountering music through more than one medium. Singing develops an internal relationship with pitch, phrase, breath, and text. Keyboard study makes many pitch and harmonic relationships unusually visible. Additional instruments reveal different physical and expressive demands, while conducting asks musicians to hear beyond their own part and understand ensemble structure. These experiences broaden the perspectives from which musicians can listen, understand, create, perform, collaborate, and teach. The goal is not to make every musician identical, but to develop a more connected understanding of how music works.

Among all instruments, the piano occupies a unique place in music education because its layout makes many musical concepts immediately visible. The keyboard clearly reveals the musical alphabet, half steps and whole steps, intervals, octaves, scales, modes, chords, inversions, arpeggios, key signatures, harmonic progressions, voice leading, and patterns of pitch direction in ways that are difficult or impossible to observe directly on many other instruments. It provides a visual map of music itself.

Because these relationships are laid out visibly and consistently across the keyboard, piano study gives musicians a particularly direct way to explore theory and harmony. Intervals can be seen as distances, scales and modes as recurring patterns, chords and inversions as changing arrangements of pitches, and harmonic progressions and voice leading as relationships that can be heard and observed at the same time. These visual and spatial advantages can support ear training, sight reading, analysis, composition, improvisation, arranging, and performance regardless of a musician’s primary instrument or voice.

The piano also serves as one of the most practical tools a musician can possess. It allows singers and instrumentalists to accompany themselves, learn vocal and instrumental parts independently, check pitches and harmonies, rehearse efficiently, and explore unfamiliar repertoire with confidence. When our ears have not yet developed enough to audiate a passage internally, the keyboard provides an invaluable bridge between what we see on the page and what we hear in our minds. It also opens the door to composing, arranging, and orchestrating music for virtually any combination of instruments or voices.

Singing offers musicians a direct way to connect hearing, breath, pitch, phrase, memory, and musical expression. Because the sound is produced through the body rather than through an external instrument, singing can strengthen pitch awareness, intonation, audiation, melodic memory, phrasing, breath control, and the ability to hear music internally before performing it. Singing a melody also asks the musician to experience its direction and shape continuously, helping phrases become something heard and felt rather than only read or executed.

Singing can also deepen awareness of language, text, communication, and expressive intention. For instrumentalists, it provides another way to experience music apart from the physical habits of the primary instrument. Singing a phrase before playing it can clarify its contour, breathing, pacing, emphasis, and expressive direction, allowing the ear to help guide the hands rather than leaving physical execution to lead by itself.

Learning additional instruments further expands a musician's perspective because every instrument teaches lessons that the others cannot. String players experience continuous pitch and expressive vibrato in ways pianists cannot. Wind players develop an intimate awareness of breath, phrasing, articulation, and tone production. Percussionists cultivate exceptional rhythmic precision, coordination, and ensemble awareness. Guitarists encounter harmony through patterns that differ from the keyboard. Vocalists experience the inseparable relationship between words and melody. Every instrument has its own technical challenges, expressive possibilities, repertoire, traditions, and ways of thinking about music. The more perspectives we experience, the more complete our understanding becomes.

Studying multiple instruments also broadens our appreciation of music history and culture. We come to understand why composers wrote differently for different instruments, how performers have shaped musical traditions across generations, and how the distinctive capabilities of each instrument influenced the development of musical styles throughout history. We begin to hear repertoire not only as listeners but also through the eyes, ears, and hands of the musicians who perform it.

Basic conducting is another valuable skill for every musician, whether or not conducting becomes a primary career. Conducting develops a deeper understanding of meter, tempo, phrasing, balance, score study, rehearsal techniques, ensemble communication, and musical leadership. It teaches musicians to think beyond their own individual part and to hear how every line contributes to the complete musical texture. These same skills make performers more attentive ensemble members and prepare many musicians for future roles as teachers, directors, church musicians, community ensemble leaders, and conductors.

These complementary skills also create practical opportunities throughout a musician's life. Keyboard skills enable instrumentalists and singers to accompany rehearsals, direct choirs, coach ensembles, prepare students for performances, and collaborate with a wider variety of musicians. Teachers who can teach both piano and another instrument often enjoy greater flexibility in building successful studios and serving diverse students. Keyboard skills can help directors rehearse efficiently, while composers, arrangers, and educators can use the piano to explore, develop, and communicate musical ideas. It is no coincidence that colleges and universities typically require some level of piano proficiency for music majors regardless of their primary instrument or voice.

Ultimately, learning piano, singing, another instrument, and conducting is not about becoming a virtuoso in every discipline. It is about becoming a more complete musician. Every new musical experience strengthens the others. Singing informs instrumental playing. Piano illuminates theory and harmony. Secondary instruments broaden technique and perspective. Conducting teaches us to think beyond ourselves and hear the ensemble as a whole. Together they develop musicians who not only perform well but also listen more carefully, understand more deeply, teach more effectively, collaborate more successfully, and continue growing throughout their lives. The broader our musical experiences become, the richer our musicianship becomes in return.

These areas of musicianship are developed progressively within certification, not as prerequisites, but as part of a lifelong journey of professional and musical growth. Every teacher begins somewhere, and every teacher can continue growing.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is continual growth as a musician, educator, and lifelong learner. As our own musicianship deepens, so does our ability to inspire students, communicate more beautifully, teach with greater confidence and clarity, and help others build meaningful, lifelong relationships with music. In the Dennis Frayne Approach to Music Education, becoming a more complete musician is not simply a destination. It is one of the great joys of a life devoted to music.