Can Anyone Learn an Instrument?

My own experience is yes anybody can learn. I would say of the four instruments I learned to play, the piano was by quite a distance the most challenging..so be prepared to invest time and patience. Invest in a good keyboard at home from the get go. Your ability to practice is key.

Both my cousins play to an excellent standard though so it just depends on the persons aptitude. You won’t know until you try, book a lesson package and get started, nothing ventured nothing gained... get a keyboard for starters.. so you have an instrument to practice on at home, i was using my neighbors which was limiting...

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Hey Folks,

My apologies if this isn't the right forum, I wasn't sure where I should really put this post.

I've always really enjoyed listening to music and have felt that I'd love to learn to play the piano. However, I have no rhythm, I absolutely can't dance and had to once, under pain of death. It was horrific.
No-one in my family plays an instrument so I never had any exposure to it growing up. I'm really wondering if someone can learn to play an instrument and consequetly compose some simple tunes? Are some people just musically inept? I kind of feel that I would be and am hesitant about shelling out for a decent keyboard/lessons.

Another part of me likes the idea of playing around with some electronic gear. I bought a Korg Kaossilator Pro sometime back as it really appeals to me but having no idea of what I'm doing I'm hesitant to get into this area as I'd just be buying things with no idea/ability of what to do.

Long story short- can anyone be thought to play an instrument and then create simple compositions themselves? Or are some people just going to be hopeless.

Many thanks.

If course you can , in fact go with the Korg and write some synth stuff, I’d recommend reaper for your computer to get you started as a recording artist

https://www.reaper.fm/

Very interesting. I think you should give it a try - whats to lose?
I dont play but my BH can play a bit of piano. So son is quite a good guitarist but just plays for his own enjoyment.
My first cousins were musically very talented and were multi instrumentalists, drums, guitar, tin whistle, accordion! My friends used rave about the guitarist, sadly now RIP.
Even it was a cheap guitarist you could learn the chords and enjoy. Someone once said that the best instrument is your own voice. Now thats something I can do - sing well and in tune.

My experience:

A big help is *wanting* to play, and not just feeling you *have to* go and practice. If you come in from work and all you want to do is sit down and play, then that’s a good start

But to make that happen, you need to have a goal. Why do you want to learn a piece of music, what do you want to achieve from that? If you can set a goal to learn a piece so that on a specific date you’re going to perform it - to friends, on the street infront of strangers, on Facebook live, on YouTube, whatever. Having a goal will motivate you on to achieve and set your sights on something. If you are getting lessons, mention this to your teacher so they can put that in place.

Even check in here on boards with your performance and look for feedback. Maybe we should set up a thread for “play your piece” to help motivate players?

She's right, of course. You can make that your ultimate target, but with piano it's not as simple as learning the first five seconds and then building onwards and upwards until you can play the whole song.

You'll be able to play that one song, but it won't transfer easy to other songs; you'll have to learn each of them from the start again. Where if you start simple, learn to read the music, then learning to play songs is a matter of reading and playing rather than rote learning. And then any notion of having an "ear" for music is unnecessary.

This is in contrast to (say) the rhythm guitar, where if you learn to play one song which which has four chords, then playing any other song with those four chords isn't a big leap. Add a fifth chord and you open a whole new repertoire.

So rather than jumping in and teaching you to play avril 14th, if you learn the basics and practice the basics, then six months later she can put that sheet music in front of you and you'll be able to play the song on your own. Slowly at first, but you will be able to do it yourself from start to finish, without guidance.

In terms of the question, I think it's best to think of music as a language as much as much as it is a skill. If someone grows up learning to read and write in English, but they are surrounded by people speaking (say) German quite a lot, then they will have a natural "ear" for German. And if they go on to learn to speak it properly and to read and write in German, it will come very naturally and easily to them.

Someone who grows up hearing no other languages but English, can learn other languages, but they will find it harder.

Same for music; IMHO. If someone is surrounded by music; not necessarily having musicians in the family, just music being on in the background, people singing and dancing with them as children, etc etc; then they will have a very natural "ear" for it and learning an instrument when they're older will come that little bit easier to them.

But everyone can learn.