Self taught, or not?

[ImNotIrish]

I'm curious.... how many of you are actually self-taught? I began on whistle, as I suppose many others have. For years I struggled through sheet music and tapes, but never really took any formal lessons. After a decade or so, I attended a few workshops with the likes of Kevin Crawford, Paul McGratten, Jean Michel Vellion, and Chris Norman. But this was many, many years after I had taught my self to play. So, are you one of those that struggled through countless hours of anguish, or did you realize early on that it's was better to have a little guidance?

Arbo

[Loren]

It didn't take me long to figure out that I needed help, in a big way, however there really wasn't any good instruction available where I was living when I first got interested in ITM.

Fortunately I eventually moved to one of the Irish Music hubs of the U.S., found myself a really fantastic teacher, and started practicing 2 hours a day. I started improving significantly.

The bad news is that all the practicing gave me a wicked case of Carpel Tunnel like symptoms and debilitating pain, which put me out of flute playing commission for a year and a half. It's always something......

A good teacher can make all the difference, absolutely.


Loren

[Jayhawk]

I struggled on my own for about 5 & 1/2 years, but started taking lessons last August (monthly hour long lessons)...and I've progressed much more in the past 1/2 year than I would have had I continued to try to teach myself.

Unfortunately, I'm a pile of bad habits that I need to break to get to where I want to be...but those years struggling alone sure taught me a lot about perseverance.

Eric

[Gabriel]

I took two formal lessons (each around 3 hours long) and attended a five-day workshop with the same teacher so far. Even though that doesn't sound like much, I actually think that those relatively few lessons improved my playing alot, not only technique-wise, but especially regarding tone and general style. It is certainly possible that the same could have been accomplished without any guidance and just by listening and trial-and-error, but it was so much easier the other way...

[Ronbo]

I am self-taught. And it shows. Most of what I have learned is from listening to others and to recordings of one sort or another. I know I need help on various facets of playing, but there are almost no teachers of irish flute in my area, and only one guy who will admit to teaching whistle. Instead of crans, rolls, cuts, taps, etc, I play "fakeys", barely good enough to squeak by.

Oops. I forgot I took a few lessons when I first started. All the teacher wanted to do was "slow airs", and "be expressive". Huh? Hell, I could hardly hold a flute, how was I going to be expressive? I expressed discontent and "aired" out of there. Really, really strange atmosphere there.

[peeplj]

For those who don't live within reach of a good teacher, if Harry Bradley is still doing his "distance lessons," he is someone who can definitely help set you on the right path.

--James

[ImNotIrish]

Thanks James, but I really wanted to hear from people who are self taught and reflecting on that. I think people know where to go for online help... at least those who have been participating here.
Arbo

[jiminos]

i guess you could say i am self taught/teaching (it being an on going process.)

my ma thought it would be a good thing fo rme to learn music as a child. so i learned clarinet (what a horrid instrument) in school band. i learned the fundamentals of reading music there, but fought it intensely the entire time. i took what i learned there and taught my self guitar. almost forty years later, i still make a living with the guitar.

i am now using the previous experiences to teach myself both modern keyless and boehm flute. and to add to the challenge, i am re-learning to read music. my goal is to be able to sight read again. my goal is to be better this time around in one year than i was after quitting the school band program after six years. time truly will tell.

like others who have posted here, there are no teachers here abouts. if i want to learn, the only way is to just figure it out. thank goodness for a good "musical" ear. i listen to the people playing ITM and think to myself, "dang, their hands are fast!" i may eventually learn to play the reels, jigs, slipjigs, hornpipes and the like, but mostly i want to learn for the airs.

be well,

jim

[Rob Sharer]

Self-taught here. And by self-taught, I mean I taught myself to pay very close attention every time I was fortunate enough to be in the presence of a great player. We're all self-taught, really; it's the time you spend alone with your instrument that moves you forward. Some need more explicit guidance than others, but the hard work happens between lessons. Cheers,

Rob

[Liney Bear]

Another one for self taught. Never taken any formal lessons, although I've taken Eamonn Cotter's class before at Willie Clancy week, but, like Rob, I've mainly paid very careful attention to outstanding players.

Gordon

[jemtheflute]

Also "self-taught" - started Boehm flute late at 17 (now 49) (had had a disastrous go at piano for about a year and a half aged 10-11 - got nowhere and was put off trying to play music as a result, though that experience did give me the bones of musical literacy that came in handy later) and had precisely 12 starter classical lessons over about 6 months. Left home and went to Uni where I tried to get lessons but, as a non music student, couldn't. Then no flute-specific or formal teaching whatever until much, much later when I got to attend some workshops etc. at festivals.

As well as doing much as others here describe, learning from listening to recordings of good players (and not just of flutes - Planxty were probably my biggest influence) etc., I also did quite a bit of reading (Quantz, Boehm, Rockstro, Bate et al.) about all kinds of flute playing as well as about flute history and technical stuff, and I always tried to play bits of Baroque music from the dots because I loved listening to it and enjoyed doing so. Probably most importantly, however, I was fortunate to spend several years early in my playing development in the close company (band and social) of some much more accomplished (than I was at the time) players of other instruments who encouraged and guided me and gave me things (contextually, if not formally) to try to achieve musically which challenged me and pushed/led me onwards. That was a major formative experience, without which I doubt I would have ended up considering myself to be a musician as such.

Choosing to change to simple system 8-key flute after about 5 years on Boehm was a significant step that required quite a bit of deliberate learning and practise, especially as my first 8-key flute (an 1820s small-holed Monzani) was rather "challenging" and absolutely required correct key venting. The fact that I sought to play Baroque and Classical stuff on it as well as folk music, albeit it at an untutored, amateur level, and to transfer much of my exisiting repertory in both fields of music, was doubtless significant.

Since then I have just played, always absorbing and learning from whatever musicians I happen to be around or listening to in recordings, developing and improving organically for the most part, only occasionally and piece-meal specifically seeking to move up a gear technically and working to do so, usually because I need to for some external purpose rather than from internal ambition to improve (not strong on that one!). Doubtless I would have progressed much further much faster had suitable teaching been available to me at various times, and also if I was more dedicated to serious general self-improvement. I've never been a "for the sake of it" practiser. I just work on the specific challenges of the moment when they arise, for the most part.

[connie]

Also self-taught playing for about 7-8 years.I got stuck in a rut for 3-4 years in the middle where lessons would have helped alot.

I was obsessed with learning tunes so I could play in sessions. Which resulted in me learning lots of tunes without taking the time to learn them properly or concentrating on other aspects of playing such as tone, phrasing and technique.

Sloppy playing will only get you so far I found. I am spending more time these days practising the other aspects of playing that I neglected and less time on tunes.

[crookedtune]

Self-taught here, too. I had a few guitar lessons as a kid, and then picked it up with a vengeance in college. After that it was a steady progression of banjos, mandolins, fiddles and eventually flute and whistle.

I haven't done any flute or whistle workshops, but I can see that it would have shortened the path if I had. Mostly I just learned by finding other musicians wherever I happened to be.....and being tenacious!

[smoro]

Self-taugh. 17 years.
S.

[mutepointe]

Informally taught by family members and others along the way on piano and guitar, then self-taught on harmonica, whistle, irish flute, silver flute, and am now trying fife and concertina. I'm not trying to achieve a specific sound (like ITM.)

If a person were trying to achieve a certain sound or skill profeciency, I'd recommend lessons.