Izzy Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 There are times when learning can seem torturous because you don't understand the implications of what is being taught, but sometimes it is just a matter of getting it down. What, besides complex guitar songs or styles, have you found challenging to learn and what pushed you to learn it? Did you have to learn sign language for a deaf friend? Did you have to learn to save money so you woldn't go bankrupt? Did you have to learn to make ONE decent meal so mom could take a night off once in a while? Recently I've been playing on my keyboard a lot and I am pretty decent for a novice. My fingers are loose and I have good reach. The rythms hadn't challenged me either...until this evening. I busted out Talking Book this afternoon and my girlfriend, who is NOT musical, sais to me, "can you learn Superstition? That sounds fun!" In my naivete I thought, "eh...what the hell. I'll learn the rif for fun." Now, mind you, Stevie is no occtapus and I know there are several layers to the recording as keyboards go, atlest one other, so I wasn't thinking I'd get the complete sound. Well forget the notes! MY problem is the rythm. It feels like I'm learning drums o.O I will persevere because I wanna show mom, who has never, to my knowledge, played funk, though she listened to it a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman5293 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 This is a very good question. One that can provoke some very in depth thinking. As far as learning what you call "the impossible" goes, I say that nothing is impossible. You asked what it is that I've learned or taught myself that was challenging. My response to that is advanced astrophysics. I've been studying for almost three years on my own using the internet as my guide to learn things that are normally only taught in university physics, biology, and chemistry classes. It would take a wall of text to explain my journey through that but I can tell you what my motivation for doing so was and still is. I want to know the answers to some of the biggest questions in the universe. In my field of study, every definitive answer you find opens a door for so many more questions than you had when you started. I firmly believe that no one can truly know all there is to know about this great universe we float in, but I've made it my life's mission to absorb as much of that knowledge as I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 The Scout camp I spent several summers at had a nice trading post that was always operated by the "deaf troop" from about 30 miles south of my town, so learning basic sign was a necessity, I think it was planned that way, & it was a great thing.....I went on to work with that troop as a "trailblazer" in '77 and helped them create Alabamas' "Chinnabee Silent Trail" over the tallest mountain in our state. I sometimes wonder how many thousands of Scouts have hiked that trail. the only thing in life so far that i've failed every attempt at is playing and singing @ the same time....I can barely squeak out simple choruses if i'm playing too. I guess it could be much worse........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Languages specifically French and Italian - I spoke English and Spanish fluently but wanted to learn French since I love Paris and like to go there and decided to focus on Italian also same reason love tp travel there also and speaking spanish I though it would be simple but I was wrong they killed me learning foreign languages as an adult is a lot tougher and speaking spanish hurt more than helped because I tried to speck both italian and french like spanish. I got it finally but it took me several years to even get get to the conversational level which is all i wanted I didn't really care about reading or writing. From a music perspective I hink the Chapan Stick made me struggle the most until I took a few lesson and realized you play it more live a keyboard than a guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Izzy; I can sympathise. At last Tuesday's local 'open-mic' night I sat in for three numbers where they decided to play some blues-funk and to top it off (to suit the vocalist's range) they played all three in my least favourite key...it was still fun but it was also not exactly my most stellar performance! My probs? I have a similar task to one of retro's. I've never had a facility for foreign languages - French and German were the only subjects I hated at school - but I married a French lass and, as none of her family speak English, have had to learn French. My vocab is pretty good as is my accent (musical ear helps!) and It's now got to the point where in shortish conversations some French natives don't know I'm not French myself although my command of tenses is still atrocious... Music-wise I have great difficulty in understanding Gypsy-Jazz phasing (pattern) as translated to a guitar's fingerboard. I've never actually sat down to work any of it out but it's clear I'm not a natural G-J player. I will have to work at it hard, I suspect, but I really should as I love the music and have finally (last year) had my G-J f-hole arch-top made playable. P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btoth76 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Hello! This is an interesting topic. I got into cars at the end of my teenage years. I had very hard times trying to understand how the powertrain/drivetrain works. Bought my first car, a '79 Mustang which was a very rare beast this part of the world. After 2-3 weeks of ownership the whole engine went up in flames. No mechanic wanted to work on that wreck because they had no experience with US cars, neither had the sources for parts. So I HAD to do it myself. Now I am writing workshop manuals and creating parts catalogues for the biggest truck company in the World, and for an exclusive British vehicle maker... Today I think: nothing is impossible to learn. It all depends on how much You are motivated. Cheers... Bence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 A very interesting thread... Languages can be a huge challenge and frustration for many students...expecting too much too soon is often the problem Personally learning to play guitar or bass whilst singing has been the big one recently...takes hard work and practice... :blink: Regarding rhythm...Stevie Wonder IMO is the total musician and genius songwriter...able to touch the heart and tap one's foot in equal measure like few others... It can be no coincidence that many top guitarists etc are very competent drummers too... Stevie Wonder Paul McCartney EVH Jeff Beck(who actually inspired the Superstition riff during a session with Stevie) Dave Grohl Widening the brief... Levon Helm Karen Carpenter... V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincentw Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I was offered a bass gig with one of my favorite nashville bands 2 years ago. I was offered