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> Has someone here picked a musical instrument seriously for the first time in their 20s and managed to self learn? If yes, it would be helpful if you could poi

by Andrex 6y ago

> Has someone here picked a musical instrument seriously for the first time in their 20s and managed to self learn? If yes, it would be helpful if you could point to resources that were helpful to you and any daily practice schedule you followed? Self-learning piano is, overall, a boondoggle. You want a teacher. I started learning piano in December 2018 at the age of 27. For the first couple months I stayed on my own to build up at least some base knowledge before getting a (remote) teacher in April 2019. I mostly used a service called Flowkey (sorta like Synthesia for the web), the book Music Theory for Dummies, and a course on Udemy by Ben Westenra. I highly recommend getting a teacher, even remote, using a site like TakeLessons.com. They'll keep you motivated, answer your questions, and set accomplishable goals. > I have tried learning piano and I found a lot of stuff irritatingly hard to get right and got bored. Like for some reason I am not able to transition to other keys well when I am using both hands or when some finger involuntarily moves because of motion of neighboring finger. Cumulative hours of practice are necessary to learn even a single piece, and short of Matrix-style skill uploading, there's no shortcut to putting the time in. > Also, I seem to get finger fatigue which is surprising considering the amount of time I spend on keyboards anyway. Not all keys are the same. :) Your fingers are getting a much different and more intense workout by playing. Edit- Updated language since someone focused on pulling a "gotcha" on me for upvotes over the context (in this case, piano.)

bluedino 6y ago
>> Self-learning is, overall, a boondoggle. You want a teacher. “I play the guitar. I taught myself how to play the guitar, which was a bad decision because I didn’t know how to play it, so I was a [bad] teacher. I would never have went to me.”
- Andrex 6y ago
  I was speaking in the context of the piano. I'm told it's easier to self-learn the guitar, but you're working against your own interests if you're violently opposed to the idea of a teacher, no matter the instrument.
  - madhadron 6y ago
    > I'm told it's easier to self-learn the guitar This is false. If you want to strum some chords, then, yes. Guitar's difficulty curve starts out very gentle. But then it quickly gets really, really steep. I self taught classical guitar for a couple of years (after already having played violin for many years), and it's easy to get yourself to the point where it's hard to advance without a teacher. And the harder you push on that knee in the curve by yourself, the more time you'll probably have to spend unlearning bad habits. Piano's difficulty curve is more even. It starts steeper than guitar, and has a long stretch at about that same slope, before it starts getting steep, too. Compare that to violin which starts basically straight up, but once you get past that initial cliff is fairly gentle for a long, long way.
    - Kaibeezy 6y ago
      Interesting multidimensional analysis. I’d like to see a collection and ongoing discussion of these graphs. Not just for musical instruments but everything. Start a blog, friend, or point me at ones you’ve seen.
      - madhadron 6y ago
        I'll add a todo to my list to write up the idea. As far as I know I came up with it, and I've been telling it to people in person for at least a decade.

by Andrex 6y ago

bluedino 6y ago

>> Self-learning is, overall, a boondoggle. You want a teacher. “I play the guitar. I taught myself how to play the guitar, which was a bad decision because I didn’t know how to play it, so I was a [bad] teacher. I would never have went to me.”

Andrex 6y ago
I was speaking in the context of the piano. I'm told it's easier to self-learn the guitar, but you're working against your own interests if you're violently opposed to the idea of a teacher, no matter the instrument.
- madhadron 6y ago
  > I'm told it's easier to self-learn the guitar This is false. If you want to strum some chords, then, yes. Guitar's difficulty curve starts out very gentle. But then it quickly gets really, really steep. I self taught classical guitar for a couple of years (after already having played violin for many years), and it's easy to get yourself to the point where it's hard to advance without a teacher. And the harder you push on that knee in the curve by yourself, the more time you'll probably have to spend unlearning bad habits. Piano's difficulty curve is more even. It starts steeper than guitar, and has a long stretch at about that same slope, before it starts getting steep, too. Compare that to violin which starts basically straight up, but once you get past that initial cliff is fairly gentle for a long, long way.
  - Kaibeezy 6y ago
    Interesting multidimensional analysis. I’d like to see a collection and ongoing discussion of these graphs. Not just for musical instruments but everything. Start a blog, friend, or point me at ones you’ve seen.
    - madhadron 6y ago
      I'll add a todo to my list to write up the idea. As far as I know I came up with it, and I've been telling it to people in person for at least a decade.