If you want to learn a musical instrument, this article has everything you need to know.

As the old saying goes, silk is not as good as bamboo and bamboo is not as good as meat.

What do you mean by that? It's just that shredded cucumber is not as delicious as bamboo shoots, and bamboo shoots are not as delicious as meat -o (∩ _ ∩) o Haha ~

Just kidding, foodies may understand this, but its original meaning has nothing to do with eating.

"Silk" refers to plucked musical instruments, such as dulcimer and guzheng. "Bamboo" refers to wind instruments played, such as bamboo flute and suona. "Meat" refers to human vocal organs, that is, the sound of singing. Therefore, what the ancients mean is that the music played by stringed string is not as beautiful as that played by bamboo and wood, and the music played by bamboo and wood is not as touching as the song sung by human throat.

The ancients had their own reasons for this view. Whether in the east or the west, the oldest music is "vocal music", and the oldest "musical instrument" is also the human throat. Later, musical instruments were invented, only as accompaniment to human voices. This can be seen from sonata, a musical form in western music: at first, sonata refers to music played only by musical instruments, as opposed to acoustic music, but it has been thousands of years since its emergence and maturity, and the age of music is not much different.

Therefore, our ancestors thought that human voice was the best music, followed by instruments close to human voice (such as bamboo flute, which was in direct contact with the mouth), and instruments slightly away from the throat (such as guzheng, played by hand) were the worst.

However, with the development of music today, this view is out of date. Although singing is still the most common and popular form of music, the variety of musical instruments is extremely rich, the timbre changes endlessly, the range is extremely wide, and the expressive force is far from that of human voice.

Among countless musical instruments, three are the most popular. They are piano, violin and guitar. Interestingly, the piano is called "the king of musical instruments", the violin is called "the queen of musical instruments", and the classical guitar is called "the prince of musical instruments", which has become "noble and auspicious three treasures"-"the three of us are a lucky family".

Of course, in addition to the "auspicious three treasures", there are many popular musical instruments, such as saxophone, erhu, guzheng, pipa, flute, dulcimer, accordion and jazz drum. They are played in different ways: playing, beating, bowing, playing bellows, percussion instruments, plucking strings and so on. Different timbres: some are deep, some are bright, some are melodious, some are agitated, some are tinkling with spring water, some are gentle and continuous ... Each instrument has its own unique timbre characteristics, and there are also its representative tracks, such as Home played by saxophone, Horse Racing played by erhu, Fishing Boat Singing Night played by guzheng, Cowboy played by flute and accordion. ......

If you have heard these melodies or seen artists play them, you will definitely sigh: it's so handsome, if only I could play them myself! Then, you may have the idea of learning a musical instrument. Today, in this article, I will talk to you. If you have such an idea, how can you put it into practice step by step, and eventually you will become an enviable "Shuai Shuai performer"!

Why?

When you have the idea of learning musical instruments, it is very important to learn them immediately. Ask yourself why you want to learn musical instruments, that is, to find out your motives and goals.

If you don't know your motives and goals, you will not only learn musical instruments, but also do everything by halves. Learning musical instruments requires investment, not only money, but also a lot of energy and time. If you don't want to let your efforts go to waste, then the question of "why" should be carefully considered.

Let's talk about motive first.

I think, in terms of motivation and persistence, motivation can be divided into three levels from low to high:

The lowest level is to learn to meet the requirements of others. This is very common for children who are forced to learn piano by their parents. Some parents love music and want to train their next generation to be pianists. Whether their children like it or not, they are forced to practice piano for several hours every day. The children endured the time painfully under coercion and inducement. Not only can they not learn well, but they even talk about the color change of the piano. Once they made their own decisions, they parted ways with music later. The beauty that should be enjoyed has become a psychological shadow.

There are also some children who don't like practicing piano at first, but with the deepening of their studies, they like musical instruments and music, such as Lang Lang as a child. Therefore, it is very important to teach students in accordance with their aptitude and respond flexibly. If you think your child really doesn't like it after studying for a period of time, you must not force it, otherwise it will affect your child's mental health for a lifetime.

The middle level is the pursuit of utility. There are many people who have this motivation, for example, to satisfy vanity: my friend can play musical instruments, and I want to play, otherwise I will lose face; In order to compare: other people's children are versatile, and my children can't be bad; Get a certificate for further study: taking the tenth grade certificate is good for further study, and even filling in your resume when looking for a job is a bright color. ......