the gig based solely on my personality - I was friends with the band and they were tired of taking grumpy bass players on the road. They knew we'd all have fun and get along. BUT I had never played bass before, only guitar. In Nashville, that's no excuse. You just do it. The band gave me a list of 30 songs, mostly original material, mostly country and honkytonk material. So the bass lines were all, for the most part, country. I had 3 weeks to shed before our first 5 night tour. I split the list in half, promised the band I would have 15 songs for the first rehearsal. Motivated by: (1) fear of embarrassment, (2) the desire to keep the gig, (3) the desire to become a better musician, (4) Nashville expectations -- I learned the country bass style and soon discovered that what seemed like a lot of notes to my ears was actually formulaic patterns. I showed up after one week to the first rehearsal and nailed 15 songs. One week later, I showed up to the second rehearsal and nailed all 30 songs. We had a dress rehearsal gig, then went on the road. It went great. Fans familiar with the band knew I was a new face, and everyone asked me how long I'd been playing with the band. Nobody knew that, at the time, I'd only been playing bass for 3 weeks. the moral of my story: Jump in and swim. But don't be stupid. Do your homework. It's the only way to get anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I never thought I would ever learn a foreign language, started learning Spanish in my late 30's like 37 or 38 years old... Never dreamed that one day I would be fluent enough to just speak without having to think about what I wanted to say. Seemed impossible but I did it. Didn't start playing guitar until I was 52 years old. Seemed impossible at first but it's coming along nicely now..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 For me it was probably piano. Started in December 2004, and after about a year of serious wood shedding, I had made significant progress, then I found the next level that I had to climb thru,... great journey, and still on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Hmm.. thats a hard one for me to answer. I think because im in the tech industry which is constantly changing, just by the nature of that we are constantly pushed into changes in not only the tech we use but also various development and mangement methods some of which can be a pain to say the least... So in that way im constantly challanged which can be annoying sometimes but also exciting as your on the cutting edge. The time I was pushed the most was when I went to work as a video editor for BBC Sports.. I was totally thrown in at the deep end and we were dealing with live TV.. I had to learn how to use all of the equipment and all of the editing tools in something like two weeks which was tough to say the least as you CANNOT make a mistake and every time you push the button that puts your clip live on telly your heart races as if you miss it or even if your just a second late it will all be live. Music wise.. This thread reminded me of a time when my main band had split up and me and the drummer were trying a few things. He envited two violin players along and we jammed with me on the guitar, drums and violins.. Now you have to know that these two were grade 8 players and id only been playing about five years at the time.. And their timings on the music was far from 4/4 lol I actually managed to my suprise to keep up and at one point even had a little solo duel with one of them and again suprised myself.. So I guess the moral is.. yeah just go for it.. Sure you have to do some homework.. But often by doing these sort of things we find that we are capable of more than we realise :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L5Larry Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I once went on a job interview with a company that seeked me out. After a written math test and asking if I had any problems with women bosses, the lady interviewer asked if there was anything I had ever had trouble learning. I said "Yes,... nuclear physics". Guess what, they didn't offer me the job. I can't understand why! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 . I busted out Talking Book this afternoon and my girlfriend, who is NOT musical, sais to me, "can you learn Superstition? That sounds fun!" In my naivete I thought, "eh...what the hell. I'll learn the rif for fun." Now, mind you, Stevie is no occtapus and I know there are several layers to the recording as keyboards go, atlest one other, so I wasn't thinking I'd get the complete sound. Well forget the notes! MY problem is the rythm. It feels like I'm learning drums o.O I will persevere because I wanna show mom, who has never, to my knowledge, played funk, though she listened to it a lot. Oh and by the way... A Stevie song is an ambitious one even for the pros.. He really is one of the best ever musically and vocally... And I find that sometimes listening to live versions helps as sometimes they have to break it down a bit. To me it sounds like theres a guitar playing one of the main riff parts.. So you can do it on keyboards and guitar :) and good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman5293 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I wonder who minused me and why? If that person has a problem please feel free to PM me. Not sure what in my post was minus worthy................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaysEpiphone Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Ummmm... Piano is a percussion instrument. While melody is key in many song's with out the basic rhythm pattern's, ie drums/bass/rhythm instrument(s), you don't have much of a recognizable toon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I'd say two things: arithmetic and anything else I don't have first-off a "big picture" of what's there. E.g., I got horrid grades in math, but ended up making my living a while by using it in a laboratory situation and later on writing spreadsheets for startup businesses that could pretty well predict how the operator would do with this or that variable plugged in. Given that I did well enough on "math" on standardized tests (usually 95th to 99th percentile), and that in those days it was verboten even to use a slide rule (which I could use fairly well) before calculators were invented, I blame my poor arithmetic on what I consider failure in math. Secondly language - again because somehow when I began with Latin and German I didn't have an overview. I got horrid grades. Yet classmates can't understand how I've managed to translate stuff from Spanish language magazines and had my translations proofed by a pro and was told I did well enough he didn't change anything. I wouldn't claim fluency by any stretch, though - just elementary-level reading ability at western Romance languages, German and if I'm in a relaxed mind, a little Dutch. Romanian I don't get at all, though. Frustration at the math and language thing really got to me at one point, so I spent the equivalent of an hour or so per weekday for a year, year and a half, digging up every Internet thing I could find on learning theory to understand how I did poorly in the classroom but then managed to make stuff work where kids who got "A" grades forgot 99.9 percent after a cupla years. Frankly I concluded there's no satisfying answer why. I think rhythms for a lotta musicians tend to be about the same thing. I remember in high school doing drums for a 5-4 piece - and I'm no drummer at all - because the exceptional-otherwise drummer found it like trying to do a triple somersault while hogtied. Yet... he did stuff on drums I couldn't even imagine getting my body to do. