What instrument do you play, when did you learn it and how long did it take you to feel confident playing it?

I play the piano, guitar, clarinet... not too good... and drums.. I suck lol..

I still practice, but I wonder how long will it take before I get really good at the guitar because it seems like never at this rate but I've only been playing since the summer hit. well lets see how many musicians we have on here.

I don't think I ever became confident on any instrument. I'm actually quite envious of people that can be confident about their playing. I can play on recordings if needed, but I'm not confident enough to improvise in front of an audience or anything like that.

I started playing the keyboards when I was 14, the guitar at 16. I'm one week shy of 32 now, so yeah, that was a long time ago.

I think I played the keyboards with just one hand for about a year or so. Definitely didn't make very fast progress in that regard.

I like to mess around on the keyboards but I stink

It depends. The fastest way to learn is hook up with good musicians and play with them as much as you can. Sink or swim, and get them to teach you how to swim.

Teaching yourself will take a long time, at least for the first instrument. But after you have one down, you can teach yourself others pretty quick.

But jamming with others is always the best and fastest way. That's all Prince did when he was a kid, and look where he is now.

BTW, I did hear something interesting on Little Steven's Underground Garage. He had Springsteen as his guest and they were talking about the old days.

They both used to buy 45 rpm records and play them at 33 rpm to figure out the guitar parts. Can you do that on a computer?

You never finish learning to play an instrument, you always get better.

InternationalLover82 said:

I like to mess around on the keyboards but I stink

yeah the sentiment is the same. i love the sound the keyboard makes. i love electronic and keyboard music because of that! i love messing around sometimes i get something that sounds kinda good, but then someone else hears it and i hear it again...and i come to realization that i need piano lessons. alas! the keyboard is fun!

802 said:

You never finish learning to play an instrument, you always get better.

THIS ^

ThruTheEyesOfWonder said:

802 said:

You never finish learning to play an instrument, you always get better.

THIS ^

Inspiration

Hmm. Not really true, unfortunately.

I think it's pretty much agreed upon that most well-known jazz musicians reached their peak at a certain age, but then it's been downhill from there. Did Miles Davis play as well in the 1980s as he did during the previous decades? I really don't think so. The same seems to apply to rock guitarists or just about any soloist in any genre of music.

If that's to be taken in the sense of "having a better understanding" of playing then it probably applies. It can be also understood in the sense of "constant development", but then again, there are a lot of people that feel their playing hasn't developed that much after a certain point.

RodeoSchro said:

It depends. The fastest way to learn is hook up with good musicians and play with them as much as you can. Sink or swim, and get them to teach you how to swim.

Teaching yourself will take a long time, at least for the first instrument. But after you have one down, you can teach yourself others pretty quick.

But jamming with others is always the best and fastest way. That's all Prince did when he was a kid, and look where he is now.

BTW, I did hear something interesting on Little Steven's Underground Garage. He had Springsteen as his guest and they were talking about the old days.

They both used to buy 45 rpm records and play them at 33 rpm to figure out the guitar parts. Can you do that on a computer?

Are you asking if the OP can do it, or if it's possible to do it?

Because it certainly is possible, there are any number of programs that will do it. All that is required is to change the tempo by -25% (which roughly approximates the tempo change from 45 to 33).

Audacity (which is free, and brilliant), for example, even includes a handy 'Change Speed' facility, with options to speed up/down 33/45/78. That changes the pitch and tempo, so it exactly mimics playing vinyl at the wrong speed.

Just wondering, when is it going to start sounding good slightly discouraged because I have been playing music for years.. but I'm still young, what can I say.

IamFunkay7 said:

Just wondering, when is it going to start sounding good slightly discouraged because I have been playing music for years.. but I'm still young, what can I say.

Once you start feeling the music and putting your heart and soul into the instrument, even your mistakes will sound beautiful. People won't even notice.

Make no mistake...this takes time.

yeah you have a point, I guess its like any process, I guess I need to stop worrying about everything else and start focusing on just enjoying the moment anyway, thats how it was when I started playing.

IamFunkay7 said:

yeah you have a point, I guess its like any process, I guess I need to stop worrying about everything else and start focusing on just enjoying the moment anyway, thats how it was when I started playing.

I learned piano first. I learned to play/read notes in college. It took me about 4 moths(a semester). Then I took another 2 semesters of Piano. I play guitar. That took longer for me to learn. I took a class in college, the teacher was annoying, so I dropped the class. I took the class again a year later. Then I took level two after that. It took me about 5 years to learn the guitar. I am a novice at piano/ guitar so I will continue to learn/practice. I would like to play by ear instead of reading the boring notes.

Dalia11 said:

IamFunkay7 said:

yeah you have a point, I guess its like any process, I guess I need to stop worrying about everything else and start focusing on just enjoying the moment anyway, thats how it was when I started playing.

I learned piano first. I learned to play/read notes in college. It took me about 4 moths(a semester). Then I took another 2 semesters of Piano. I play guitar. That took longer for me to learn. I took a class in college, the teacher was annoying, so I dropped the class. I took the class again a year later. Then I took level two after that. It took me about 5 years to learn the guitar. I am a novice at piano/ guitar so I will continue to learn/practice. I would like to play by ear instead of reading the boring notes.

That helps alot, I played piano since I was an early teen and I started playing guitar almost a year ago, I took a few courses at my school. I notice my finger picking skills has improved and everything is starting to sound better.

I've been producing eletronic beats for quite some while, and started playing the bass about a year ago. And drums a couple of months ago. I think it all falls down on understanding and analyzing music as a language. If you listen to alot of music and all it's parts, it's far more easy for you to learn something fast(er). I started just learning how to make a few notes sound good focusing on timing and attitude. Songs like Head by Prince has a pretty easy bass line if you learn the basic part. Making it sound good another thing. Learning favourite songs is always inspiring, and of course making own music.