This kind of motivation can support a person to learn to a certain extent, but it can't really take a musical instrument as a lifelong hobby. A few years ago, I got extra points for my talent in the senior high school entrance examination. Many piano students are full of energy. They spent several years practicing hard, passed the tenth grade, went to their favorite school and achieved their goal, leaving the piano behind and never touching it again.

The highest state is the heartfelt love for musical instruments and music itself. This is actually the initial intention of many people who want to learn musical instruments: I feel that playing a song with a certain instrument is good to listen to, and the player is so handsome! If you can always keep this initial intention and have the determination and perseverance to overcome difficulties-no matter how difficult or slow, I will play music well, then you will definitely go further on the road of music.

Under normal circumstances, people will have these three motives at the same time, which is understandable. As long as it is motivation, it will bring us motivation to learn. However, it is important for you to know which of these motives are primary and which are secondary. Lang Lang can also play the piano to satisfy others. When I was a child, I satisfied my father, and when I became famous, I satisfied my fans. I will also hold concerts and shoot advertisements for fame and fortune, a large part of which is for fame and fortune; His core motivation is his love of music and piano, which is the main reason that supports him to today. The satisfaction of parents, relatives and friends, the acquisition of fame and fortune, etc. It was just an accidental realization.

Let's talk about the goal again.

Motivation is the source of motivation and goal of learning. Simply put, it is the degree you want to learn.

Some people will say: as long as you love and learn, you can learn as much as you can in your life.

Some people will say: I haven't learned, I don't understand, and I don't know how far I can learn.

Regarding the first statement, I want to tell you that love alone is not enough. You should have a goal, otherwise you will be sloppy, slow in progress and lose interest. There is a "goal setting theory" in psychology, to the effect that if you want to do something, setting reasonable goals and feedback (such as incentives) will make you stick to it for a long time and achieve good results. For example, to help you understand the importance of goals more clearly: many people have played video games, and the reason why video games catch people is because of the clever setting of the "goal feedback" mechanism. You have a clear goal at the beginning of your game-to get through the first level, kill the boss, and give you a feedback immediately after you reach this goal: get reward points and enter the next level. .........................................................................

Regarding the second statement, I think it is also the doubt of many beginners: what level can I learn? Can I play as well as Lang Lang?

I think everyone has different conditions. Before studying, we should think of a general goal according to our own situation.

If children aged 4 or 5 learn musical instruments, it is hard to say whether they want to cultivate a hobby or make a living from it in the future, and there is no need to set a goal early. Parents can observe with their teachers during their children's study. If children are passionate, diligent and talented, they will be better trained and develop in the direction of musicians. Children's piano learning is generally guided by professional teachers, so I won't say much here. The following is mainly about adult piano learning.

Adult piano learning is mainly a hobby, and a few of them are professional, but they basically form bands and sing while playing (playing electric piano, folk guitar, bass, etc.). ), but rarely become a musician (pianist, violinist, classical guitarist, etc.). This is because a professional musician's musical literacy and musical instrument technology, no matter how talented, have to be cultivated and trained for more than ten years or even decades. So if you want to be a performer, you should think more about whether bamboo shoots are delicious or shredded cucumbers are delicious, otherwise the more you practice, the more depressed you will be.

Ah ah ah! No matter how hard I try, I can't write freely on the keyboard like Lang Lang and be elegant and chic on the strings like Lv Siqing.

Don't lose heart, I think most people's favorite music at first should not be music in E flat major, but "City of the Sky"! Besides, do you think the French piano prince Richard Clayderman is handsome?

I'll tell you good news: classic music, such as City in the Sky, To Alice, Cannon, Green Sleeves, Swan, Croatian Rhapsody, Windy Street, and many classic works of Richard Clayderman, such as Wedding in My Dream and Adeline by the Water.

In other words, for most people, the first music that excites you can be played after you have studied for a year or two. I dare say so because I am one of them.

Moreover, if so many beautiful songs are not enough for you, then you should do some targeted exercises, some slightly more difficult songs, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, classic serenades, sad sonatas, impromptu fantasy, and you can play them in five or six years.

