Would you say that someone who is tone deaf could learn to play the guitar? impossible you say? I disagree!

Imagine for a second…I walked downstairs into our dining room, only to find my Dad sitting at the table. My Dad is hopelessly tone deaf and yet, there he was playing the guitar. Night after night, he would sit there and practice the guitar. Over the course of time he became quite good. No he would never be able to play with a group but, just for himself and it didn’t sound bad. As always, I was proud of him.

But, you ask how is it possible that someone who is tone deaf can play the guitar? Well my Dad was an engineer by trade and he approached guitar laying the way an engineer would. He knew that for the basics of music, he would have to hold a certain string on a specific fret for a certain length of time to create the note he wanted. All he had to do is to repeat this throughout the course of the song. To improve his agility, memory and overall ability, he would have to practice.

So how can you use these skills to learn a subject when you may not have the abilities? For that matter, just so you can learn your subject? We live in a rapidly changing world and we have to be able to adapt quickly to keep up. Being able to throw yourself into your subject and learn about it quickly can give you an advantage.

To learn quickly, spend time digging into your subject. Surf the net and learn everything you can. Follow every website, forum and blog on the subject. Doing this will give you a much needed background and because of the availability, you can acquire this background quickly. You can also take this approach into the offline world also and go to libraries and bookstores, reading every book and magazine you can find. Do your research on the subject.

Once you have your research established, get involved with others. Become active in social media in groups related to your topic. Get involved in the conversations and ask questions and learn. This will help you to grow and see where problems may be. There is also an offline version of this and that is simply joining available groups on the subject.

Seek out everything you can and begin putting it into practice. Practice everything you can for your subject and become proficient at it. Break it down to its basics and learn those mechanics so you can perform them easily.

Teach others. Put your knowledge to work, share the experience you have learned. By teaching, you establish your credibility and you can learn even more from the questions others ask. This will allow you to grow further and stronger than you would on your own.

Once you have developed your knowledge in one area, don’t rest. Choose another subject to tackle and become an expert in that field also.

So what do you do to throw yourself into a subject?