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 I notice a pattern: languages are a challenge to most and playing while singing to some. Tman, very interesting field of interest. I have a similar interest; quantum physics and mechanics. It is unfortuante that I can't take classes at a university. I alwys have to stop and look something up and then that means I have to look something else up. It takes a long time to digest certain concepts and others are a matter of mathematical knowledge unatainable without proper course work. Do you feel like maybe you'd benefit from math courses and physics courses? Lord knows I would!!! Another thing I noticed; everyone seems to agree that there is nothing impossible to learn. It is a nice attitude to have. I don't think I will ever learn how to deal with people in the hospital when they are really depressed because they are very ill. Others are so good at it. I have been told I am good at it by a couple of patients who say, "you are so peppy and have such an upbeat attitude, it makes me feel better." Frankly, I am so scared and angry for them and of letting my guard down in front of them, so I just preetnd they are not ill. It is a poor coping mechanism they mistake for nurturing and caring. Lord help me when I am a practitioner and actually have to DELIVER the news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman5293 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 I notice a pattern: languages are a challenge to most and playing while singing to some. Tman' date=' very interesting field of interest. I have a similar interest; quantum physics and mechanics. It is unfortuante that I can't take classes at a university. I alwys have to stop and look something up and then that means I have to look something else up. It takes a long time to digest certain concepts and others are a matter of mathematical knowledge unatainable without proper course work. Do you feel like maybe you'd benefit from math courses and physics courses? Lord knows I would!!! Another thing I noticed; everyone seems to agree that there is nothing impossible to learn. It is a nice attitude to have. I don't think I will ever learn how to deal with people in the hospital when they are really depressed because they are very ill. Others are so good at it. I have been told I am good at it by a couple of patients who say, "you are so peppy and have such an upbeat attitude, it makes me feel better." Frankly, I am so scared and angry for them and of letting my guard down in front of them, so I just preetnd they are not ill. It is a poor coping mechanism they mistake for nurturing and caring. Lord help me when I am a practitioner and actually have to DELIVER the news. [/quote'] I do think that math and physics classes are a great benefit. That's why I'm taking them. I'm currently in college majoring in physics. I'm at a community college right now but after I get my associates degree I'm transferring to University to get my phd in physics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10K-DB Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 The music I learned growing up was a large part of pop culture of the day,and today as well. I practiced for many hrs to my fav artists records,tapes ect. And I think I tried to learn all that because #1,,its sounded cool #2 and was fun to play to,which in turn got me in my first band @ 14 yrs old!. I learned from other players as well, and,the interaction between band mates is priceless. I like to think we all grow as musicians as we go along,and as many others have said in reply,I try to learn new stuff everyday. And at some point,it may give me some new music ideas. Everybody has a different learning process,,I think as long as your learning,and enjoying it,,is all that matters. Technical skills will evolve over time. IMHO All the best,,S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I do think that math and physics classes are a great benefit. That's why I'm taking them. I'm currently in college majoring in physics. I'm at a community college right now but after I get my associates degree I'm transferring to University to get my phd in physics. My former postdoc advisor has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Berkeley. Best engineer of NASA's modern age. Dr. Michael Griffin, former NASA Administrator, said that to me. I learned a lot of real math that I didn't learn in engineering school from him. I still try to keep it up. Right now I'm reading Schiff's famous book on quantum mechanics. The best part of my job as a professor is that part of my job is learning. The hardest thing for me to learn was actually learning how to learn. High school never challenged me (I was ranked 4th in my class of 400). I bombed my first year of college because I thought I could get by just using my brain. I had to learn how to study. It was a humbling experience but I realized that I had to actually work to get that 4.0. BTW, this is the version I like to play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPDJicA816s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman5293 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 My former postdoc advisor has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Berkeley. Best engineer of NASA's modern age. Dr. Michael Griffin, former NASA Administrator, said that to me. I learned a lot of real math that I didn't learn in engineering school from him. I still try to keep it up. Right now I'm reading Schiff's famous book on quantum mechanics. The best part of my job as a professor is that part of my job is learning. The hardest thing for me to learn was actually learning how to learn. High school never challenged me (I was ranked 4th in my class of 400). I bombed my first year of college because I thought I could get by just using my brain. I had to learn how to study. It was a humbling experience but I realized that I had to actually work to get that 4.0. BTW, this is the version I like to play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPDJicA816s How come you never told me you were a professor!? What classes do you teach? Which University are you a professor at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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