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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/4/2008 7:17:37 PM

Alumbrado

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Always fun as a grandpaernt to offer to provide a nice set of drums...

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 2:29:07 AM

seeksfemslave

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave
I think its probably because learning to play a piano is very difficult. If ever the kids clamour for one, buy an old banger first to see if the have any talent or real interest.
In most cases the answer will be NO.

Worst advice ever... buying a crappy instrument is a good way to guarantee that any talent will be stifled by the crappy sounds produced even when the student is doing everything right.

Any talent present will soon make itself apparent regardless of the quality of the instrument. What happens then depends on the financial resources of the family.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 2:34:13 AM

Evility

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quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave
Any talent present will soon make itself apparent regardless of the quality of the instrument. What happens then depends on the financial resources of the family.

I learned to play guitar without lessons on a really marginal pawn shop special back in the 70s. If the person really wants to learn they can learn on anything but a better quality instrument is always going to enhance the learning experience and improve the odds of sticking with it and being successful. Learning to play on an inferior instrument is a function of desire.

There's little excuse to learn on a junker today. Guitars of reasonable quality can be had for a pittance. It's not like the old days.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 5:03:29 AM

Alumbrado

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quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave
I think its probably because learning to play a piano is very difficult. If ever the kids clamour for one, buy an old banger first to see if the have any talent or real interest.
In most cases the answer will be NO.

Worst advice ever... buying a crappy instrument is a good way to guarantee that any talent will be stifled by the crappy sounds produced even when the student is doing everything right.

Any talent present will soon make itself apparent regardless of the quality of the instrument. What happens then depends on the financial resources of the family.

Talent isn't magic, and it cannot make the right notes come out of a defective instrument. Sabotaging a child by buying a cheap piano instead of a decent one is still lousy advice.

< Message edited by Alumbrado -- 5/5/2008 5:28:48 AM >

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 6:05:14 AM

seeksfemslave

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Real musical talent is exactly that....magic.
The quality of the instrument is incidental.
For example Chopin, a genius I admit, he lived on Majorca and wrote some of his fantastic music there, using a crappy piano.

A more down to earth example would be Neil Sedaka who has written some lovely melodies IMO. Soppy sentiments but nice melodies.
I heard him being interviewed and he basically said that he was just blessed with this ability and he could not really explain where his creative musical talents came from.
ie He could just do it.!

< Message edited by seeksfemslave -- 5/5/2008 6:16:18 AM >

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 6:45:36 AM

MissMorrigan

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Unks when are you going to share with the world your didgeridoo?

And what happened to your picture? I'm crushed!

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 8:30:05 AM

seeksfemslave

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AuntyM: I went thru' a crisis and nearly gave up.

I would serenade you with a version of Sedaka's Laughing in the Rain, a special arrangement I made for didgerydoo and musical saw, but at the moment I am too busy looking for my boomerang.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 9:48:55 AM

popeye1250

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quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave
I think its probably because learning to play a piano is very difficult. If ever the kids clamour for one, buy an old banger first to see if the have any talent or real interest.
In most cases the answer will be NO.

Worst advice ever... buying a crappy instrument is a good way to guarantee that any talent will be stifled by the crappy sounds produced even when the student is doing everything right.

Any talent present will soon make itself apparent regardless of the quality of the instrument. What happens then depends on the financial resources of the family.

Seeks, Willie Nelson said that when he was 10 years old he sent away for a guitar course that included a guitar for something like $12.
He didn't do too badly.

P.S. when is your new picture going up?

< Message edited by popeye1250 -- 5/5/2008 9:50:40 AM >

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 9:51:34 AM

MladyHathor

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I still play My flute and piccolo on occasion and no it isnt the same flute Aileen used at band camp.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 1:18:08 PM

Termyn8or

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I would have to agree that any instrument you start a kid out on should be in tune. I guess I didn't need to use the word kid there really. I know someone in their forties just starting out. I also know someone who has been playing for thirty years and still never got the hang of tuning the thing. But he plays piano.

Thing is if you are talking the beginning stages you are caught between a budget and getting a playable instrument that is in tune and hopefully is stable in that regard. Guitars are probably the hardest, but I have heard pianos that are insufferable.

Most of your wind instruments are quite stable. Stringed instruments are the hardest to keep right. This is important, you get somebody starting out they want to try to make up chords, and in doing so they learn what works and what does not. When they advance, the scales will come more easily, and understanding what key they are in.

I am on a journey myself with the piano. This is so relevant to the OP that I might piss myself. I bought a piano, a Casio Previa PX110. Nice, weighted keys and touch sensitive. I was talked into it by my piano playing buddy and actually he planned to buy it off of me. I agreed especially after I played it. Well he didn't get the money up fast enough and I got attached to it. Buy your own. I let him play it, but it's mine for keeps now.

Now to the heeve/peeve part. The drummer is not practicing. We go there and try something new he screws it up. We got one song that sounds good, but we are not there to play one song all the time. But this drummer bought the drums, but has no ambition to play alone. Well that is called practice.

My piano is there. Now that we are pretty much broke up I guess I will have to pick it up. There have been times I had the urge. By myself.

Anyway, the drummer has a Harley so since summer is coming there is no reason for my piano to sit there. He is never going to be home.