Therefore, if you are looking for the beauty of music instead of complicated techniques, then an adult who has become a monk halfway can learn piano completely.

How to choose?

This part is about how to choose a musical instrument that suits you (suitable for adults to learn piano).

If you already have a favorite instrument and decide that it is necessary, you can skip to the next part. If you don't know which instrument you want to learn or want to know the difficulty of getting started and the input of each instrument, then this part is exactly what you want.

Let's talk about "auspicious three treasures" first:

violin

When adults learn piano, they should choose the violin carefully.

Because it is difficult to get started: first of all, the piano has a keyboard and the guitar is good. As long as you press your finger within a certain range, the sound will be fixed. Violin is different, its sound is continuous, there is no absolute pitch, there is no good sense of sound and long-term practice, and even the tone is not accurate, but the sense of sound should be cultivated from an early age; Secondly, violin is a melody instrument, unlike piano and guitar, which can't be accompanied by itself, which will reduce the interest of beginners; Thirdly, the skills of violin are too many and complicated, such as bow, jump, throw and so on. Every skill needs a lot of time to practice. If you don't practice all the skills well, it is basically impossible to play a song that is too brilliant, and even the most basic strings are not easy to pull well. Finally, the violin is played in an awkward posture (for those who have never learned it). Adults' arms are already stiff, and many people can't bend their arms.

There are only two states when playing the violin: good and bad, and there is no "so-so". Good practice, beautiful voice, bad practice, harsh voice. Generally speaking, you can't play a good voice within three years, and the whole practice process is painful. Not only is the content of the exercise difficult, but if you don't make progress for a long time, you won't get a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Actually, don't say becoming a monk halfway. Even learning from an early age is extremely difficult. Two years can't get rid of ugliness, and four years can't get a good voice. This is still under the condition of keeping at least one hour of concentrated practice every day.

Therefore, unless you love the violin very much, it is wise to "retreat from difficulties". The violin is an instrument with the lowest input-output ratio. But I really learned, and my satisfaction is unparalleled.

If you still decide not to marry a non-violinist after reading the above, then you are true love. If the economy allows, you can buy a semi-manual piano for the first piano of 2000-3000 yuan, and the timbre is more secure. If you are worried about not wasting money, you can buy a factory piano around 500 yuan, which is also good for practice.

piano

The piano is my recommended instrument.

There are many famous piano music, and as mentioned above, most of them are very simple and can be played after one or two years of study. Although children's skills are also needed, there is no problem with the intonation and pronunciation of playing the piano, so it is good as long as it is not too bad.

The difficulty of piano is reflected in its high level. If you are not satisfied with the music such as "City in the Sky" and "Wedding in My Dream" and want to play Chopin, Mozart and Romanticism well, it is very important to touch the keys and handle the pedals carefully on the piano. If you want to play such dazzling works as "The Clock", you must have high requirements on the flexibility of your fingers, the fluency of running and the accuracy of jumping. These are not achieved overnight, and many people who play piano in primary schools may not be able to do it well.

From this perspective, the piano is not necessarily simpler than the violin.

However, as mentioned above, it is very important for adults to set their own goals, cultivate hobbies, increase life interest and cultivate sentiment, and it is totally unnecessary to reach the level of a performer.

Although it is easy to get started, beginners need to go through a boring practice, and it is not easy to stick to it, so it is not recommended to buy a piano in one step for the first time.

The price of the piano is not cheap, but a little better will cost hundreds or even hundreds of thousands. Novices suggest buying a 1-20000 piano, which is completely enough. Or, if the piano is too heavy and the price is still a little high, you can choose an electric piano with a price of 3,000-4,000 yuan as a practice piano, which is also completely acceptable.

guitar

Guitar is also my recommended instrument.

There are many kinds of guitars: classical guitar, folk guitar, electric guitar, flamenco guitar, Hawaiian guitar and so on. Classical guitar and folk guitar are very popular.

Classical guitars are mostly used for solo and folk guitars are mostly used for accompaniment.

The process of learning classical guitar is strict, which requires formal posture, fingering and various skills. Strictness and professionalism are the characteristics of learning classical guitar. Folk guitar is relatively free in learning, but it needs more efforts in the type and rhythm of accompaniment. Although they are all guitars, their playing methods and skills are quite different. If you learn folk guitar first, then classical guitar, it will take a long time to correct some wrong fingering and skills, and the speed needs to be retrained. So it's best to choose a continuous exercise.

