I am tone deaf

Heatseeker · 08-17-2005, 11:23 AM

I am in no way musically inclined and I have no rhythm whatsoever. But I'm thinking of taking music lessons.

Please tell me, are any of you guys musical in any way?

Does playing music come naturally or is it a bitch to pick up?

Do you believe that anybody can play an instrument (well) if they try hard enough or do you think you've either got it or you aint?

Clodfobble · 08-17-2005, 11:41 AM

I believe that anybody can play an instrument passably with enough work, but natural ability must factor in to be able to play well.

Which is not to say you shouldn't do it, because it is very rewarding for all people, not just those with natural ability. Just remember you're doing it for yourself, not to eventually go on a concert tour, and you'll enjoy it.

wolf · 08-17-2005, 12:28 PM

One of my psychiatrists (one I work with, not one I go to) decided to learn to play piano.

He has never had a music lesson in his life.

He is very enthusiastic about this because it is romantic for him ... He wishes to be able to play hymns on the piano for his wife, just as her father did for her mother.

He has at this point gotten sidetracked over music theory, which he finds fascinating. I don't know if he will get back to the point of playing the $1,000 digital piano he bought.

He does that. He's into impulse purchases.

Anyway, it's never to late to learn to play a musical instrument, but you have to figure out if you have throughout your life been indifferent to playing music, or if your "tone deafness" is real.

If you are truly tone deaf and rhythmless, no amount of lessons will get you to play an instrument, but I would be more than happy to just take an equivalent amount of money from you and issue you a nice certificate.

Start with something less expensive than the piano in the above example.

Like maybe harmonica, recorder, or something in a nice percussion instrument.

I can actually very heartily recommend Native American Flute, for which you don't have to learn to read music, and can pretty much get a good result from by blowing in one end and waggling your fingers around the other.

Elspode · 08-17-2005, 02:58 PM

Hand drums. *Anyone* can develop rhythm playing hand drums. Get a djembe or a dhoumbek or an ashiko and start pounding away. Find others to observe and pound with. Soon you'll be struttin' like a Watusi warrior (I apologize for any perceived stereotypes, none was intended...have you seen those guys boogie in their ritual garb? Awsome. And there is always a lot of drumming going on when they do it).

smoothmoniker · 08-17-2005, 05:42 PM

Your ability with languages will give you a pretty good indication of how well you might do at the mental side of music. How easily do you learn new languages? How quickly do you add new vocabulary or constructs to your primary language? When you are thrown into an environment that has it's own technical jargon, are you able to grasp the meaning of words that you aren't familiar with by their usage? If you ever do any rhetorical speaking, are you able to use things like cadence and pace to good effect?

The language center of the brain is closely related to the musical center of the brain. If you excel at one, there is a good chance that you will be able to excel at the other.

Keep in mind that this is just the mental aspect of the game, but that's the most important part. The rest is just athletics, the ability to move certain parts of the body with precision and consistency. That's actually pretty easy to train.

I say go for it. In five years, you'll be five years older no matter what. You can either be five years older and know how to play an instrument, or just five years older.

SteveDallas · 08-17-2005, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elspode

Hand drums. *Anyone* can develop rhythm playing hand drums.

Probably true, but if you're itching to play "tunes" I'd suggest a recorder. They're dirt cheap (at least the plastic ones that they sell for grade school music classes--the ones that serious performers of Renaissance music play are another story) and relatively simple to get a tune out of. Using one of those might give you an idea of your inclinations.

And if you're really itching to play keyboard there are some around $100 that I wouldn't turn my nose up for you to start on. (My main qualification would be that they have the same size keys as a standard piano, that they play louder when you hit the keys harder, and has at least half the range of a full piano.) There are videos that allege to teach you how to play--I don't know if any are any good. And there's always the old fashioned approach of a teacher.

And effort and key are important. I've won more than one audition ahead of people who were probably better musicians than I am--but I practiced more.

Urbane Guerrilla · 08-18-2005, 07:32 PM

If you can walk and are missing no more than one finger you can play the bagpipes. Nine notes, that's all, no rests, and one dynamic: fff. You start with a fifty-dollar gizmo called a "practice chanter," on which you learn your fingering techniques -- since there's no way to play the great Highland pipe more softly or more loudly, your only option is to lend the music texture, which is what all those little blippy noises are -- and the tunes. When you're ready, you step up to the stand of pipes. Real pipes are not cheap, though a particularly bulletproof variety is the Australian-built all-Delrin Ross plastic pipes. Ross practice chanters are VERY much worth the money because they can't crack or break around the tone chamber the way practice chanters of the African blackwood the good quality pipes are made of.

BigV · 08-18-2005, 07:43 PM

$50 bucks?!?

Dude, save yerself 40 and try this!

