[kstenerud]

My parents forced me to play piano, right up until I told them that I'll destroy our piano if they don't lay off, and any consequences they could think of would not stop me (I was normally an obedient child, but enough was enough).

That got their attention.

30 years later I picked up classical guitar and loved it! Do I thank my parents for forcing the piano on me? Hell no.

[cpursley]

Like I commented in another post, piano gave you the foundation for learning classical guitar (and appreciating that genre of music). Very few guitar players can even recognize note names on a staff. You’re not going to get far with classical guitar without it.

[danenania]

Unless you plan to be a professional musician, why does it matter if you “get far”? Isn’t it supposed to be for fun?

[alabastervlog]

That was ironic understatement. With classical guitar, you won’t really get anywhere without being able to read sheet music. It’s not like rock and pop guitar where you can just learn tabs and slightly develop your ear and that’s enough play along with all your favorite tunes.

If you’ve already picked up reading music for one instrument, it’s a ton easier for the next one.

[ctxc]

You need to "get far" enough for it to be fun.

You want to have fun playing along to your favourite song. Or impromptu jam with a friend. Or sing for yourself because a song reminds you of a memory.

They all have a minimum skill requirement, without which it isn't as enjoyable. You need to know to play reasonably well by ear to have fun imo.

[danenania]

Sure, those are definitely fun things to be able to do, but it’s not some kind of essential life skill. If it’s not someone’s thing, why force it? There are plenty of other skills that are also fun to have.

[ctxc]

I mean, fair enough. I had an aptitude for it. If you're able to figure out what skills they might have fun with in the future, that's excellent. If not - I'm not sure, you gotta shoot your shot I guess? Because the dislike might be for the process (practice) when they actually would like the end product (jamming)

I just had a kid so this is pretty real to me. How it will go is anybody's guess, but I hope it does go well :)

[danenania]

Congrats!!

I guess I believe more in the Montessori idea that kids are intrinsically motivated to learn and excel, and they will tend to be naturally drawn to work hard at the skills that they are best suited for.

I understand the idea that some skills have a hump to get over and it’s good to encourage that determination, but I’d also guess that for every person like you who is glad they were pushed to learn some particular skill, there is another person who it affected very negatively. So I suppose it’s a bit of a gamble in that sense.

[cpursley]

Because eventually you plateau without proper foundations, and that's not fun.

[barry-cotter]

> Because eventually you plateau without proper foundations, and that's not fun.

This is a completely alien perspective to most people. Most people never even really try to be good at anything. That you think this quirk of your own psychology is the norm shows a deep disconnect with the mass of mediocre people who don’t care about being competitive because they’re not trying to get highs up on some leaderboard. https://danluu.com/p95-skill/

[danenania]

Does it matter if you “plateau” at a hobby? I have lots of hobbies and skills I’ve learned then plateaued at. It doesn’t bother me in the least.

[cpursley]

Yes, it’s been very frustrating because there’s things (songs, techniques) that are beyond my reach at the moment due to large gaps.

[danenania]

I get that. It’s satisfying to overcome those hurdles and frustrating to be blocked. Speaking for myself though, if I find I’m getting really frustrated by something that I’m supposedly doing for fun, it’s a sign that I might not be approaching it in the best way psychologically. I’m usually much happier when I try to have more of a zen ‘putting in the reps’ mindset. Then the periods of progress are like icing on the cake, not something I need to enjoy the thing.

[kstenerud]

It's not like learning to sight read is a "piano only" skill...

In fact, I never actually learned to sight read until I started on guitar. All I remembered from the old days was "all cows eat grass"

[cpursley]

Learning sight reading is the most natural on piano like instruments. The notes are literally arranged in the same order. Stringed instruments are much more difficult to learn sight reading from scratch on.

[kstenerud]

That's an odd take. Sight reading is about associating the mark on the paper with the actual note, duration, style etc. How that note gets played on a particular instrument is a different matter.

[jalapenos]

Can learn the foundations when you give a shit.

Doesn't actually matter how good he gets at classical guitar either.

[Magma7404]

> piano gave you the foundation for learning classical guitar

Absolutely not. If you hate something and don't learn anything more that entry level, it won't give you any foundation, only hatred and bitterness. Also the piano and the guitar are very different beasts that you cannot compare at all.

[toast0]

The piano and the guitar are different in many ways, but they also have some similarities depending on how you play them.

Mechanically, sure, nothing transfers. Rhythm transfers pretty well. An ear for what sounds right would too.

If you're reading printed music, that transfers. A lot of guitar play comes from tabs though, which isn't really transferrable.

If you play chords on the piano and the guitar, and especially if you're thinking about chord progressions, that transfers. But you might play either instrument without a lot of chords.

Lead melody kinds of things can transfer a bit. Especially if you were thinking about how the notes in the melody fit with the chords, even if you didn't play the chords.

Even if you didn't think you were learning music fundamentals, you might have picked up something.

[hilbert42]

Your experience is the antithesis of mine, I wonder why people are so different.