Classical guitar is a little more difficult, and the tracks are not very popular. It belongs to a "hard core" instrument, and everyone who likes it likes it very much. Of course, there are also some famous songs, such as Romance of Love. If you want to learn classical guitar, self-study is not recommended. It is very important to learn the correct playing posture and skills at first.

Folk guitar is much more close to the people, and it can be accompanied or solo. There are no strict requirements for posture, hand type and fingering. They can teach themselves completely and get started easily. After two or three months of study, they can play the piano and sing by themselves, which is very fulfilling.

Even so, the learning process will encounter obstacles. The first hurdle is that pressing a string will hurt your fingers, and your fingertips will grind out a cocoon. Many children's shoes just can't stand the pain of their fingers and give up. The second level is high lateral pressure and grid climbing. Large lateral pressure is a headache for beginners. It looks simple, but it won't work for a while. It takes time to practice slowly. Climbing the grid is boring, but you can't be flexible without climbing your fingers. The third obstacle is chord conversion. When you are not skilled, your fingers are always slow and half-beat, which is urgent. Once you persist in overcoming these difficulties, self-confidence will support you to learn more skills and play better music.

The first time you buy a classical guitar, you can choose a piano of about 2000 yuan. Quality and timbre are guaranteed. If the budget is not enough, you can also choose 400-500 yuan's piano practice. After a while, if you think you really like it, you can change to a good piano. You can buy the folk guitar 500 yuan or so, which can be used to learn various skills and accompany songs. It is not recommended to buy a cheap piano. The tone color is too poor to press the strings easily, which will affect the interest in learning the piano.

Other musical instruments

Wind music:

Wind music has some physical requirements, for example, flute is suitable for people with thin lips.

In wind music, only the flute is famous (such as serenade, ode to the virgin, etc.). ), but compared with strings and pianos, it is still too little. Oboe, horn and trombone are basically not considered in wind music, because these three instruments are difficult to play, and there are few famous songs, some of which are excerpts from concerto or symphony.

Clarinet, that is, clarinet is recommended after flute, because there are still many opportunities for clarinet to be used in jazz, and you can play with friends if you have nothing to do.

Introduction to flute and clarinet is not difficult. Generally, you can play the same thing after two years of practice, and it is small in size and convenient to carry. As long as these two instruments are played, they have some control over the breath and the sound will not be too bad. 70% of the skills focus on breath, and don't involve too much finger flexibility.

Harp:

The harp is a musical instrument that is easy to learn and pleasant to listen to. Its timbre itself is very nice, no matter how you play it, listening to the harp at close range is simply the sound of nature! And many famous songs have been adapted into harp works, so there are actually many works that the harp can play.

But its disadvantage is that it is more expensive, and the simple practice piano (small piano without pedal) costs 20 thousand. The most common harp for real performance costs 200 thousand, so this can only be considered when the economy is abundant. In addition, the harp, like the piano, is inconvenient to carry.

Cello:

As mentioned above, the violin is not recommended mainly because the early pronunciation is ugly, like the sound of sawing wood. Cello has no such problem at all, because its sound is very low. From the bow, the violin is stretched flat on the shoulder, and the gravity of the bow naturally presses on the string, so the hand can't control the pressure well. Add a little more and the sound will be broken. Cello is not. It is pulled vertically. The gravity of the bow will not naturally be added to the strings, and the strings of the cello are thick and not afraid of hard work. Therefore, for beginners, cello is very friendly in pronunciation and bow transport.

Secondly, unlike the violin, which has so many skills and bows, it needs to be played brilliantly. Although the cello also has various skills, most of the music is not used. The main playing skill of cello is to draw a bow and play a deep and affectionate voice. For example, there is a student in a conservatory of music who can't jump and pull the bow because of some defects in her right hand, but this doesn't affect her playing the cello well at all. Because the cello basically depends on pulling, it doesn't matter whether other skills are wood or not.

Moreover, the cello has a low range and the human ear is insensitive. Even if your pronunciation is slightly inaccurate, it won't be too harsh, and most people probably won't hear it. This is suitable for adults with less sensitive ears.