Urbane Guerrilla · 08-18-2005, 07:52 PM

Well, that is wild and wooly!

wolf · 08-19-2005, 12:40 AM

Ohmigods.

Satan's Own Do-It-Yourself project.

The world has been saved from an overage of pipers because of the cost, and now someone comes along and makes it CHEAP??

My Scots ancestors surely are rolling in their graves, but because of a particularly traumatic band trip to Canada in which my high school marching band shared a Toronto hotel floor with a group of drunken Ontario policemen who were in their pipe and drum corp and chose to play their pipes while drunk all night, and who's going to stop a bunch of drunken Ontario policemen from playing their pipes in the Capital of Ontario? I have a distinct aversion to bagpipe "music," sometimes also referred to as "cat strangling."

Of course there is one exception to this ... I am driven to tears by hearing the first three notes of Amazing Grace on bagpipes, and blubber my way through the rest of it, but drunken renditions of Danny Boy and Loch Lomond send me into a fit of murderous rage.

Queen of the Ryche · 08-19-2005, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolf

Of course there is one exception to this ... I am driven to tears by hearing the first three notes of Amazing Grace on bagpipes, and blubber my way through the rest of it, but drunken renditions of Danny Boy and Loch Lomond send me into a fit of murderous rage.

.....that one and Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful World (not on the pipes of course) are the only two songs that make me cry.

I've had the pleasure of befriending a pipe master (aftr helping plan two Scottish memorial services in the last year - lucky me) - he has cordially invited King & Princess of the Ryche and me to visit when the corps practice - I haven't had the heart to say no, so I keep finding excuses not to subject myself to more than two or three songs on the pipes.

I feel so bad for defying my heritage, but EGADS! couldn't we have picked a more pleasant instrument to express our musical inclinations? Guess we were too busy drinking and fighting to realize how awful it sounds......

wolf · 08-19-2005, 11:10 AM

When you have about a bottle and a half of single malt, the pipes get to be quite pleasant.

And in battle, it scares the fight out of the enemy before you get over the hill ...

Queen of the Ryche · 08-19-2005, 11:12 AM

"Run, Angus! The McDougals have set the rabid cats upoon us!"

Urbane Guerrilla · 08-21-2005, 11:51 PM

The other trick is -- stand back. While the extreme of putting the audience on one hilltop and the piper on the next hilltop over is seldom resorted to, distance does smooth out the harsh tonalities of the Great Highland pipe.

Chamber pipes are a different critter. The Great Highland pipes must be played out of doors, really. And fog helps. (Rain doesn't. Not if you want to hear the music.) But something like the Northumbrian Smallpipes are very suited to indoors musicmaking -- they are a sweet and mysterious-sounding instrument that if you don't know what you're listening to will drive you nuts trying to identify it.

08-17-2005, 11:23 AM	#1
Heatseeker Pithy Euphemist Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 19	I am tone deaf I am in no way musically inclined and I have no rhythm whatsoever. But I'm thinking of taking music lessons. Please tell me, are any of you guys musical in any way? Does playing music come naturally or is it a bitch to pick up? Do you believe that anybody can play an instrument (well) if they try hard enough or do you think you've either got it or you aint?

08-17-2005, 12:28 PM	#3
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	One of my psychiatrists (one I work with, not one I go to) decided to learn to play piano. He has never had a music lesson in his life. He is very enthusiastic about this because it is romantic for him ... He wishes to be able to play hymns on the piano for his wife, just as her father did for her mother. He has at this point gotten sidetracked over music theory, which he finds fascinating. I don't know if he will get back to the point of playing the $1,000 digital piano he bought. He does that. He's into impulse purchases. Anyway, it's never to late to learn to play a musical instrument, but you have to figure out if you have throughout your life been indifferent to playing music, or if your "tone deafness" is real. If you are truly tone deaf and rhythmless, no amount of lessons will get you to play an instrument, but I would be more than happy to just take an equivalent amount of money from you and issue you a nice certificate. Start with something less expensive than the piano in the above example. Like maybe harmonica, recorder, or something in a nice percussion instrument. I can actually very heartily recommend Native American Flute, for which you don't have to learn to read music, and can pretty much get a good result from by blowing in one end and waggling your fingers around the other. __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

08-17-2005, 02:58 PM	#4
Elspode When Do I Get Virtual Unreality? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Raytown, Missouri Posts: 12,719	Hand drums. Anyone can develop rhythm playing hand drums. Get a djembe or a dhoumbek or an ashiko and start pounding away. Find others to observe and pound with. Soon you'll be struttin' like a Watusi warrior (I apologize for any perceived stereotypes, none was intended...have you seen those guys boogie in their ritual garb? Awsome. And there is always a lot of drumming going on when they do it). __________________ "To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off." - Robert Moog

