An Hour A Day
 

I'm sick and tired of reading books on this ****. I want to learn too much, too fast, and be real good at a couple different instruments and so this is my question.

If I was to sit down at a given instrument and just **** around for an hour a day. Would it be reasonable to assume you'd start making decent sounding music in 2 months?

2 months? Well...you won't be where you want to be I can guarantee you that, but you will have made major improvement. Do you actually want to make your own music, or be able to play covers and what not? Because writing your own coming into it with no previous experience will take much longer than 2 months.

Depends on the instrument and your aptitude for picking it up, I guess. For instance, it took me a good 4/5 months before I could play anything I regarded as reasonable on the piano, whereas I picked up a ukulele 3 weeks ago and can strum out and sing quite a few songs (covers - Paolo Nutini, King Blues and anything that requires the chords G,C,Am,F lol) to an agreeable standard. What instruments are you planning on learning?

I found, for me (as I'm incredibley impatient), it was disciplining myself not to go too fast too quickly that was the biggest problem in learning an instrument. I'd start trying to learn something way too complex, get sh*tty because I couldn't do it and give up for a couple of days.

Sometimes you just got to take a step back and start from the beginning, as much as it sucks. Especially if you do plan on doing more than just covers.

The real question is without any aid, can it be done. The time is not that important.

I taught myself guitar with a "guitar for dummies" book and online tabs and was able to play songs decently within a few months (I'm not sure if it was 2 months or closer to a year...but it happens within a few months).

I've been playing now for a few years and am perfectly content with my skill. Never once had a lesson or tried to learn music theory. If you aren't tone deaf and have even a bit of dexterity, you can teach yourself as long as you stick to it.

Sure. I can't read music nor did I ever take any lessons. I taught myself piano (with the help of looking up a few basic chords first). With the Uke, I had a look at some chord charts, learnt where my fingers were meant to go and that's it.

I think that's the most 'unaided' you could probably do it. But it doesn't hurt to have a look at some guides on the internet now and then. Without using anything at all, you'll jut make it more difficult for yourself.

As I said, it depends on your aptitude for picking it up. Having an ear for music can help a lot more than a book teaching you proper methods sometimes.

The main idea is to put the theory into practice. You have to physically change your brain... make new connections in it and solidify them before you'll be proficient at whatever it is you take up. This is done by practice and repetition.

Obviously, if you're practicing shit, you'll get pretty good at shit. What I mean by that is it's a good idea to learn the theory behind the fundamentals of playing a particular instrument and putting that theory to work for as long as it takes for you to become proficient at it. That needs to happen whether you personally have to do it with the help of another person or not. After that point, you can use that fundamental proficiency to build on.
If you break things up into stages and tackle it in that way, you'll find that you'll be more successful. How long it all takes depends on how much work you put into it, but I can tell you as a musician... you never really get to the point where you're completely satisfied with your abilities, so you should really look at this whole thing as a life-long goal punctuated by smaller goals, and just enjoy the journey.

Depending on your musical background and what instrument you're looking to pick up, I think you could just grab it and **** around for a few hours a day for a month, you should be able to come up with at least a good understanding with how it works and be able to play some stuff that works for you (depending if you want world class piano player or someone who can get the job done). My brother plays sax and bass and very quickly picked up guitar, banjo, standup bass played psychobilly, and harmonica with complex guitar parts, and my favorite, the accordian. He grabs the damn thing and starts playing flogging molly from ear. I sat at a piano and figured out 2 songs by ear in like 30 minutes and I plan on picking up the flute. When you pick up a new instrument, you don't have to relearn how to be a musician. You only need to understand the instrument. however, I would do some research on some of the needed techniques.

depends what you consider 'making decent sounding music' to be.

though to be perfectly frank, you seem to make these kind of threads every couple of months and if you feel you need to force yourself to pick up the instrument for a regular modicum of time simply to learn it, then you're not doing it for the right reasons.

personally i think you need to do a little soul searching and figure out why you think you need to be a musician.

Don't exactly **** around, actually practice something. You can't learn something fast... well if you want to sound good. I picked up the guitar, no teacher, no books, nothing, by ear and watching live footage of close-ups. After about a year and a half, I could turn a few heads while playing. I say go for it, but only if you truly want to play. It does depend on the instrument, but hey, life is short, play music.

I just want to bang out some standards at parties and for the family at Christmas.

I do make one every few months whenever I'm furious with the process. One of the biggest issues I've always had with music is that I always feel like I should be ahead of where I am, and its discouraging when I can't sit and play a song.

If I could find a way to not see myself in the scheme of things, and just as a guy with an instrument, I'd be much much better off. With piano and guitar I go crazy, but oddly enough i spent an hour yesterday ****ing around with scales and songs on the button accordion I have and in hindsight I feel like its because I've never seen someone, not on stage, play a button accordion and I don't know many songs I think are easy.

I think I need to get high and just play.

