Conventional wisdom says when you’re learning a new language that you first copy what has come before you. This is of course true for the basics; the sounds, the words, the grammar. But once you know how to produce these, you have all you need to create language. As soon as you know the basic structure of the language, you should practice it.

There’s no point in learning grammar pattern after grammar pattern and word after word without the chance to actually use what you’ve learned. If you’re not learning a language to use it, what’s the point? What are you learning it for? (there are of course exceptions to this, but they are few and far between)

The same goes for learning an instrument. As soon as you know how to produce sounds, you should get to creating music. Of course it’s good to copy what’s come before, but that’s not the only reason to learn a new instrument.

Create. Emulate. In that order.