anybody teach themself how to play an instrument?
edith head
5,106 Posts
i am curious if any of you taught yourself how to play guitar or drums. if so what methods did you use (books, videos)? also how long did it take to be somewhat competant?
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The next year I asked for a guitar and did the same thing. Minus the cool-looking 70s funk type dude book.
Over the years I've noticed that some people just have an aptitude for playing guitar and can pick it up immediately, and are usually gifted improvisers too. Others need instruction, and often can only play by rote. Still others never get any better than the first time they hold the instrument, no matter how much practice they have.
I tried doing the same thing with piano just a few years ago but it was much more difficult, probably because I'm a lot older and don't have the patience and sheer will to learn that I had at 14-15.
Since highschool (where i did very little of anything) i've tackled the harmonica and the theremin with a good degree of success.
Nowadays its an acoustic guitar... funnily enough I feel like this is the hardest for me to wrap my head around. I guess its the concept of not just hitting a certain key/valve and getting a sound, but a combination of fingers in a particular way. I've gone back to practicing chord theory on the keys, and that has helped alot in unlocking the guitarist in me, but i'm still lack-luster.
I have played a bit of Pizzicato cello, and some double bass too, mainly just borrowing them off freinds to record.
...all by my damn self. No help. None.
I had to give it up for a while though, and I lost my touch.
I'd say I'm pretty confident in musicianship at this point but there is much to improve upon. If you care to listen check out my beats where I play bass, keys and guitar.
www.myspace.com/beatsoups
Before I got the bass I was already checking who was behind the bassplaying I liked on record so I played along with that (everyday, for hours - I was at college) until I could play almost like that. Obviously never will be as good as Jaco or Marcus Miller, but copped enough of that technique for me not to worry about it anymore.
Got playing in all kinds of jazz and funk bands but never had the guts to take a full-time gig because I can't sight read music and don't know enough theory to solo without the keys or sax players chuckling slyly in a musoier-than-thou smugness way.
If I could do anything for a living it would be playing jazz bass or keys. I hope when my son gets a little older we can take proper lessons togehter.
i think a private teacher would increase my learning process alot tho. but im not in that economic situation yet.
so if you want to play keys, i can probably hook you up with some video lessons.
oh and i also make beats sometimes.
a few years later i started taking private lessons and then a few years later at a music store. these proved to be unsuccessful too. basically, most of teachers i had didnt know music theory. they didnt know technical shit. they knew how to play by ear and jam out on other peoples songs.
i used to be all into metal and shit when i was young, so it was natural i wanted to learn a Metallica song or whatever. the lessons always were composed of me learning the first and easiest riff to a song that was damn near impossible to play. this is why i stopped taking lessons. i knew how to play the first 30 seconds of 7 minute songs that i loved at the time.
over those years i have taught myself chords...scales...notes etc. improved myself and THEN went to learn more. i told my previous teacher i hit a brick wall and i want to learn some new stuff, but i dont just want to learn songs. he instituted a plan where we learn songs while he teaches me stuff contained in the song itself.
i think everyone gets better when they dont have a person watching them. its easier and you become more adapted to the fact you can experiment and such. i did the same with drums and piano. i am not the best but i can hang.
same with drums. i actually prefer the drums and have gone on to approach any instrument as percussion. esp piano and guitar. i started with playing along to very simple rhythms like faust. at the same time, i like free drummers like tony oxley and paul lovens.
obviously i like free jazz. and i like to improvise myself in that "form". i like duets mostly and do not expect anyone to listen other than my improvising partner(s). therefore i never play out.
music is therapeutic for me. i like to get lost in it. and i can't get lost when i'm counting.
teaching myself to play was the main reason i started buying records. i wanted to be able to put together many styles and approaches. 10,000 later...
ha
Eventually I got to a friends drum set, and taught myself the drums. I played along with any song on the radio, I would bring records from home, and try to play them. Eventually he moved away, So I joined school band Where I was taught to play the Clarinet, but I taught myself how to really improvise.
Realized I didn't like anybody in band, so I stopped playing any instrument after that. Sometime during High School I got into making Mixtapes, so Again, figured out how to use turntables.
After High School, I was frustrutated alot, and eventually kept trying to pick up the guitar. Then one day this Amazing guitarist I was working for just gave me a beautiful stratocaster, and, It's what I play to this day. I somehow forgot how much I loved to make music. Now I play everyday, Never took a lesson. I also taught myself the bass. Now, I can't wait to move out, so I can get a drumset.
- spidey
I think the best thing you can do to learn an instrument is to play with other people, preferably people a little better than you, but not so good that you frustrate them and they intimidate you. Nothing will make you improve like playing with other people, no matter what type of music you want to play.
honestly, as an adult maybe your chances of learning
to play anything really well are minimal.
you need to be somewhere between 12 and 15
and have no friends to become truly proficient, it seems to me.
the first songs i learned to play are "tangerine" and "thank you"
and i pretty much got into beatmaking on my own, too. diggin and all that.
Last year a close friend of mine went of to South-East Asia to do a travel-documentary, so he didn??t need to bring his electric guitar with him. I told him I??d like to learn to play it, so he let me take care of it. It was an Ibanez, custom-made in the 80??s with one insane whammy-bar (goes way further than most). I played that every day for a year for at least half an hour and developed a little skill.
Now I want someone to teach me some things on the guitar, becuase I can??t play any songs! I can only improvise! I just can??t repeat a song someone else played. It??s really difficult.
Therefore I think the best approach to learning an instrument is to develop a feel for it on your own, learn some things from others and THEN totally flip it and turn it into your own unique style.
- J
nah, I don't agree with that homie. I've met people who are incredible who started playing in there 50's.
- spidey
, "The Heavy Guitar Bible (1st edition - the thinner, white one)", and a stack of my brother's late 80s "Guitar" magazines.
The "Bible" taught me the most though.
I had played trumpet in school band for 5 years so I thought I had a head start when I tried guitar. I opened to the middle of the Bible, thought it was all Greek, and just messed around for a few weeks, figuring out what I could. After I hit a wall with that, I decided to give the book another chance. I just started at chapter one and didn't proceed to the next until I totally understood each chapter, and that did it. Of course, you never actually stop learning.
Just noticed Love's Alone Again Or in a friends book and that intro has me hooked (and is surprisingly straight forward to play).
Wes Montgomery started playing guitar at 21 years old
that just means they are the exception to the rule.
most (and by most i mean 99%+) don't have the time, patience, or talent
to teach themselves to play an instrument WELL after they reach their 20's.
you always wind up with too much on your plate.
something that requires minimal hand/eye coordination
and those strange motor skill memories, maybe-
bass, bagpipe, something like that, maybe.
drums? nah. guitar or piano? unlikely.
had to stop when i was 11
Well, thank you for that well thought out analysis. I'm glad to see someone else who speaks with facts that come completly out of there asses.
- spidey
Wrong. I started out rapping at eighteen, never played any instruments, and at 21 decided I wanted to learn how to play drums so I wouldn't have to use sampled drums anymore. After a year of tireless practice--we're talking every day for a few hours (while going to school and working)--I was decent enough to keep a beat, and after two years I had that shit down. Three years in I could go off for real-- improvising in seven count for instance, triplets on the bass no problem. Never had a lesson, but I did have a highly-talented friend who blessed me with some pointers in the beginning.
and
I taught myself dulcimer at 23.
The thing about learning to play instruments is that you have to realize that there are only so many ways to fuck up, and once you've completed all the possible fuck-ups you're bound to get it right. It's all about having the time and the right attitude.