In addition, there are many famous cello songs, most of which are deep and lyrical, with soothing and beautiful melodies and very romantic. After going to school for about a year, many songs can be played normally.

In addition to the above, there are many popular musical instruments, so I won't list them here. The same principle is used for inference.

To sum up: the most important thing to choose an instrument is to look at your preferences. On this basis, factors such as entry difficulty, price, number of playable tracks, and input-output ratio are considered.

How to buy?

Having made clear the motivation and purpose of learning, and chosen the instrument, the next step is to choose the piano suitable for beginners.

Next, I will take the piano and guitar as examples to talk about matters needing attention in buying a piano.

Piano is bulky and expensive, so it is not suitable for most beginners to buy. Even if the economy is affluent, it is not recommended to buy a good piano for the first time. Unless you say that my house is too big, and you are willing to spend 654.38+0 million to buy a grand piano and decorate it in the living room, then help yourself. This situation is beyond the scope of this article.

The author's mother has such a friend in the church. She did business in her early years and had good economic conditions. She wanted her daughter to learn piano at an early age, so she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a grand piano and invited Liu Shikun's disciples to be teachers. The investment was huge, but after several months of practice, the little girl lost interest. Every time I go to learn the piano, it's like an execution ground, dragging my tears and having to give up. Later I learned to sing, but after a few months, I lost interest and learned to dance. Since then, the piano has become an ornament. Later, his business was not very prosperous, and he asked around and wanted to sell the piano. ......

It is normal for children to be willful and need parental guidance; Adults should not overestimate their will.

Therefore, it is recommended that adults buy an electric piano with a price of about 3,000-5,000 yuan.

As for why, you can read an article I shared earlier:

Portal: About the Choice of (Electric Piano) ......

In this article, I compare the advantages and disadvantages of electric piano and piano in detail, and I think it is helpful for beginners to buy.

There are many brands with good quality and good reputation to choose from among the electric pianos with the price of 3,000-5,000 yuan, such as Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Kawaii and so on. These brands have detailed information on the Internet: model, timbre, appearance and so on, which is easy to find.

Here, I will briefly tell you the difference between Yamaha and Casio.

In this price range, Yamaha p 1 15 and Casio px 160 are recommended.

Both are Japanese brands, and Yamaha may be more famous. It also produces pianos. Externally, both are beautiful and elegant. In terms of timbre, Yamaha electric steel is softer and has less key noise; Casio's timbre is slightly poor and the key noise is loud. On the sense of touch, Yamaha electric steel is soft and far from real steel; Casio feels closer to real steel.

So choose Yamaha in tone and Casio in touch.

Never buy an electronic piano. Although it is a word difference from the electric piano, it is completely two kinds of musical instruments, because the electric piano has no sense of force, and the volume of your lightly pressed keys is the same as that of your hard pressed keys. Moreover, the electronic piano does not have a sustain pedal, but controls the volume with fingers and the sustain pedal, which is almost the whole reason why the piano is called piano (Piano is the abbreviation of pianoforte, which means "power" in Italian).

In addition, learning electronic organ is not recommended. It is just a toy, and it is also a child's toy. Any musical instrument needs control to be integrated into feelings. Wind music controls strength through breath, accordion controls strength through bellows, violin controls strength through bow and so on. Without power, the soul of music will lose half. If you have a lever, you should say that the electronic organ has a volume control knob, so do you have to grow a third hand to twist the volume knob when playing? )

If you want to learn guitar, then beginners need to buy a practice piano around 500 yuan. No matter how cheap it is, the quality is hard to guarantee. When purchasing, please pay attention to the following items:

Look at the appearance: If the color of the guitar is dark, or there are many patterns painted on the panel, be careful. Generally, this kind of guitar is covered up by the manufacturer. Half the good wood is not painted with dark paint. Choose some guitars that can see the wood grain and have guaranteed quality.

Look at the panel: Guitar is divided into three grades according to the panel: plywood, veneer and full veneer. The plywood piano is a whole piano. They are all made of composite plates. Generally, single-board pianos are solid boards with a layer of plywood on the back; The whole piano is made of solid wood. The overall single piano tone is the best, followed by the single piano tone, and the plywood piano tone is the worst. Generally, there are hexagonal accordions around 500 yuan.

