Learning music is a strange proposition. Many musicians get lost in it.
If someone wants to learn music, surely it is with the intent of extending the vocabulary, the tools in the box, so to speak. And, I suppose, that much is true: if someone studies music thoroughly, they will be able to comprehend more about music.
The part where it is easy to get lost is this one: a musician is not the one who knows music. No, it isn’t. A musician is the one who can feel music and express herself with her instrument, whatever that instrument is. It is not the same thing at all. The first sentence talks to the brain, the last one talks to the heart.
I meet too many people who think the fact that they studied music gives them the right to gaze a snobbish look at the ones who didn’t. And when they are in band, they can become down right unbearable.
So, why is studying music a strange proposition, because, while doing so, the person must never lose focus of the little toddler they used to be, the one who felt music so intensely inside she decided to dedicate a lifetime of work towards exploring that feeling. Unfortunately, too many musicians work on notes and hope that those will give them some feelings. But, it works the other way around: feelings should create the music, which, if it is done with conviction, will create feelings for the listener.
Which bring me to the conclusion: musicians should never lose sight that music will always touch others because of the feelings behind the notes, and that the notes are only there to dress said feelings and help them come alive.