I truly hope you’re correct. Nice to hear you being positive and optimistic. Its so easy to get down in this world of fakes.
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As long as idiots pay their money they will continue to churn out rubbish with a single beat a phrase or tag line that repeats. The money men took over the music industry and they were not prepared for social media where people could put out their own music. Also Simon Cowell and his dreadful Britains got talent and it’s world wide appeal to said Idiots will continue to ruin the hopes of any talented people coming through
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I used buy demo tapes or CDs of bands at gigs when i was younger, these days I get almost all music on Bandcamp which to me is kind of the digital age version of the same thing. Yes you have to do some searching (and not everything is great) but on the other hand it is 99% people trying their best and not what’s being pushed on you for money.
I disagree. Music is like sex. Sure it sells, it can even be capitalized. But at the end of the day it has universal appeal.
Like pizza, even when it is bad, it is still pretty good. But the major Pizza chains had it all zipped up…until they didn’t. Now every mid-size town has artisanal pizza joints.
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Wages are being suppressed globally and that trend will continue. Low cost instruments will increase in popularity over time.
Yup. that was a factor in me getting started with the harmonica some 6+ months ago. Little did I suspect then that I’d want more and more keys and that harmonicas wear out n’ stuff and that as your tastes get more refined so do the prices. that’s how “big harp” gets you!
People’s time is increasingly robbed by work and addictive media. As a result, they won’t have time to sit down and practice an instrument. Therefore, instruments you can practice on the go become more practical.
This is only if you use a car and have privacy. For example here if I were to whip out and start practicing my bends in a marshrutka, well nothing would happen because I wouldn’t do that in the first place lol. I can see a stage when I’m “really good” when I might attempt playing a bit on a bus stop, but that’s a long way off.
A revolt against AI-generated music is coming. 5 years, I’ll wager.
Boycotts rarely work. I think the market will become even more segmented.
Already, around 5o% of the stuff I listen to is AI-generated, and some tracks I like so much that I come back to them months later. If anything, AI will get even better, and I can’t wait for new episodes of old television shows to begin popping up.
Also, I think that just to the sheer amount of people in the world, the “total amount” of harmonica players will increase as more and more people get out of poverty and begin looking for hobbies. (“I’m looking at you Haiti”).
Growing the concept of mentorship and teaching as the normal route. The “learn on your own” tradition shoots everybody in the foot.
Lots to unpack here, not that I’m someone experienced (heck, I learnt to truly bend just this week). If the statement were more categorical like “ADHD people shouldn’t just rely on youtube tutorials to learn licks” I’d agree, but I took the approach of taking a single youtube video (for example, Luke’s amazing “happy birthday” video and also the one where he went all “ta takata kata taka ta”) and would just practice it for weeks, along with asking for advice here. I definitely benefited multiple times from people telling me I was doing something wrong (something simple like, I’d play happy birthday 1 note to the left and didn’t understand why it sounded wrong). And now, 6 months in I’m also beginning to understand the value of “structured” practice as well - it can either be the harmonica.com course or any of the “harmonica exercise book+DVD” combos - the biggest problem with those usually is that they use older/non standard notation (up/down arrows? yuck!) so it can take some searching to find the correct one OR just use the harmonica.com course which I haven’t tried but looking at the curriculum it looks great.
Fantastic that you are getting into the structured learning experiences - it is a step in best direction!
Concerning what is most effective, from experience, I also learned harmonica from YouTube videos on my own when YouTube came out. Did that and learned to play pretty well by doing so. Then 2-3 years ago I started taking lessons. The impact is MASSIVE. Learning on your own will 100% of the time make you learn slower. I stopped for a time, and then restarted here a few months ago. Again, massive gains in shorter time than on my own. And that is coming from someone who was already a musician! lol.
This does not mean that learning from videos is bad. It just means it is far less effective than individualized feedback that comes from an experienced teacher you build a relationship with. YouTube videos are amazing for (1) Building interest, (2) acquiring a wide range of perspectives on a topics, (3) Obtaining guidance on a specific topic that is otherwise unavailable. It can be used a substitute for lessons, but it is a poor one.
I also happen to be an expert in learning and instruction. I spent 6 years as a learning science & instructional systems researcher, giving me the benefit of about 80 hours a week studying the research of people who dedicated their lives to the question “How do we design learning & instruction to get the best result?”
The very first thing you learn in this field is that no form of instruction is as effective as well-structured practice and regular 1:1 feedback from a skilled instructor that has a well-structured curriculum. This is true for all domains, but ESPECIALLY true for the development of physical skills. Nothing else even comes close. But it can’t be reproduced at scale. Therefore, we have other instructional designs.
Each time new technologies emerge, one of the first goals is always tackle that scale problem (e.g., can we get closer to the effectiveness of teachers without teachers?). Every time there is a hype cycle followed by the reality of results that become apparent when you actually measure in a valid way. You might remember 10 years ago, Time magazine had on the cover something like “will we even need teachers anymore?” We are going to see the same thing with AI, which is more promising, but ultimately will fail to produce learning gains as effectively as instructors.
I also spent 10 years teaching band and orchestra. 100% of the students who took private lessons on their instrument significantly outperformed the other students who did not, even the talented ones.
So yes! I encourage everyone to seek out an instructor, even if the lesson is done remotely using video conference tech.
Aside from learning effectiveness, it also pulls you into a network in a very real way.
Personally, I view online resources as exactly that - good resources that are fantastic to have. But it should probably be a supplement to having a good teacher, rather than a replacement.
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thanks for the detailed account of your experiences! I think, once I eventually hit a planeau getting “one-on-one” advice will be the thing to do
Bnt
That is just what I am doing. If i get 20 more good ears out of my ticker I may be able to ,play my five favored tunes right
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