Let's start by making it absolutely clear what musical fluency is not! Practising a piece over and over until you can play it without stopping is not musical fluency.

Fluency in music is rather like fluency in language...

A fluent musician possesses a musical "language" - rather like vocabulary - made up of familiar elements or components that they can hear internally and play on the keyboard. These components are typically patterns of rhythm, melody and harmony. Once internalised, these elements can be recognised or expressed instantly and naturally without mental processing.

Does it take long to become fluent?

No! We can be fluent with only a limited amount of musical "vocabulary" provided it is sufficiently familiar or internalised. When making music made of that familiar "vocabulary", fluent musicians can…

• Improvise effortlessly
• Hear and reproduce a piece effortlessly either by playing it or writing it down
• See a score and hear it internally without needing to play it on an instrument first
• Sight-read fluently and instantly