The Beginning is the Hardest Part
Just to show you what I fanatic I am about Irish Music, I'm making my 10 year old son take fiddle lessons from a player in the area. Now, before you go calling me a pushy Dad, my son did actually tell me he was interested in learning - in fact, it was his idea initially. I just encouraged the hell out of it. We made a deal - give it his best for one full year and after that, if he wanted to quit, I'd let him with no arguments. But we had to give it at least a year to give him a fair chance to see if he liked it or not.
We started in late August, right about the time school started. At first, he was very excited - he couldn't wait to pound out the tunes. That lasted about one week. After that, he started complaining when I made him practice (only 10 minutes a day). Then he started dreading the once-a-week lessons.
It was very hard for him. The first instrument he was trying to learn was a hard one. His fingers had to do all sorts of hard things, his arms got tired moving the bow, he couldn't get good sounds to come out - he was incredible frustrated. He desperately wanted to stop: "Maybe I could learn the whistle like you, Dad - please?" Nope. He loved the sound the fiddle makes, he was drawn to it - inside he really wanted to play it - that's why he picked it. He never loved the whistle. I firmly believe that you should play only what you love - what speaks to you.
Well, we plodded along like this for four months. He wasn't practicing much, he wasn't having much fun, so I let him slack off his practice. He was only practicing for 10 minutes about twice a week with a lesson once a week on Sundays. His teacher had given him The Boholla Jig and he was just plucking the notes like you would a banjo so that he could get the fingering right. By the end of December, he could pluck the entire tune and keep a pretty good rhythm - I played along on the whistle.
We had a lesson last Sunday and he plodded through it like he always does. He makes it seem like so much work and he seemed so unhappy that I was ready to give in and let him quit if he wanted to. The problem is, he's actually pretty quick for a guy his age. He has good rhythm, can tell if a note is off, etc - he has it in him to be a pretty good player if he wanted to be.
Then came tonight. I was upstairs fixing some stupid-ass computer problem on our network and I heard The Boholla Jig coming from downstairs. At first, I thought it was the recording of his teacher on the tape, but I came downstairs and there he was BOWING THE TUNE LIKE HE HAD BEEN PLAYING FOREVER!!!!!
He hated using the bow - he preferred plucking because it was easy. His teacher had been working hard on his bow-grip and he said it was always uncomfortable - so he hated the bow.
I couldn't believe my ears. I was so happy. I asked why he decided to do that and he said, "I dunno, I just thought I could do it."
He played for a half an hour straight and he had a great big smile on his face - he was having fun. This is what he had in mind when he said he wanted to play the fiddle. His first plateau.
Even though he was only practicing a couple of days a week for about 10 minutes, his brain was still working on the tune and the muscle memory was being developed for the bow grip. Then, one day, it all clicked and out came the tune.
The time when you're first starting out to play an instrument is the most frustrating - this is when you're most likely to quit. Everything is hard, muscles hurt and cramp up and you can't make a good sound to save your life. You hate the way things sound - this isn't what you signed up for. You don't sound like Liam O' Flynn so you're ready to quit (oh wait, that's me, not you - sorry).
You have to remember that everybody sucks at first. Everyone sounded like shit at the beginning (well, maybe not Liam O' Flynn). Stick with it - push past the beginning frustration - keep telling yourself it's only temporary because it is. That is a fact.
You will get better, I promise. Will you be great? I can't answer that but here are some of my thoughts on the matter.
Once you get past that first hurdle, you'll begin to have fun. When it happens depends on the person, for my son it was four months. For me on the whistle, about two months - on the pipes about six months.
I think my son's gonna stick with it now. You do the same.
We started in late August, right about the time school started. At first, he was very excited - he couldn't wait to pound out the tunes. That lasted about one week. After that, he started complaining when I made him practice (only 10 minutes a day). Then he started dreading the once-a-week lessons.