08-17-2005, 05:42 PM	#5
smoothmoniker to live and die in LA Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 2,090	Your ability with languages will give you a pretty good indication of how well you might do at the mental side of music. How easily do you learn new languages? How quickly do you add new vocabulary or constructs to your primary language? When you are thrown into an environment that has it's own technical jargon, are you able to grasp the meaning of words that you aren't familiar with by their usage? If you ever do any rhetorical speaking, are you able to use things like cadence and pace to good effect? The language center of the brain is closely related to the musical center of the brain. If you excel at one, there is a good chance that you will be able to excel at the other. Keep in mind that this is just the mental aspect of the game, but that's the most important part. The rest is just athletics, the ability to move certain parts of the body with precision and consistency. That's actually pretty easy to train. I say go for it. In five years, you'll be five years older no matter what. You can either be five years older and know how to play an instrument, or just five years older. __________________ to live and die in LA

08-18-2005, 07:32 PM	#7
Urbane Guerrilla Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 6,674	If you can walk and are missing no more than one finger you can play the bagpipes. Nine notes, that's all, no rests, and one dynamic: fff. You start with a fifty-dollar gizmo called a "practice chanter," on which you learn your fingering techniques -- since there's no way to play the great Highland pipe more softly or more loudly, your only option is to lend the music texture, which is what all those little blippy noises are -- and the tunes. When you're ready, you step up to the stand of pipes. Real pipes are not cheap, though a particularly bulletproof variety is the Australian-built all-Delrin Ross plastic pipes. Ross practice chanters are VERY much worth the money because they can't crack or break around the tone chamber the way practice chanters of the African blackwood the good quality pipes are made of. __________________ Wanna stop school shootings? End Gun-Free Zones, of course. Last edited by Urbane Guerrilla; 08-18-2005 at 07:53 PM.

08-17-2005, 11:41 AM	#2
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	I believe that anybody can play an instrument passably with enough work, but natural ability must factor in to be able to play well. Which is not to say you shouldn't do it, because it is very rewarding for all people, not just those with natural ability. Just remember you're doing it for yourself, not to eventually go on a concert tour, and you'll enjoy it.

08-18-2005, 07:43 PM	#8
BigV Goon Squad Leader Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 27,063	$50 bucks?!? Dude, save yerself 40 and try this! __________________ Be Just and Fear Not.

08-18-2005, 07:52 PM	#9
Urbane Guerrilla Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 6,674	Well, that is wild and wooly! __________________ Wanna stop school shootings? End Gun-Free Zones, of course.

08-19-2005, 12:40 AM	#10
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	Ohmigods. Satan's Own Do-It-Yourself project. The world has been saved from an overage of pipers because of the cost, and now someone comes along and makes it CHEAP?? My Scots ancestors surely are rolling in their graves, but because of a particularly traumatic band trip to Canada in which my high school marching band shared a Toronto hotel floor with a group of drunken Ontario policemen who were in their pipe and drum corp and chose to play their pipes while drunk all night, and who's going to stop a bunch of drunken Ontario policemen from playing their pipes in the Capital of Ontario? I have a distinct aversion to bagpipe "music," sometimes also referred to as "cat strangling." Of course there is one exception to this ... I am driven to tears by hearing the first three notes of Amazing Grace on bagpipes, and blubber my way through the rest of it, but drunken renditions of Danny Boy and Loch Lomond send me into a fit of murderous rage. __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

08-19-2005, 11:10 AM	#12
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	When you have about a bottle and a half of single malt, the pipes get to be quite pleasant. And in battle, it scares the fight out of the enemy before you get over the hill ... __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

08-19-2005, 11:12 AM	#13
Queen of the Ryche is fleeing the scene Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Beautiful CO Posts: 1,510	"Run, Angus! The McDougals have set the rabid cats upoon us!" __________________ Once, in an interview, Chuck Norris admitted that he was not the most awesome thing ever. He declined to elaborate; but I believe we all know that he was referring to the existence of chocolate covered bacon. I'd rather be judged by twelve than carried by six.

08-21-2005, 11:51 PM	#14
Urbane Guerrilla Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 6,674	The other trick is -- stand back. While the extreme of putting the audience on one hilltop and the piper on the next hilltop over is seldom resorted to, distance does smooth out the harsh tonalities of the Great Highland pipe. Chamber pipes are a different critter. The Great Highland pipes must be played out of doors, really. And fog helps. (Rain doesn't. Not if you want to hear the music.) But something like the Northumbrian Smallpipes are very suited to indoors musicmaking -- they are a sweet and mysterious-sounding instrument that if you don't know what you're listening to will drive you nuts trying to identify it. __________________ Wanna stop school shootings? End Gun-Free Zones, of course.

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