Look at the chord distance: check whether the distance between chords is even and whether the distance between chords and fingerboard is appropriate. If it is too high, it will be difficult to press, and if it is too low, there will be noise. 1 The distance between the fret and the fret is about 2mm. 12 product 5-8mm. (Please help yourself to Baidu what is a "product")

Look at the workmanship: look at whether the workmanship is fine, whether there is glue at the joint, whether the neck of the piano is straight and whether there are obvious defects.

These are just some of the most basic judgment methods. Beginners had better have a knowledgeable friend to consult and reduce the probability of buying inferior piano.

How to learn?

When you buy a musical instrument, you officially start learning-it will be a journey full of difficulties and challenges, as well as fun and a sense of accomplishment.

This part, mainly taking the piano as an example, tells in detail from the aspects of mentality, teaching materials, fingering, practice time, content arrangement and so on.

psychology

You don't know if you don't learn. When you study for a period of time, you will experience a lot of "smells". There are joys and sorrows, but if you have a bad attitude, you may give up because you have experienced more hardships than pleasures.

What bad mentality is easy to produce when learning musical instruments?

Eager for success, ambitious, self-deprecating, conceited and so on.

This is due to the incorrect understanding of oneself, the learning rules of musical instruments and the music itself. How to overcome these bad mentality? Please read the author's previous article:

Portal: Those beautiful piano music 0 1 are suitable for beginners.

This paper explains in detail how to overcome bad mentality and how to keep interest.

textbook

If children learn from teachers, they will generally start with "big soup" and "small soup", and then lay a good foundation for "worship", "Cherny" and "Hanon".

Adults don't need to practice every book by themselves. Adults are easy to understand. They can only practice Baie and Cherny 599, with Hanon practicing finger flexibility in the middle.

As for how to practice, which to learn first, which to learn later, what kind of hand shape is the correct hand shape, how far each etude can practice before practicing the next one, etc., I also shared it in the previous article. You can click on the following portal to read it:

Introduction to the process of learning piano for adults (Happy Dragon Boat Festival, come on for the college entrance examination! )

Beginner piano teaching 0 1

Piano novice teaching Cherny 599

Piano novice teaching Hanon 0 1

(Note: The teaching video is attached)

Practice method

Adults have their own jobs and can only practice the piano in their spare time. Some people can spare two or three hours a day, while others can only spare half an hour a day. In any case, as long as you stick to it in the right way, you will have good results.

So what is the right way? In other words, how to make full use of the limited practice time to achieve twice the result with half the effort? This requires a reasonable arrangement of the content of practice, how much time to learn etudes and how much time to learn your favorite music, which is very particular.

On this topic, I also wrote a share and posted it below:

How to arrange the practice time reasonably

About grading examination

Adults learn piano, and there may not be many people who care about the exam. If you are a parent or friend, you may be very concerned about whether the child's exam is worthwhile and spend a lot of energy preparing for the exam. I have some ideas about this for your reference only:

Portal: Whether to take the exam or not, that's a question-about piano grading. ...

label

Learning a musical instrument, in short, is to cultivate a hobby.

But for a person's life, it is not simple. This hobby increases the energy of life and broadens the breadth of life.

A philosopher once said: Life is connection.

Therefore, life is a process of constantly expanding and strengthening our various connections with people, things and things around us. If you only care about work and money, then in other things-poetry, prose, music, art, sports, friendship, politics-you are just a dead man. And every time you add an interest, you get a new life!

In addition, learning a musical instrument is also a process of cultivating the mind.

The predecessor of the piano is called "harpsichord", which is a kind of instrument that is difficult to change the volume by force, and is little known. It was not until the Italian Bassolo O 'Christofi invented the device that the hammer bounced back after hitting the strings that a piano with controllable strength was born, named pianoforte, which means "strength". From then on, the piano became very popular and became the "king of musical instruments". It can be seen how important "strength" is to a musical instrument.

The process of practicing the piano is to feel how the "weight" of the fingers affects the strength of the sound by repeatedly tapping the keys for thousands of times, thus forming a muscle memory, and being able to do whatever you want without overstepping the bounds-the light is just right, and the heavy is just right.

"Knowing the weight" is a performer's lifelong pursuit of superb skills; For us, it is also the realm of life that we have been pursuing all our lives. ......