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Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

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Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#41

Post by ralgozino »

boredemployee wrote: post #20
ehaskins wrote: post #14

I've been teaching beginning guitar lessons for about seven years. Guitar is a little different in that, outside of classical guitar, there's very little traditional pedagogy, but from experience I think these things are generally true about most instruments. 1. When you start learning you sound terrible... for a long time. It's very difficult to stay motivated when you can hear your problems. 2. It's very difficult…

I can relate a lot to what you said. I practice piano (jazz improvisation), and I have mix of love and hate with practicing. You basically spent lots of energy for little to no improvement at all lol, playing scales, arpeggios, etc. And if you stay like 1 month without practicing you waste a lot of time trying to go back where you stopped. It's like trying to go up an escalator that's going down, if you stop you come…

Having recently picked-up the guitar after a 10 years hiatus, that escalator analogy hit me right in the feels :'D

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#42

Post by obscurette »

fxtentacle wrote: post #8

"Some teachers find it’s their job to make students get better," Pappas says. "But what a teacher really needs to do is give their students the tools to make themselves better." In my opinion, both approaches are wrong. The job of a good teacher is to make learning fun. Once you enjoy practicing, skill follows automatically.

No. It's completely possible to have fun, practice and damage you. Practice has to meaningful, safe and hundred more things beginners and kids have no idea about. It's exactly about giving students (safe) tools they need.

PS. I have played music since I was 5, had even some professional career and stopped when I was 30.

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#43

Post by kube-system »

SoftTalker wrote: post #21
kube-system wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on what genre you're going in to as well. Classical and jazz musicians usually have a very different experience than what you describe. Although there's one thing in common among them all -- it's difficult to make good money.

I would suppose that the top-tier symphonies pay pretty well -- but making the cut there is probably the equivalent of a basketball player making the NBA.

I did the math once years ago -- If I recall the results correctly, top-tier symphony job sits between the NBA and NFL in terms of selectivity.

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#44

Post by kube-system »

mc32 wrote: post #15
kube-system wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on what genre you're going in to as well. Classical and jazz musicians usually have a very different experience than what you describe. Although there's one thing in common among them all -- it's difficult to make good money.

They may not get as rich as pop stars -but they suffer lots of substance abuse (though many themselves likely think they are enjoying the substance abuse).

Meh, the vast majority of classical or jazz musicians don't have any time to take drugs -- because they have day jobs.

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#45

Post by yamtaddle »

dogman144 wrote: post #23

It’s about - matching content to interests. I took classical guitar, my guitar teacher realized I was really into blues (way into very capable rock guitar), so I learned classical for the theory and enjoyment of pieces e2e, and blues for a significantly growing interest as a “rock kid.” The more solid electric guitar I learned, the more I realized the classical background was making me good, and it played back and fo…

> The happiest times in my life growing up were the 2 hr jams after school. Option to find bar bands is what keeps me playing as an adult as well. I don’t know if high school bands are still out there with all the tech now? Def curious.

Small-group (3-5 players) playing, which I only got to do once I was sorta-OK, was the only part of school band I enjoyed. It was transcendently good. Better-than-sex good, even without an audience. And we weren't even that good at the instruments, really!

But our teachers didn't front-load that in the curriculum—I played for three or four years in junior high and high school before getting to do any of it at all—and anyone struggling in the middle or lower tiers of the class didn't get the opportunity. Some of them might have loved it and, you know, been motivated to try harder. If it'd been the main thing we did, instead of a rare activity, I'd probably have tried a lot harder, myself.

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#47

Post by CuriouslyC »

ehaskins wrote: post #14

I've been teaching beginning guitar lessons for about seven years. Guitar is a little different in that, outside of classical guitar, there's very little traditional pedagogy, but from experience I think these things are generally true about most instruments. 1. When you start learning you sound terrible... for a long time. It's very difficult to stay motivated when you can hear your problems. 2. It's very difficult…

I think learning software has been transformative in this space, at least for baseline technical skills and coordination. Hopefully in the future the software will be able to give you feedback on stuff like tone and posture as well.

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#48

Post by dogman144 »

082349872349872 wrote: post #35
dogman144 wrote: post #23

It’s about - matching content to interests. I took classical guitar, my guitar teacher realized I was really into blues (way into very capable rock guitar), so I learned classical for the theory and enjoyment of pieces e2e, and blues for a significantly growing interest as a “rock kid.” The more solid electric guitar I learned, the more I realized the classical background was making me good, and it played back and fo…

Best thing I ever did for my musical avocation was to join a party band. Technically we sucked. But we gigged; we had fans who enjoyed our gigs; and while I had been in award-winning more classically-oriented formations, they didn't ever lead to international tours, nor did they never give the rush that an audience screaming for an encore does. What's the difference between a squirrel and a french horn player in the…

Yes can relate. Started with a powerchord punk band, ended with playing the Dead. First realizing a pentatonic scale can unlock the inner Jimmy Page in all of us is the step off point.

Now I can play crappy jazz in Christmas parties, whatever is regionally in fashion at bars where I live, and enjoy it all.

tldr find a band for your kid I guess

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#49

Post by foobarian »

teeray wrote: post #5

For me, it was the content. I stopped playing piano at 14, because my teacher really wanted me to play classical. Not a fan. I came back to piano later by myself when I wanted to play video game music. Then I wanted to play stuff from movies, pop songs, etc. I started watching interesting videos on reharmonization and tried that on some pop hits to interesting effect. I wouldn’t say I “stopped” completely, but my rel…

My kid asked to get her music lessons so she can play the music from Genshin Impact she really liked. Both from in-game as well as from recordings of orchestral performances Hoyo Labs organized. Happy parent :-)

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#50

Post by winternett »

asdff wrote: post #9
winternett wrote: post #2

As someone who runs a music label, ans has been doing this since 1999, it's not worth it to invest heavily into music. The people that make money in the industry, aren't the people that play the instruments. It's a long gone dream of just making music that has turned into payola, social media corruption, fake audiences, and negative things like drug abuse, lip syncing, fraud, suicide and ghost writers. Don't wish it…

You don't have to be a career rockstar to get personal satisfaction and enjoyment from playing instruments for yourself or with friends. When people quit as a child its really sad, because they deny themselves an opportunity for a lifelong hobby. Picking up the guitar again after I quit as a kid was the best thing I could do, but I still kick myself for not sticking through it all the years and all the potential expe…

I really hated to sound so grim... I've had some great experiences and I still do, nothing beats playing your music for crowds of people... The money is the problem. If you as a musician don't make it, there are others making it off of you. Scams are reampant. I just got an email from a fake Instagram account posing as a real journalist asking me for money for a feature in a big magazine...

To tell you the truth it's utterly depressing to be a musician with integrity after seeing the deep levels of corruption, usury, and depravity that happen in this industry... The wots part, is that tons of the people that act like they are rich are actually fat from it, and many people simply lie about success or buy it (trust fund babies).

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