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How to Learn New Things as an Adult

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Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#101

Post by Starwatcher2001 »

hvidgaard wrote: post #74
soniman wrote: post #73

There are certain tennis strokes that adults can't learn. For instance, adults can't learn to hit a "kick" serve that has a lot of topspin. I think part of the problem is that the kick serve requires counterintuitively hitting the ball to the sky and letting gravity and spin pull it down to earth. Adults can't handle the idea of hitting up, it just seems wrong. I learned kick serves as a kid and it's like riding a bi…

There are certain tennis strokes that adults can't learn. For instance, adults can't learn to hit a "kick" serve that has a lot of topspin. Do you have anything to back this claim? I don't believe this at all. The plasticity changes as we get older, but the human brains does not lose the ability to learn things, counter intuitive or not.

"The plasticity changes as we get older, but the human brains does not lose the ability to learn things, counter intuitive or not."

Perhaps not lose entirely, but certainly age can dramatically reduce the ability to learn certain things. This (rather long) article goes into detail:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2947444/

The section marked "Language Exhibits a “Critical Period” for Learning" is maybe the most relevant.

However, the article was written in 2010, and may be out of date. Understanding the brain's mechanisms and plasticity has advanced significantly over the last few years.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#102

Post by [deleted] »

scallycat wrote: post #98
criddell wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know some chords: A, Am, C, C7, D, D7, E, Em, G, G7 I can switch between those fairly fluidly. Even Wild Thing has a solo part in the middle. A, D, and E really aren't enough, are they? Can you name a few other real songs that you think are early beginner level?

Knocking On Heaven's Door was the first 'real' song I could make sound halfway decent.

[deleted]

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#103

Post by scallycat »

criddell wrote: post #100
scallycat wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knocking On Heaven's Door was the first 'real' song I could make sound halfway decent.

Bob Dylan's version? Any other suggestions?

Yes, Dylan's version, you can do it with only about four chords.

Others I have enjoyed learning are REM's Country Feedback (not the slide bit, the chords) and Bowie's cover of Jacques Brel's Amsterdam - this has an F but you can get away with Fmaj7, which is much easier.

I'm very much a beginner too - coming towards the end of the Justin Guitar beginner's course. The song book that goes along with it has some good tunes.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#104

Post by Wh1zz »

branchless wrote: post #88
Disruptive_Dave wrote: post #79

I just re-learned skateboarding. I spent a lot of time skating in my late teens (37 now), and was decent at it. I noticed three things throughout the learning process this time around. First, there is so much more information available today than when I was a kid. YouTube videos alone could keep me busy for years. Then you add in the GoPro and my phone, and you have an entirely new world available. The one downside h…

As someone who tried snowboarding for the first time this weekend and fell over around 200 times, this gives me some heart.

Don't worry, snowboarding gets really easy really quick. If you'd snowboard for a week straight, you'd already be able to go really quick without falling and looking pretty cool along the way. The issue is most people only do it at most 3-4 days a year for just a couple hours, so it looks like it took them "years" to snowboard decently.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#105

Post by branchless »

munkeegutz wrote: post #94
branchless wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who tried snowboarding for the first time this weekend and fell over around 200 times, this gives me some heart.

I snowboard a tremendous amount and have tought many people. Your experience is typical.... Even with a great teacher newbies spend their first two days eating it!

Okay interesting, thanks. Not just me, glad to hear this.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#106

Post by mattmanser »

criddell wrote: post #99
mattmanser wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the kids secret, they don't learn it all in one big bang. Kids don't play the solo or play it perfectly to begin with. They play along with the song on the stereo, then you don't have to do the solo any way! There's also a rhythm guitar going on under a solo, if not you can fill that bit with the same chords as the solo is playing (usually the verse or chorus chords) based on those chords. Then they learn solo…

Thanks for taking the time to write this out. It's very helpful. How are you finding the piano? At one point I thought that might be a better fit for me because I can type quickly and accurately. But now I watch my daughter play and seeing her read read and play different left and right hand sequences makes me think that would have been more difficult. After spending quite a bit of time playing Rocksmith, I can't hel…

Piano's quite fun but not got to the bit yet where you need to play different rhythms with different hands. I'm weeks into it. It's surprisingly easier than I thought it was going to be at the moment. The new methods of teaching seem to be much better.

