for lo, the internet knows ALL.

[agentotter]

Good day to you, online journaling friends. How are you this fine Friday? Good, I hope. I'm SUPER, thanks for asking.

Today I have random questions for you, all of which are related to goals I've had forever and would like to actually one day do something about? Yeah, those ones.

* I really would like to learn Spanish. Like a lot. I was very good at it in high school but haven't had a lick of it since. Do any of you have a favored method for learning a foreign language? Assume that I can't do a community college class or private lessons (with my work schedule and budget, these aren't really workable). Any home-study programs you've had particular success with.

* I also have a (not very) sekrit dream to learn to play an instrument. I made my first attempt on the harmonica mostly because I liked it and it's cheap, but was not very good at it. Basically I'm ruling out anything that involves breath control. I can has none of that. I reckon the three options I have that are a) something I'd like to learn and b) something I can probably pick up used on craigslist without breaking the bank are the guitar, the violin, or the piano (well, keyboard, if you're me). Any guesses on which might work best for somebody with no musical talent to speak of and no previous experience with an instrument?

I... had something more to say and then it went. Just like that. It just flew straight out of my brains. I've been told that new languages and learning a musical instrument are two important ways to keep your mind active into old age. Clearly I need these things pronto.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

i have known many people to teach themselves the guitar and the piano. i have never heard of anyone teaching themself the violin, though I suppose it could be done.

I would heartily recommend a few lessons, even just a half dozen, to get you started, and then you can go off on your own with guitar or piano. with both instruments it's important to learn the correct places for your fingers; getting off on the wrong track means bad habits that are hard to unlearn and that will make advanced techniques much more difficult.

music stores usually are a great source of teachers or advice about teachers. also you can ask your local school band directors, or the music directors at your place of worship if you have one. the musical communities in most cities is often pretty tightly knit.

or if you hear an artist at a restaurant or somewhere, ask if they give lessons; many do.

i took piano as a teenager and briefly studied violin as a kid. my dad is an accomplished musician. those are my creds for this advice.

if you already know how to read music, it will make all this much easier. if you don't, guitar is definitely what you should go for. chord charts can be self taught. but it's worth the aggravation to also learn to read music.

keep us posted! yay.

[agentotter]

A friend of mine once told me that learning violin was actually really simple. She wasn't great on the violin either though, so I suspect she was a lying liar who lied. ;D

A few lessons is a good idea; I might see if there's anything budget-priced as far as like group lessons or something at a local music store. I hesitate to find a teacher elsewhere because this is pot country and basically full of hippies who think they can play guitar. ;D

I don't know how to read music, so that's really good to know about chord charts. I'm basically at the point where I can kind of tell when something sounds wrong, but I don't know what pitch and things like that actually mean. My musical experience is limited to a passion for singing along to the radio. ;D I was sort of traumatized by my junior high music teacher who essentially wrote me off within the first week of classes and made my life hell. :-/

[princessofgeeks]

I think the guitar would be a great choice for you. Guitar chord charts are very straightforward and have nothing to do with reading sheet music. A piano teacher (unless they are a very esoteric kind of piano teacher) is going to get you to start reading music too, and you might find a traditional piano lesson course very slow and frustrating.

Once you learn about four chords on the guitar, you can sing along and really have a great deal of fun very soon. But a half dozen lessons would be great and group lessons are also a great idea.

Happy exploring.

[dunvi]

I'd say guitar.

[agentotter]

Thank you kindly for your input! :) Most folks seem to be voting guitar; now I just have to find an affordable way to buy or rent one. :)

[princessofgeeks]

you can start with a really cheap used guitar. then if you get really interested in it you can look at better quality ones. i wouldn't rent one. i would look at flea markets and garage sales for a used one.

[sara]

I have cleverly enrolled my minor child in (1) violin lessons and (2) a Spanish-immersion elementary school. I have great hopes that, in the fullness of time, this will lead to be being (a) proficient in the violin (b) proficient in Spanish or (c) responsible for years of therapy bills.

YMMV.

[agentotter]

That? Is AWESOME. I wish so much that I'd had access to those sorts of programs when I was younger, because these things are so much easier when your mind is more flexible and less brittle. :D My elementary school actually had a Spanish program but it was extracurricular: you had to get to the school at like 6:30am, and that was not going to happen for my family. I begged and begged, but to no avail. (I was the youngest. Basically I didn't get to do anything I wanted. It was a horrible injustice.) And my school's music program essentially amounted to a classmate's mother who would come in once a week and make us sing religious songs. It didn't really make me want to go into chorus or anything. ;D

[sara]

Well, in fairness, I did minor in Spanish in college.

And she doesn't seem terribly compatible with the violin. Or, more to the point, group violin lessons seem to fill her with a hideous panic, so we've dropped them. She does okay with private lessons.

Yeah, I grew up wishing I were better at math, knew an instrument, and spoke two languages, and have been trying to inflict all these things on my children. Chances are good they will never forgive me.

p.s. Have you tried just watching Univision? That and the BBC Spanish podcasts help keep me current.

[agentotter]

I totally get that. I had a French class at a previous college that was one of those immersion-style classes, and though I was doing pretty decent at picking up the language, having to perform in front of my teacher and the class threw me into an absolute panic. That class was total torture.

Yeah, I grew up wishing I were better at math, knew an instrument, and spoke two languages, and have been trying to inflict all these things on my children. Chances are good they will never forgive me.

I did, too. :( That's awesome you're inflicting it on your kids though, and you know one day (probably when you're dead and it's no comfort to you) that they'll be glad they had that experience. I often think, "If I had kids, I would ___(fill in some horrible torture here)" and then I remember that in order to do that I'd have to have kids, and I'm just so not prepared to go there. ;D

[sara]

*laughing* I don't think I'm prepared to go there either!

But maybe that's just that I've just done bedtime, which involves a lot of emotional sturm und drang that boils down to, "It is the end of the day! We are pissed about that!"

(I am also making my daughter go to Chinese camp this summer. Bitch me out enough and I'll send your ass to learn to make bao! So there!)

[agentotter]

Oh, and I meant to say, I haven't tried watching Univision; I'm not really home often, so I have enough trouble keeping up with all the english-language stuff waiting for me on the DVR. :D Somebody else on my LJ mentioned the BBC podcasts too though, and that sounds like something awesome to listen to while I'm cleaning stalls and doing chores and things.

[sara]

They are pretty good. Sometimes I use them as a sleep aid (I pop off really quickly with BBC Mundo, even faster than with Sherlock Holmes stories....)

[tingler]

There is an free online site calle LiveMocha that might be helpful with the Spanish. The way to learn an instrument is to just keep doing it. You always think, oh, this is terrible, it's never going to get better, but the thing is, it does. But it takes time. And for some people, it takes a *lot* of time. I just this year had a little bit of a breakthrough on the cello and started thinking, hey I might actually be able to play this thing someday.

There's an instrument called a strumstick that is kind of a cross between a guitar and a mountain dulcimer that is almost impossible to play badly. And it's fun.

Guitars can be had fairly cheaply from a pawnshop.