Two people self teaching themselves an instrument.

[Chino]

Quick back story. I picked up a bass a few years ago and played it quite a bit. Never learned to read music, but I had a pretty good ear and great timing. Tabs were always enough to get by.


I bought my girlfriend and I each a violin as we were both interested in playing. I like learning it, but given our schedules and when we are both at the house, we end up 'practicing' together. By practicing, I mean spending 10+ minutes trying to get our things in tune (they aren't the greatest instruments quality wise), and then trying to do the same basic exercises until we both just can't stand it anymore.

I'm finding it damn near impossible to learn this instrument alongside someone else who is also learning. I feel like I get more done in 10 minutes on my own than in an hour of trying to practice together. We'll try to do a simple excessive like playing each string open four times and moving on to the next. I turn on a metronome and whenever the two of us are playing at once, I lose all ambition to try and play. I find playing alongside someone else to be a choir. The combined volume of both instruments drown out the metronome, and the fact that we both suck makes it really hard to play to simplest of counts.

I guess my question is, is it typically harder to learn when you're learning alongside someone else? I can't imagine being a music instructor and having a dozen or so kids all playing like shit.

[Implode]

I find that in the act of practicing, I agree with you. It's easier to go at my own pace without having to worry about how I sound to other people. At the same time, and this goes for more than just learning an instrument, having a friend that's also learning something I am helps with motivation greatly. It's great to talk about each others' progress and motivate each other to keep practicing and getting better.

[Mosh]

I self taught for the first 5 or 6 years and then got a formal teacher in High School. Different methods work for different people of course but at some point you're going to need someone who is experienced to work with you closely. There's also a much higher risk of developing bad habits with self teaching.

[Stadler]

Plus, I find it's one thing to "play a song all the way through" and it's an entirely different thing to play a song all the way through with someone else (or a whole band).   

[Kotowboy]

They self taught THEMSELVES?? WOw Geniuses!

[rumborak]

At the beginning learning an instrument is 90% you trying to beat the instrument into submission to make it do what you want it to do. That is just you struggling with the thing, nobody can really help you with that. It's just like skiing; somebody can show you how *they* do it, but in the end it's you who has to sit on the butt a lot until you get the balance right.

Even worse so, people learn at vastly different speeds, so both sides will become frustrated, one for watching the other get so good so fast, the other for feeling slowed down.

[Stadler]

I think a better approach would be something akin to a DNA helix... some time apart to get things under your fingers, then come together to vet what you've done.  Then go back alone to work on sticking points, then come together to compare notes.  Then go back, then come together... 

That's how I progressed in my band in Philly, but I get that may not work for everyone (especially if one person progresses much faster in their alone time). 

[rumborak]

I think a better approach would be something akin to a DNA helix... some time apart to get things under your fingers, then come together to vet what you've done.  Then go back alone to work on sticking points, then come together to compare notes.  Then go back, then come together... 

Just to give you crap about the analogy, you do realize that the two strands of the DNA helix never meet, right?