There ya go! :yeah:

NOW we're getting somewhere hahaha

seriously though, there's no substitute for practice, i know it sucks to hear and sucks to consider but it's the truth.

you say you want to play party favourites - i'm assuming 'simple' classics that everyone can sing along with. have you looked into campfire books, like 1001 great guitar songs and stuff like that. they're usually simplified versions of songs with just chord charts but if you can get the groove in your head and strum them mostly right, the majority of people will be far too busy singing along to notice you flubbed a noodle-y bit.

Oh yeah, the last time I went to a student cabin, I found like 4 chord charts of Eagles' Hotel California. I wonder how long it'll take until Lady Gaga songs become campfire classics? Anyways, I learned a lot from chord charts and just playing along while listening to songs so I think that's a good way to do it. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, one of the very first songs I learned, is another campfire classic, at least here!

I'm going to make a flo-chart for this and post it here.

This should work - http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B4Al...NDE3YTcx&hl=en

Edit:

Its not practice that kills me. Playing a song and not nailing it the first time never bothered me. its the laborious nature of trying some things I used to play 5 years ago when I took lessons and now can't.

Having to remember that, in this key, certain notes are sharped. This is a huge one for me. This and ****ing bar chords. What I've been doing is trying to learn Dylans "All along the watch tower" which unfortunatly for me has an F. On piano I've just been playing the A scale hoping it will sink in that I've got to sharp the appropriate notes.

Accordion I've just beein playing whats in the book. The frustrating thing here is the amazing lack of information on the damn thing but I want to play drunken porch music and I'll be god damned if I won't. I ought to just shell out for lessons and quit being a whiney bitch, but right now being a whiney bitch is easier.

Some people can pick up an instrument and learn it in a week and some in a decade and it's not really always down to how much effort you put into it, it can be quite dependent on weather you lose interest quickly and your general aptitude for learning something musical and how you go about learning but picking up something regularly, say an hour a day would undoubtedly be enough to get you playing to a high standard quite quickly weather it take you a year or a month or a week, in two months I'd say at the worst you could play something comfortably if you'd never picked it up before.

I've found that I can't learn without lessons. Jussayin'. If you want to teach yourself an instrument, do it properly and everything, then I'd advise you get books of exercises (e.g. if it's guitar you want to learn, get a book full of exercises to tighten up your picking, fast playing, triplet playing etc.) and dedicate the first part of your hour to practicing a few of those. Then dedicate the next bit to solo'ing, or scales, or something similar. Dedicate the last bit (make it the biggest chunk) to learning a new song.

Make your practice times structured like that and you'll find yourself emulating the lessons you would've otherwise shelled out a fortune for, so I think it really is worth thinking about.

I would disagree with this - I taught myself campfire guitar just by playing songs with simple chords.

I think by just playing simpler songs and then progressing onto harder things will make it easier - it did for me. 5 years is a long time to not be playing, and it will take time for you to get back to the standard you were.

But on a happier note, if you did play before, I think you would be able to get to a good standard if you practice often ^___^

Eh, I dunno. He wants to learn barres, as he's said above, so he probably wants to take it to a level slightly above the general campfire banter. In which case he needs to pick up on a few techniques alongside open chords. If he wants to get back to the standard he was at when he was having lessons, that will involve work outside of simply jamming out a few A-D-E-A progressions. Even if he just wants to bang out a few tunes here and there.

So i posted this on Facebook too. One of my friends suggested that for piano, rather than struggle with knowing the scales by memory I should traspose it if I just wanted to learn the songs.

Anyone want to suggest pitfalls if I physically write in sharps and flats?

No ones going to comment on my flow chart?

I'm kinda pissed guys, i spent a good half hour on that thing.

its pretty sweet, now i'm kinda in your boat. I'm trying to pick up the flute, it sucks to hold.

Cool.

What made you pick that up?

I'm finding that learned a few instruments at once is much better than one because I get pissed at one but keep practicing with something else.

More questions from a man on a journey...

1. If I write music down onto staff sheets, should I be keeping measures the same size? I've got a waltz where I'm putting down a dotted-half-notes and so I'm closing the measure earlier than the one preceding it with three quart notes (obviously this is in 3/4 time). I'm wondering if anyone's picked up some **** habits from doing this.

2. Aside from the mind-numbing practice of scale runs, anyone have a good way to beat it into your head that notes are sharped in certain keys? I've just been playing a song in A major to learn that scale.

What grammar nazi made the title capital letters?

Das war ich ;)

Sieg heil!

Right now I'm a senior in highschool and in order to graduate, we have to do a senior project. I'm going to do a music project with this girl who sings plays piano and flute. So in order to speed up the writing process, I'm going to learn how to play some basic flute stuff to get concepts put down and then she will be able to really spice things up.