If you're find rocksmith a good progression, I'd maybe think about sticking with that. String muffling is something you get better at with practice and as your fingers get better muscle memory, but if you watch any live performance you'll see even the pros do it sometimes. Also bends and sustains, you get better at very quickly. It's more just learning the whole sequence and then refining the sequence later. A lot of people don't have the "ear" for hearing those mistakes anyway and won't even notice you make them so it might be that it's deliberately imprecise for beginners, I've no idea when I picked up the skill. Fore example, most non-musicians won't notice a bass guitar or the difference between a bass guitar and a guitar, although generally speaking people seem to be a bit more musically literate these days than in the 90s because of the internet.

One great trick which you probably know about is to play a progression incredibly slowly, so slowly you get every note perfect (just a tiny snippet of a few notes, at most like 10 seconds of a song). Then repeat it a bit faster, but still very slow, making every note perfect. If you fail a note, restart it again at that speed. Increase speed a little bit every time you get it right until you're playing it faster than it's normally played.

EDIT: Also, there's a certain amount of your finger tips getting a bit harder as you play more which makes it easier to play.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#107

Post by criddell »

mattmanser wrote: post #106
criddell wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for taking the time to write this out. It's very helpful. How are you finding the piano? At one point I thought that might be a better fit for me because I can type quickly and accurately. But now I watch my daughter play and seeing her read read and play different left and right hand sequences makes me think that would have been more difficult. After spending quite a bit of time playing Rocksmith, I can't hel…

Piano's quite fun but not got to the bit yet where you need to play different rhythms with different hands. I'm weeks into it. It's surprisingly easier than I thought it was going to be at the moment. The new methods of teaching seem to be much better. If you're find rocksmith a good progression, I'd maybe think about sticking with that. String muffling is something you get better at with practice and as your fingers…

> A lot of people don't have the "ear" for hearing those mistakes

That's me. It's why I wish Rocksmith could be much more strict than it is.

> play a progression incredibly slowly

Rocksmith does that too. One thing that bugs me about it is that after you get 100% on some piece in slo-motion, I wish it would automatically ramp up the speed 10% and start over and continue doing this until I'm playing the section perfectly at normal speed (or maybe even faster than normal). Instead, I have to pick up the control, navigate through some menus that aren't terribly well laid out, then restart the exercise.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#108

Post by wingerlang »

rodionos wrote: post #84
wingerlang wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you take private lessons if you already knew how to swim? I also swim in a non-proper way and I recently found a "new way" of swimming after seeing some video about it, and it is fairly easy. But due to muscle memory I find myself going back to my own way. My own way being: Imagine doing a front split[1], then pushing your body up into a standing position, while angling your upper body 90 degrees (plane with…

I wanted to learn how to swim butterfly. This is difficult to master on your own.

Oh I see, makes sense.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#109

Post by emondi »

teekert wrote: post #62

I don't really think there is a difference between adults and children in learning, this whole piece is simply about efficiency in learning and different ways of learning. Still I think this piece misses some points. I believe there is a threshold (perhaps different for everyone) for the types of learning the piece is about. There is learning by forcing knowledge in by repetition. If you need to remember a small list…

I think he was trying to make the point that the embarrassmen of not knowing the capital was going to make that fact stay in the journalists head for much more time that the mere fact of hearing it mentioned. Even if there is no logic on naming cities.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#110

Post by jw1224 »

dth_omn_str wrote: post #90
jw1224 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree - surely adults can learn these tennis strokes, even if they are harder to pick up. There is an absolutely fascinating video about plasticity of learning between adults and children that I'd highly recommend watching [1]. A man built a "backwards bicycle", where the handlebars steer the bike in the opposite direction to what you would expect. It was almost impossible for him to ride the bike more than a few f…

He does say in the video that wasn't trying to actively learn to ride it. Where as the guy in this video [1] claims it only took him 1 h 29 min. You could probably argue that his age might have helped, but it could also be equally true that he used better methods of practice to achieve that goal. Destin also admits "It took me 8 months to learn how to do this, but I was only picking up the bike and running to the end…

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. Interesting point - thanks.
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