Right instrument at the right time

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Leah Kruszewski
ModeratorInstructor
Right instrument at the right time

My instrument (classical/flamenco guitar) called to me.  I grew up liking music, but I had an unsuccessful first start with piano lessons  when I was seven years old - a few months of lessons from a neighbor, but I rarely practiced and just didn't love it that much - I even got in trouble for lying about practicing once!  I just wasn't mature or self-disciplined enough at that point to discover the rewards of focused practice.  I then played the saxophone in middle and high school, but it was a social thing and hardly a serious pursuit.  But when I started playing guitar several years later, and then shortly after when I discovered flamenco, I was hooked for life.  Now here I am playing guitar four to six hours a day preparing for a concert, teaching several lessons a day, and I can't imagine doing anything else for a living.   Interestingly, piano was my second instrument as a music major, and we got along really well the second time around.  Sometimes the right instrument finds you at the right time, and the rest of your musical life falls into place around it!   

I'd be curious to hear how others discovered their instruments.  Did anyone crossed paths with their current instrument earlier in life without a 'spark' and then later discover that it was their calling?  

Rod Ferreira
Instructor

That is really cool Leah!! it seems that we all tried a couple of instruments before finding THE ONE! I had some harmonic and drums lessons before finding the guitar!

Benedict Marsh
Instructor

I grew up singing a lot, and dabbling with guitar and drums. I just loved music and wanted to play, but didn't get lessons or anything. Then one day when I was walking home after a rock band practice (I was singing for the band) I found myself hearing a bunch of music in my head. It was really weird. I was just hearing fully arranged parts in my head, and as a 16 year old with no frame of reference, I was like, ummmmm, this is weird - I think I need an instrument to write this stuff down with, and naturally I just though guitar. Probably because it was practical in terms of size. And so, I thought to myself, I need to ask for a guitar for Christmas... That being said, i do think drums called to me early on, but my parents refused to put something so noisy in the apartment.

Ligia Silva
Instructor

I guess there are a lot of things to consider: how mature you are when you start learning, what your idols are, what your friends listen too, your parents, if you liked your first teacher etc. I picked up the flute randomly in a list of instruments in my local music school and ended up playing it until now. 

Jonathan Jackson

That's awesome Leah! I grew up singing in choirs and taking piano lessons seriously but the guitar was something that I only dabbled in. It wasn't until college that I really started to dig into learning and loving the instrument! It's amazing how sometimes a second try at an instrument can spark a passion for it!

Daniel Hunter
Instructor

I think I always wanted to play the guitar, I used to strum a tennis raquet along to Mark Knopfler solos on my Dad's Dire Straits records. I started on piano at around 7 and never really got into it but when I  swapped the tennis raquet for a guitar at the age of 13 I hardly put it down. I often wonder if I would have stuck with the guitar if I'd started it at 7 years old instead of the piano....

Daniel Hunter
Instructor

I think I always wanted to play the guitar, I used to strum a tennis racket along to Mark Knopfler solos on my Dad's Dire Straits records. I started on piano at around 7 and never really got into it but when I  swapped the tennis racket for a guitar at the age of 13 I hardly put it down. I often wonder if I would have stuck with the guitar if I'd started it at 7 years old instead of the piano....

Leah Kruszewski
ModeratorInstructor

That's really interesting, Jonathan and Daniel!  I think the musical maturity that enables you to love and dedicate yourself to an instrument generally comes a bit later than seven years old.  Most of us don't share many (if any) musical or artistic preferences with our seven-year-old selves.  But even though you might end up on a different instrument than you started out on, those early lessons sure help out with coordination and musical understanding.   And if a kid loves music and wants to play it, he definitely should be encouraged, without too much worry about whether his current instrument of choice is THE instrument for him.  

James Larson
James Larson

Leah, I agree with your statement about musical maturity and dedication to mastering the instrument.  There is something about making a personal commitment to learning an instrument.

I actually began taking violin lessons at the age of three.  Personally, I don't really remember the first time I picked up the instrument.  My dad is a musician and teacher.  At the time, he watched an interview of the famous violin teacher Dr. Suzuki lecture on starting children on musical instruments at a young age.  My dad implemented the idea and got a toy/cardboard violin and a makeshift bow.   He'd play recordings of professional violinists Itzak Perlman and Isaac Stern while I'd pretend to play on my toy violin.  After that, the rest is history.

I'd be interested to hear if any of you have had a similar experience or have tried teaching really young students.  On the flip side, have any of you had success working beginners who are adults or the elderly?

~James Larson

 

 

Camron Andrews
Instructor

Hi everyone

Yes, each has the own path to finding their love of music. I found mine through singing, choir, then recorder, then saxophone, and so on...I guess it really is about how the music 'gets you' and then the instrument. I have to agree with all the sentiments shared by Ligia.

