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[–] 81 points 4 days ago (21 children)

If the deal was I'd be excellent guaranteed after ten years of practice, that would be a good deal. Because, I could practice 20 years without a deal and still be mediocre at best.

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  • [–] 27 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

    I really wish more research firepower was put behind adult learners since the entire education system seems to be based around teaching people technical skills instead of musicality and ultimately I feel like the people who succeed are those who can teach themselves to be musical.

    I took it upon myself to learn to play by ear and sing, and it's made a tremendous difference in my musical experience. If you're just practicing where and when to put your fingers, I think you're gonna plateau pretty quick, and, more importantly, it's not going to be as much fun.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    entire education system seems to be based around teaching people technical skills instead of musicality

    Right, because what's considered "musical" is highly subjective and would be useless without the theoretical knowledge to analyze and describe others' playing and apply it to your own. Good luck playing jazz without knowing what a II-V-I or major scale is. I've taught guitar part time and most of my students were 12 year olds who wanted to play like Kirk Hammet but didn't want to learn theory, guess what? They sucked and had no idea what to play that wasn't memorized tabs. Once I convinced them to just learn A minor on the low E string after a few lessons they could thrash improvise riffs as well as anyone, some of them even discovered modes (mostly phrygian) all on their own by just fooling around at home! Creativity comes with experience, experience comes with a base level of knowledge about what you're doing.

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  • I agree, theory is very close to essential. But for me it wasn't enough, but it is for others. I wonder, though, what would happen if you bypassed theory entirely and just taught them to play by ear; that, I think, is the truely valuable skill that the theory is scaffolding for. It's not so much that they know what frets to play for a minor scale on the e string so much as they are learning what that scale sounds like and training themselves to navigate on the fret board. I think that's basically the Suzuki method is an example of a hear first, play second approach without reference to theory initially.

    At any rate, I'm mostly criticizing reading-first (or worse, reading only) methods.

    My problem was I extremely lazy and anxious, too terrified to make a mistake, so I just did everything as robotically, without paying attention, and as long as I played the right notes, my teacher was happy, so I was happy (in my own terrified, stay-of-execution way).

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  • [–] 12 points 4 days ago

    I really wish more research firepower was put behind adult learners since the entire education system seems to be based around teaching people technical skills

    Welcome to the fun world of modern western culture, where anything that isn't boosting work productivity or making lots of money is either ignored or treated as stupid and worthless. It might be bad for individuals' mental health and destroy the sense of community and belonging, but think about the profits!!!!

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago

    I had a lot of fun learning the harmonica by learning when and where to put my uhh face, but yeah it did plateau in the end. I could have tried to learn fancier techniques and I also was able to recreate some stuff by ear after a while. Hard to say if the motivation died, my life changed too much to be sitting around in the forest playing Zelda tunes or if I was missing the musicality.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 days ago (5 children)

    Yeah, I'm imagining the devil going around getting people to learn good habits as "deals", teaching them to be independent and not need to rely on established organizations or higher powers.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago (4 children)

    I mean that's the literal devil. If there was ANY proof you should surrender to a higher power I think that's it.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago (3 children)

    On one hand, yes. On the other hand, the devil himself is also a higher power, and if he's telling you to reject higher powers, why not listen to him?

    (By the way I'm stealing my reasoning from Eserite ideology from The Gods Are Bastards, but there it's not the devil but a recognized god of the Pantheon)

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (2 children)

    Ok, let's actually think this through. If the devil appeared and told you to do his bidding and forsake God that would imply he was foiling God in one way or the other. That implication is massive. Regardless of what the devil offers it would also imply that all the lore was true. If all the lore were true, using the information given, that would still imply that God is the alpha and omega. That being the case choosing god would still be the better choice, despite whatever god offers. It could even be a kick in the nuts, he's done it before.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (1 child)

    it would also imply that all the lore was true.

    That's not necessarily the case, it could simply prove that it wasn't made up, but ultimately the lore comes from god and his agents, so if god wanted to tell a false narrative, he could manipulate the lore. Realistically, you have no way to know if the devil is actually evil.

    And you're also twisting what I said:

    If the devil appeared and told you to do his bidding and forsake God

    The idea is a devil that doesn't tell you to forsake god and do his bidding, but a devil that tells you to practice guitar for years so you can be good at it. It's a devil that makes you learn things yourself. If he actually has an evil agenda, that's really devious, but that's kinda the point.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    First off your first sentence has contradictions. Secondly, the premise is to reject a "higher power". If the devil tells you to reject god and practice that's a net 0 profit. Nothing has changed. The only difference now is you rejected God. Even the most generous interpretation of the reading would still imply to reject the supernatural to gain skill. That being said at that point I think the allegory is lost on you.

    :::

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  • [–] 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    How are you not good after 10 years?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (6 children)

    Yeah I tried hard to pick up guitar and despite daily practice I never could make the right sounds come out from my chords reliably. Now it just sits in a corner mocking me.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago (4 children)

    @KuroiKaze acoustic is notoriously harder than electric. An electric with low action is much easier on the hands. Though I am of the mind its better to start on acoustic and then move to electric youll feel like youre 10x better, if its easier just go electric. Or also, bass is good to learn as well. I started on that and its still my main but I play guitar too just not as well. Or maybe guitar doesn't vibe with you. Theres so many other instruments ! Dont give up

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (3 children)

    I did get a good electric with nice action but part of the issue might be I have really thick fingers that curve towards each other. That and because everyone told me not to play left handed so I got a right handed guitar to learn on. Despite all my practice when you ask me to air guitar, my initial instinct is always to do it with the left-handed approach.

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