So I guess I share those "Pet Heeves".

T

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 1:21:53 PM

MissMorrigan

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quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave
AuntyM: I went thru' a crisis and nearly gave up.

I would serenade you with a version of Sedaka's Laughing in the Rain, a special arrangement I made for didgerydoo and musical saw, but at the moment I am too busy looking for my boomerang.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 5:53:51 PM

seeksfemslave

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Crisis resolved.
Nursey is here to calm my fears. She tells me she is an expert on the flageolet.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 10:08:14 PM

Poetryinpain

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I grew up in the shadow of a piano protege and a soprano who studied opera. I tried to learn piano, but when my brother was sight-reading Beethoven, I was still struggling with scales. After I quit piano, my parents didn't want to buy another expensive instrument that I wouldn't practice (they didn't understand the shadow-of-Van-Cliburn thing). They did talk about a harp for a while, but - mercifully - they ditched the idea.

So, when I was out on my own and hankering to make music, what did I decide to learn?

Bagpipes

That didn't last long. I love to listen to them, but playing takes a great lot of lung power.

pip, decided to just sing for fun now

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 10:18:40 PM

pollux

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quote:

ORIGINAL: FangsNfeet

Rather than being played to make music, I'm curious as to how many of us get upset to see an instrument hang on a wall or be used as some other form of decoration/use.

Nope, some instruments I'd prefer to see nailed to the wall -- like ophicleides, ukuleles, and violas.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/5/2008 11:15:05 PM

popeye1250

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Seeks, great picture! Who's the bird?
You look like you're having a grand time with her!

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/6/2008 5:28:11 AM

Alumbrado

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quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250

Seeks, Willie Nelson said that when he was 10 years old he sent away for a guitar course that included a guitar for something like $12.
He didn't do too badly.

P.S. when is your new picture going up?

Most bios say that he got his first guitar, a Stella, at age 5 or 6, from his dad.

It would have been something like this, made by O. Schmidt.

http://www.stellaguitars.com/concert%20stella%20fir%20top.htm

Or Willie may have joined the numbers of people who tried the lesson with guitar included plan, and could have gotten an Oahu, of which I have a 1920s model, that plays very nicely.

Those old ladder braced guitars weren't always bad, unike some cheap guitars in today's market.

And none of which has anything to do with Seeks' advice to saddle a child with a defective piano, instead of renting a decent one.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/6/2008 10:10:51 AM

HandSolo

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

I agree with LA that mass produced cheap instruments turned decorations aren't any big loss.

My pet peeve swings the other way.... perfectly good professional grade instruments turned into exorbitantly priced 'collectors items'.
Speaking as someone who bought a '58 gold top for a few hundred bucks a long time ago, and sold it later for about the same, it irks me that no one will ever get to play one of those again, unless they are able to drop many many thousands on one... which rules out most musicians.

I was going to make a similar point about the collectibles. when I started playing, in the winter of '88-89, the price of the '58-'59 Les Paul bursts had gotten totally out of control, rising from about $1k in the seventies, to $10k in the early-mid eighties, to the astonishing sum of $40k+. The conventional wisdom was that the price on these rare (there's only about 800 of 'em, IIRC) widely and expertly forged (there were very nearly the full production number "authenticated by then, which is probably impossible), had topped out, or maybe peaked, and was due for a correction.

They sell for $250-300k now.

My condolences on the goldtop! If you find sour grapes comforting, there is no guarantee the neck wouldn't have curled into an unplayable noodle by now, wood does whatever it wants to...

The good news, in general, is though those classic instruments are priced out of reach, CNC manufacturing means excellent instruments from overseas are dirt cheap, and even the US stuff is mostly very reasonable (other than Gibson, for whom aggressive overpricing is an effective keystone of their marketing plan). The American series Strats and Teles are terrific, and roughly $1k new.

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/6/2008 4:57:54 PM

Alumbrado

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I sold the Les Paul because it was not quite in line with the style of playing I was developing, as nice a guitar as it was. And I bought new and later sold a gorgeous ES-175 after that, trying for the elusive perfect guitar ( You know..."Sounds like an old D'Angelico, has the action of a Strat, costs less than a Squeir"...

)

Now I'm getting exactly what I was looking for out of a 60s Epi..LOL.

Did anyone else notice in the Iron Man movie, that along with the stable of exotic cars, Tony Stark had an early 50s Tele and a '59 dot neck 335 propped up in his mansion?

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/6/2008 5:05:41 PM

kiwisub12

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quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave

AuntyM: I went thru' a crisis and nearly gave up.

I would serenade you with a version of Sedaka's Laughing in the Rain, a special arrangement I made for didgerydoo and musical saw, but at the moment I am too busy looking for my boomerang.

Did your boomerang not come back? quoting ralph harris..

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RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? - 5/6/2008 6:44:36 PM

stubborngirl

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Don't laugh.
I was taught to play the pipe organ or cathedral organ when I was nine, then moved on to the piano, the trombone, and then the flute.

I don't have any of them in my home at present, but every time I'm in a church, I want to play.

Both of my UMs play electric and bass, both are lefties (as am I) and both have learned to play them as right-handers.

As for instruments that are just laying around...pianos and organs serving as photo galleries and christmas tree stands just make me mad...

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