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autotelica t1_iy0qsnn wrote

In my experience, learning how to play a musical instrument tends to work better when you are learning to play songs that you really like. Which are probably NOT the nursery rhyme melodies that you learn in formal lessons. Honestly I think that I probably would have stuck with the private piano lessons I took when I was nine years old if I had started off learning to play simple arrangements of my favorite pop songs than the boring "baby" songs I was forced to practice on. To be fair, the boring baby songs did teach me the fundamentals. But they didn't keep the passion going.

I think adults who are exploring a musical instrument would do well to get started by learning chords or melodies from their favorite songs. Being able to play a recognizable tune is so encouraging, and you need all the encouragement you can get when you don't have someone like a parent or a teacher nagging at you to practice.

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Telkhine_ OP t1_iy0w80v wrote

Yea this exactly

Also just out of curiosity did you ever get back to piano?

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autotelica t1_iy10p41 wrote

Yes! I returned to it in my mid-20s when I was procrastinating writing my dissertation. The first song I taught myself to play was Madonna's Borderline. I did it by taking a midi file from the internet and used musical notation software to spit out a score of all the parts. Then I was able to cobble together an arrangement that captured the essence of the song without being too difficult for a newbie.

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Telkhine_ OP t1_iy1rgyp wrote

Hey that’s awesome I’m glad to hear it, bet that also sounded amazing

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davereit t1_iy4gotq wrote

But the “boring baby songs” are public domain and can be included without paying royalties and don’t require anybody to compose new, potentially more interesting tunes.

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