Wednesday OT - How musically inclined are you?
- Thread starter SaraV
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The only thing you need to know for drums is to be able to read the notes and you can get pretty far knowing a few cords for guitar. You must not had to play very hard/long music or you have an incredible memory to be able to fake something for that long.
I had an aunt who could pretty much play music by ear when she was 6, but she was eventually busted when her teacher noticed she wasn't turning pages for longer songs when she should have been. She eventually did learn when she started teaching lessons.
Took piano for 10 years but don't play anymore. My mom made it a chore rather than fun and it ruined it for me.
Was an All-State vocalist two years in high school.
We really haven't pushed our kids into music because we didn't want it to be a chore like it was for us (wife had similar musical experiences growing up.) They have picked it up on their own though and run with it. Their musical talent blows my mind.
Always wanted to learn to play guitar or even bass (my brother always complains there's a shortage of good, dedicated bass players) but I've never found the time. My wife bought me a Fender acoustic for my birthday a couple years ago and I was super excited...and promptly did nothing with it. My daughter started playing it and has been taking lessons for two years now and is getting pretty awesome on it.
Was an All-State vocalist two years in high school.
We really haven't pushed our kids into music because we didn't want it to be a chore like it was for us (wife had similar musical experiences growing up.) They have picked it up on their own though and run with it. Their musical talent blows my mind.
Always wanted to learn to play guitar or even bass (my brother always complains there's a shortage of good, dedicated bass players) but I've never found the time. My wife bought me a Fender acoustic for my birthday a couple years ago and I was super excited...and promptly did nothing with it. My daughter started playing it and has been taking lessons for two years now and is getting pretty awesome on it.
Has anyone had formal vocal training? I'm kinda curious as to whether it can help someone that isn't a competent singer stay on key, or if it is aimed more at making the good singer become a more accomplished vocalist. What ages get the most benefit?
From my experience, High school was the time that we had the group voice lessons that taught people how to sing. College was the time where they focused on singing well
I was in an audition-only choir in high school with a dedicated director. He worked with us individually on his own time, teaching breathing technique, how to produce volume without strain, how to stretch our range.
For group warmups we typically did intervals (do-mi-re-fa-mi-so, then do-fa-re-so-mi-la, etc) without accompaniment, and then he would have each section sustain a note in a chord, then say sopranos, drop a third...hold...tenors, up a fourth...hold...basses, down a fifth...etc...all sustained sound so that you could hear the newly formed chords. You'd better believe that trained our ears for blend and pitch!
I think you can help singers learn to stay on key with those types of drills...but if a person has a tin ear, ain't no amount of practice going to help that.
Personal opinion...piano lessons really help younger kids learn to read music and learn to hear if something is in or out of tune...by extension, that should help them to hear when they themselves are off-key. However, I don't know if private voice lessons are generally useful for most people before they hit puberty. I'd say high school & college are the best times to fine tune a "vocal instrument". But I'm no expert!!!
Depends on the issue. If it's a breathing support issue, then yes, it can be taught.
If it's just that you can't hear pitch well, nothing I'm aware of can be done about that.
Kinda what I was thinking. I've often wondered if not being able to find the right key is something you can't correct or if it's based on someone not having an interest in improving. I suppose it's probably both and it just depends on the person. It would be rough having a love for music and not being able to carry a note.
I was in an audition-only choir in high school with a dedicated director. He worked with us individually on his own time, teaching breathing technique, how to produce volume without strain, how to stretch our range.
For group warmups we typically did intervals (do-mi-re-fa-mi-so, then do-fa-re-so-mi-la, etc) without accompaniment, and then he would have each section sustain a note in a chord, then say sopranos, drop a third...hold...tenors, up a fourth...hold...basses, down a fifth...etc...all sustained sound so that you could hear the newly formed chords. You'd better believe that trained our ears for blend and pitch!
I think you can help singers learn to stay on key with those types of drills...but if a person has a tin ear, ain't no amount of practice going to help that.
Personal opinion...piano lessons really help younger kids learn to read music and learn to hear if something is in or out of tune...by extension, that should help them to hear when they themselves are off-key. However, I don't know if private voice lessons are generally useful for most people before they hit puberty. I'd say high school & college are the best times to fine tune a "vocal instrument". But I'm no expert!!!
I started voice lessons when I was 10, so my voice did change somewhat over the next few years (but really I just lost about 4 notes off my top range and had a more "mature" sound - not nearly the difference that a guy would go through). There was a lot of time spent focusing on how to breath, where to sing from, how to sing - fundamentals that shouldn't change over time. For me, I think I naturally had pretty good pitch - but since you're the only one singing in a solo lesson, anytime I was off, my teacher would immediately stop playing and make me redo it. She'd go over how to approach it differently, how to frame my mouth, and basically do exactly what I did, show me how it sounded, then show me how to fix it. I didn't have individual lessons after I got to college, but I would assume from my experience in the choir there that they focus more on honing your technique at that point.
Your tin ear comment makes me laugh. There was one guy in the choir that had a token line in the musical. But good Lord, he was so off every time. One time, the teacher had him come down to the piano, and she note by note plunked out his line and wanted him to sing it back. She'd play one note, he'd hum back something that was a solid three notes off. Absolutely the definition of tone deaf!
Another former ISUCF"V"MB alum here. Last I knew there wasn't a JV squad. I had 3 of the best trombone instructors you could ask for. I would rate myself above average, but I never could figure out how to improvise an impressive solo in Jazz Band, & I'm jealous of people who can. I've always felt as though I was fighting the instrument, whereas for others it just seems to come naturally- like for the folks who can fake their way through years of piano lessons without learning to read music (Eddie Van Halen is a famous example). It took me about 14 years to finally figure out how to slap "Higher Ground" on the bass.
I enjoy composing tunes on Fruity Loops. No instrument fighting involved.
I enjoy composing tunes on Fruity Loops. No instrument fighting involved.
I feel sorry for tone deaf folks- were you discouraged from singing at a young age? I thank my parents regularly for always having the radio blasting when I was a child.
I have good pitch and have always loved to sing. I was just wondering if anyone ever knew of a person that couldn't find the right key for most of their life and had that changed through vocal lessons. It just seems like people get content with not feeling like they can sing. I just didn't know if something like that was truly correctable.
Mini rant: I have a lot of audio-related pet peeves, but I absolutely can't stand someone that intentionally sings off-key and thinks it's funny. I've heard/seen it on a lot of shows and movies over the years and I just don't get it when people laugh at it......and I laugh at a lotta dumb ****
Sometimes it's a plot device...Cameron Diaz singing Karaoke in "My Best Friend's Wedding", for example. But I'm with you...it seriously hurts my ears when people or instruments are off-key. And as discussed in a previous thread...I CANNOT clap in time with the music if the people around me are off the beat. The ISU fight song is one of the most obnoxious for that...it's like the people clapping are racing with the pep-band. AARRGGHH!!!
lol, my husband hated that same thing at games. They just keep going faster and faster.
old people love clapping on the on beat. it's like after turning 50 they no longer what an off beat is. the only time that has ever sounded good (and it still sounds half bad) is on that one Cars song.
I have a pretty fine-tuned sense of pitch and it really bothers me as well. My family still watches American Idol and they'll hear someone and think they're great and I'm like can you not hear that she's off-pitch (like the girl last night who sang sharp the whole song.) It's like nails on a chalkboard.