Sean Arawjo
Instructor

Interesting answers! When I was in 3rd grade I had a crush on a 4th grade girl who played flute and I thought, "maybe if I play the flute I'll get to sit next to her!". So I chose it as one of the instruments I got to try out at school and was immediately able to get a sound (not the case with some of the other instruments). So I went with it and never looked back! Never ended up sitting next to her in band, but things worked out alright for me in the end :)

Leah Kruszewski
ModeratorInstructor

Haha that's a great reason for choosing the flute Sean :) glad it turned out to be such a perfect fit for you in the long run!

Lou DeGregorio
Lou DeGregorio

I started in grammar school with drums, but only a few yrs, then in high school I came across Take Five by Dave Bruebeck and was hooked for a while with saxaphone .  After high school I became an accapella singer with different groups and really enjoyed it, eventually studying singing formally.  However the armed services called and I put it all down for a long time.  Always liked guitar, always wanted to play it but it looked really complicated.  Finally got started on classical guitar about 20 yrs ago and then flamenco where I was really hooked.  Something about the passion of flamenco.......

Leah Kruszewski
ModeratorInstructor

That's really cool to hear Lou!  Students always have such interesting pathways they take on the way to discovering flamenco.   It does tend to hook students at first listen : )

Heather Visser
Instructor

When I was just 10 years old, I started learning the flute. THIS was my passion!! I would light up whenever I spoke about music and the flute. It made me feel invincible. Later, I studied Music at university and went on several children's music courses. I am loving every minute of teaching!!  :D 

Tyson Farmer
Instructor

My story - When I was around 10, my mom dragged me to (yet another) yard sale. This time though, there was an unmarked (probably Sears) bass and a 5-watt practice amp for sale for around $30 that I instantly coveted. My mom was skeptical when I started haranguing her to buy it for me, saying it would become yet another neglected impulse buy that would collect dust within a month. She actually had a good point, since I didn't really have any intentions on practicing hard or anything like that - I just wanted another awesome thing to be awesome with (10 year old logic).

But being my mother's frugally trained son who she dragged to hundreds of bargain sales over the years, I was prepared for this argument - I parried with the counter-argument that this was such a killer once-in-a-lifetime deal that it wouldn't matter if it did anyway. She'd only be out a measly $30, and there was only one way to find out. It was a bold move, I knew, but I knew I'd won when she got quiet and considered it thoughtfully for more than 5 seconds. Sensing weakness, I waited until the silence got uncomfortable, and delivered the killing blow: "Mom - THIR-TY DOLL-ARS! For a bass guitar and amp? Come on!" It worked - incredible steals for cool things she didn't really need were always her kryptonite, so she relented and I went home with a nameless bass guitar and amplifier, feeling awesome.

To my parents' everlasting surprise (and mine, to be quite honest), I played that bass - and played and played and played it. Within months I was playing songs by ear, and that one purchase started off a lifelong career in playing and teaching guitar, bass, ukulele, banjo, drums, and singing. Thanks Mom - best impulse buy ever! 

Tyson Farmer
www.lessonface/TysonFarmer

Tyson Farmer
Instructor

Sean, this story almost exactly parallels my story on how I started teaching! In highschool I always had a crush on a dreamy quiet girl on my bus, and when I mentioned I played guitar she lit up and said she always wanted to learn to play. Seeing an opportunity, I said "I'll teach you! Come over to my house Friday after school!" I had no idea what I was doing, and that was painfully obvious during the "lesson" that I hastily scraped together. Long story short, I didn't get the girl, but I got intrigued by the question of how to approach teaching, and when some guy I knew on the bus approached me and said "I hear you teach guitar lessons", I found myself making $20 per half hour lesson. Within a few months I had a full schedule of students, and the start of a teaching career that continues to this day!

Tyson Farmer
www.lessonface.com/TysonFarmer

Kimberly Coxe
Instructor

these are some fun stories! 

I was pushed to learn piano very young. Elementary school age, but don't remember how young. My mother was the enforcer of practice time and i could be stubborn when I realy didn't want to practice. First teacher was Mrs. Gunther! If you are still out there, it wasn't you... well maybe it was the mix of you and me. She was a stickler but did teach me some great foundations, just not a good match. Who knew with the change of teacher a few years in, I would love taking and practicing piano. When that great teacher left teaching we tried 2 more teachers before I was in high school and finally was prooving I could learn clarinet. My mom offered to switch piano lessons to clarinet and that was the end of my journey to finding my love of music. Throughout high school I studied clarinet, and self-taugh percussion, and all the other woodwinds and then chose to major in music!!! Who knew those early years of fighting with my mother about practicing would lead to me loving music?!

Alani Sugar
Instructor

The violin definitely called to me.  When I was nine years old and the time came for the school orchestra to start up, I went home and told my dad.  He asked if I wanted to play an instrument.  I was almost offended that he asked, because I thought it was as obvious to everyone else as it was to me that I was going to play the violin.  I don't think I had ever thought about it before that day, but as soon as I knew it was an option, I knew it was for me.  Of course, I went through some phases of not really wanting to practice or not having a lot of motivation to learn, but it was never a question to me that I had to stick with it.  And now here I am, still playing today!

- Alani Sugar

https://www.lessonface.com/instructor/alani-sugar

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