It was very hard for him. The first instrument he was trying to learn was a hard one. His fingers had to do all sorts of hard things, his arms got tired moving the bow, he couldn't get good sounds to come out - he was incredible frustrated. He desperately wanted to stop: "Maybe I could learn the whistle like you, Dad - please?" Nope. He loved the sound the fiddle makes, he was drawn to it - inside he really wanted to play it - that's why he picked it. He never loved the whistle. I firmly believe that you should play only what you love - what speaks to you.
Well, we plodded along like this for four months. He wasn't practicing much, he wasn't having much fun, so I let him slack off his practice. He was only practicing for 10 minutes about twice a week with a lesson once a week on Sundays. His teacher had given him The Boholla Jig and he was just plucking the notes like you would a banjo so that he could get the fingering right. By the end of December, he could pluck the entire tune and keep a pretty good rhythm - I played along on the whistle.
We had a lesson last Sunday and he plodded through it like he always does. He makes it seem like so much work and he seemed so unhappy that I was ready to give in and let him quit if he wanted to. The problem is, he's actually pretty quick for a guy his age. He has good rhythm, can tell if a note is off, etc - he has it in him to be a pretty good player if he wanted to be.
Then came tonight. I was upstairs fixing some stupid-ass computer problem on our network and I heard The Boholla Jig coming from downstairs. At first, I thought it was the recording of his teacher on the tape, but I came downstairs and there he was BOWING THE TUNE LIKE HE HAD BEEN PLAYING FOREVER!!!!!
He hated using the bow - he preferred plucking because it was easy. His teacher had been working hard on his bow-grip and he said it was always uncomfortable - so he hated the bow.
I couldn't believe my ears. I was so happy. I asked why he decided to do that and he said, "I dunno, I just thought I could do it."
He played for a half an hour straight and he had a great big smile on his face - he was having fun. This is what he had in mind when he said he wanted to play the fiddle. His first plateau.
Even though he was only practicing a couple of days a week for about 10 minutes, his brain was still working on the tune and the muscle memory was being developed for the bow grip. Then, one day, it all clicked and out came the tune.
The time when you're first starting out to play an instrument is the most frustrating - this is when you're most likely to quit. Everything is hard, muscles hurt and cramp up and you can't make a good sound to save your life. You hate the way things sound - this isn't what you signed up for. You don't sound like Liam O' Flynn so you're ready to quit (oh wait, that's me, not you - sorry).
You have to remember that everybody sucks at first. Everyone sounded like shit at the beginning (well, maybe not Liam O' Flynn). Stick with it - push past the beginning frustration - keep telling yourself it's only temporary because it is. That is a fact.
You will get better, I promise. Will you be great? I can't answer that but here are some of my thoughts on the matter.
Once you get past that first hurdle, you'll begin to have fun. When it happens depends on the person, for my son it was four months. For me on the whistle, about two months - on the pipes about six months.
I think my son's gonna stick with it now. You do the same.
posted by Tony Darnell | 9:58 PM
2 Comments:
once you become 'one' with the instrument, it's all downhill from there until the ornamentiation kicks in =)
what you said: "I firmly believe that you should play only what you love - what speaks to you." is very, very true...i tried the fiddle, loved the sound but not as much as the flute. but no matter how hard i tried, my soul just wasn't in it and i couldn't get past point A.
but now i'm happy whistlin' and tootin away =)
somewhere in asia,
me =)
My parents never pushed me to play an instrument of any sort. I wish they had but we could not afford to buy anything and there were none in the family. I have gradually managed to squeeze music out of a whistle, harmonica, western guitar and sometimes when I'm in the mood, the piano. Nowadays you can hire instruments from school and you are any good then you start saving....by the way, if you like the pipes, have you heard Davy Spillane (you must have) bending them? Or Patrick Street, (fiddle, accordian, bazouki and mandolin) really good . Take a look here http://www.shamrockirishmusic.org/id69.htm
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