4 ms·

Former music teacher here (and present software developer). When I was teaching bass lessons, I'd often have friends, usually also in their mid-20s ask me, "Co

by wheels 10y ago

Former music teacher here (and present software developer). When I was teaching bass lessons, I'd often have friends, usually also in their mid-20s ask me, "Could I still start learning to play an instrument?" My answer was, "Yes, but you probably won't be any good. Not because you're too old to learn, but because if you had the right inclination to be good, you'd have already found your way to an instrument." (This is totally different from learning additional instruments later in life.) Learning to play an instrument creatively (as is your stated goal) is a long process of learning to build up intuition both about the structure of music and the way your instrument works, both mechanically and harmonically. Most of that happens in your head, not in your hands. There are methods that may be more or less efficient, but they all require years of effort. That said, playing an instrument is fun. Learning to play a few songs on the guitar or piano is a totally attainable goal for a few months of effort. Really, something equivalent to that (including, e.g. middle school band class) is where most people get started. That remains fun even if you don't get to the point that you're using the instrument as a creative outlet.

kirse 10y ago
Yes, but you probably won't be any good. I started piano when I was 23/24 with the goal of wanting to play Jazz / improvise and quickly realized that the biggest challenge is lacking the technical skills to translate the "mental orchestra" onto the keys. Especially before bed my mind wanders and produces these amazing Blues/Jazz riffs or Moonlight Sonata-esque ideas, but my talent is far behind my taste when it comes to either trying to play or even transcribing all that I "hear"... at least without significant manual effort. So yeah, maybe that just confirms what you're saying, but what I realized around year 1 was that "improvisation" is really just a musician's bag of technical skills/tricks combined together in their own unique ways... And ultimately the more technical capability you have, the more "improv" things will appear.
- wheels 10y ago
  After a few years, if you practice quite a bit, you get to where if you can hear it in your head, you can more or less automatically translate that to finger movements. A seasoned player doesn't really have to think much about the mechanics. You think a melody, and then it comes out. That doesn't mean that composing becomes automatic -- often once you cross that chasm, there's still frustration between having an abstract musical idea, and translating it into actual notes. Also, by that time, the way you listen to music has changed pretty drastically, and you also realize that a lot of your own ideas are mundane in comparison to the things you can half-way understand in music that you listen to. That's where most of the work actually happens -- in becoming better at thinking about musical ideas. If you're able to sing the ideas that you've got, I'd recommend recording yourself singing them, and then spending the time learning to play those ideas. That at least lets you work on the gap that you mentioned between thought and mechanics in a concrete way. For most instrumentalists though, myself included, you pretty quickly get to where you can play things more easily than you can sing them. If you ask a trumpeter to sight-sing a piece of music, you'll usually see them miming the hand movements because they can imagine how it will sound when they play something, and work backwards from there to singing.
- estefan 10y ago
  I've just started playing piano and I've been really inspired by pianowithjonny.com. It's an excellent web site, well worth the $20 or so per month for monthly membership so you get access to all his courses (put in your email address and get a discount code). I just started his Blues Bible course[1]. Maybe that could help speed you up. It's tons of riffs to help get you improvising. But yeah, he says riffs are basically just a bag of tricks you can dip into. [1] https://pianowithjonny.com/products/bible-of-blues-riffs-vol-1-begint-piano-course/ https://pianowithjonny.com/products/bible-of-blues-riffs-vol...
- s_kilk 10y ago
  > Especially before bed my mind wanders and produces these amazing Blues/Jazz riffs or Moonlight Sonata-esque ideas, but my talent is far behind my taste when it comes to either trying to play or even transcribing all that I "hear"... at least without significant manual effort. Double down on ear-training, it'll take you a long way toward being able to being able to automatically translate the imaginary sounds into real play.

by wheels 10y ago

kirse 10y ago

Yes, but you probably won't be any good. I started piano when I was 23/24 with the goal of wanting to play Jazz / improvise and quickly realized that the biggest challenge is lacking the technical skills to translate the "mental orchestra" onto the keys. Especially before bed my mind wanders and produces these amazing Blues/Jazz riffs or Moonlight Sonata-esque ideas, but my talent is far behind my taste when it comes to either trying to play or even transcribing all that I "hear"... at least without significant manual effort. So yeah, maybe that just confirms what you're saying, but what I realized around year 1 was that "improvisation" is really just a musician's bag of technical skills/tricks combined together in their own unique ways... And ultimately the more technical capability you have, the more "improv" things will appear.

wheels 10y ago
After a few years, if you practice quite a bit, you get to where if you can hear it in your head, you can more or less automatically translate that to finger movements. A seasoned player doesn't really have to think much about the mechanics. You think a melody, and then it comes out. That doesn't mean that composing becomes automatic -- often once you cross that chasm, there's still frustration between having an abstract musical idea, and translating it into actual notes. Also, by that time, the way you listen to music has changed pretty drastically, and you also realize that a lot of your own ideas are mundane in comparison to the things you can half-way understand in music that you listen to. That's where most of the work actually happens -- in becoming better at thinking about musical ideas. If you're able to sing the ideas that you've got, I'd recommend recording yourself singing them, and then spending the time learning to play those ideas. That at least lets you work on the gap that you mentioned between thought and mechanics in a concrete way. For most instrumentalists though, myself included, you pretty quickly get to where you can play things more easily than you can sing them. If you ask a trumpeter to sight-sing a piece of music, you'll usually see them miming the hand movements because they can imagine how it will sound when they play something, and work backwards from there to singing.
estefan 10y ago
I've just started playing piano and I've been really inspired by pianowithjonny.com. It's an excellent web site, well worth the $20 or so per month for monthly membership so you get access to all his courses (put in your email address and get a discount code). I just started his Blues Bible course[1]. Maybe that could help speed you up. It's tons of riffs to help get you improvising. But yeah, he says riffs are basically just a bag of tricks you can dip into. [1] https://pianowithjonny.com/products/bible-of-blues-riffs-vol-1-begint-piano-course/ https://pianowithjonny.com/products/bible-of-blues-riffs-vol...
s_kilk 10y ago
> Especially before bed my mind wanders and produces these amazing Blues/Jazz riffs or Moonlight Sonata-esque ideas, but my talent is far behind my taste when it comes to either trying to play or even transcribing all that I "hear"... at least without significant manual effort. Double down on ear-training, it'll take you a long way toward being able to being able to automatically translate the imaginary sounds into real play.