Also, like 3 days ago, I was with me ex-band mate and I look on his floor and I see this tiny little gig bag. I asked him what it was and he told me it was a ukulele. So I grab it out, tuned it the best I can, and we started walking around town and I was just playing it turning heads. In the "experimental" uke tuning I wrote 1 song for my project. I'm telling this because I picked it up with zero experience, figured out about 10 chord shapes with variations, and also how non chord notes mesh together inbetween strings. Unfortunately, it turns out two of the strings were tuned wrong, so after re-tuning to the correct tuning, I'm just looking at a chord chart and playing along with songs.

The whole shortening measures, I don't know if its technically incorrect, but I play concert/jazz band and I've seen shortened/elongated measures, besides, if you're writing it for yourself, then it doesn't really matter as much, especially when you're trying to conserve lined paper.

The second question, do you mean like which notes are sharp in the key of say G? Here: How To Tell What Major Key A Song Is In Quickly & Easily This might offer some assistance.

Thanks, man. And welcome.

What I meant with the second question was, what ways do you guys, or did you guys employ to memorize what is sharp/flat/otherwise.

As for the Uke. I am discovering that the layout of a guitar just hasn't been for me, but I like learning a few instruments at once and I know that anything in the lute family is the soup of the day when it comes to playing with other people. I don't know if I'm ready to pick up bass instead or do something wild like Mandolin/Uke/whatever.

I'd pick whatever is fun for you. The uke thing kinda just happened, absolutely no intentions on it. We just thought it would be funny and I ended figuring out a bunch of stuff on it as we walked.

I whipped out some of my past concert band music and measure sizes do change, usually to accommodate the amount that is written in a measure. E.G. A measure in 4/4 with a whole rest would be much smaller than a measure carrying 16 16th notes for a melody because the 16th notes require much more space to write in.

Do you mean, knowing which notes are sharped and flatted in different keys? I generally know this by memory, but before I did I went by the Cycle of Fifths when I practiced all my scales/ block chords/ arpeggios, etc.

http://www.theoreticallycorrect.com/...-of-Fifths.jpg

It's a good little chart for remembering theory, and the order of C, G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#, Ab, Eb, Bb, F, C is seriously permanently imbedded in my brain. It's also a good chart to use in showing which minor scales correspond to their sister major scales. Have you been using this chart at all? If you have then good idea.

As for the hour a day, I don't really consider an hour a day a long time to be playing an instrument each day. If I play my bass for just an hour, it's seriously not enough! All up I probably play for a couple of hours a day.

That being said, when I was in primary school and taking classical piano lessons my teacher said I had to practice at least an hour a day, like it was some magical key amount of practice time to learn an instrument or something. To master piano though, I think it took me years. And I still have so much to learn.

But everybody is different. You can't really ask, will I be competent at playing this instrument in 2 months? Because some people pick up instruments really quickly and some people don't. It really depends and I don't think there is a solid answer to that.

I can totally relate to your frustration though, and I experience it on a regular basis. I just want to be 'good' at particular instruments instantaneously and feel shit because I just feel like I am rubbish.

I find that I do much better when channeling theory through a bunch of different instruments and so I'll play for longer than an hour but not with one, singular instrument.

By working some melody through three of them, I find I'm not learning some idiot pattern, like a nintendo code, but rather understanding how the instrument works. If nothing else its going my brain working in ways it hasn't in awhile. This is hugely helpful when learning the accordion because honestly its one of the harder things I've done. I look at the really good players now as not some fringe oddity but as someone whos at worst smart as a whip.

As for the cycle, I'll give it a swing. But I don't mean like recalling it when soemone asks me, I mean mid-song going "nope, hit the sharp because F's are sharped in this key" (as an example)

Ah yep, gotcha. So when you're playing a song, remembering that you have to sharp an F if you're playing in the key of G? Again, I think that's something that just comes with practice/ memory. If I'm playing in the key of G, it'll just be placed in my mind that all Fs have to be F sharps. If I'm playing in the key of D, the same thing, I'll just have in my mind that I'm in D and therefore need to sharp all Cs and Fs. It's just something that comes naturally now, and as much as I dislike rote learning patterns I really think it was something that developed from constant practice and going over the keys/ cycle of fifths over and over via scales, block chords, arpeggios, all of those kind of exercises. You might be talking about something different and I may be completely off the mark again :)

Personally I think the best thing that you can do to learn quickly, which you ARE doing, is synthesising theory and practice. I think theory can be pretty abstract unless we learn it in accordance with playing an instrument or several instruments, in order to make it more concrete. It sounds like you're working hard and putting a lot of time and effort into these instruments so I think you'll probably learn really quickly and achieve loads in 2 months! Good luck with everything though.

Thanks, and hey thanks for responding.

It drives me bonkers that free-flowing threads like this are ignored.

Based on my experience, it took me 2-4 months after picking guitar to play Day Tripper into a nice, artistic sound, all by ear. Also, I almost figured out Lucifer Sam(didn't bother finishing), and fully figured out Watsername, my favorite song on the album.