Current Events > The whole ''Asian kid and needing them to play an old-timey instrument'' thing.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like piano or violin. Where did that even come from, and why?

Children who play instruments at a young tend to do better in school.

The piano is easiest to learn when your 4-5 and I think string instruments at 7-9

alimajor posted...

Children who play instruments at a young tend to do better in school.

The piano is easiest to learn when your 4-5 and I think string instruments at 7-9

That's exactly the age I learned to play those. Stopped both at around 15 though.
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Old-timey? Jesus Christ....
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As opposed to what new-timey instruments?

specialkid8 posted...

As opposed to what new-timey instruments?

Synth?

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Learning an instrument teaches you a lot of life skills like patience, discipline, coordination and not immediately quitting things just because they are hard and you are getting frustrated.

specialkid8 posted...

As opposed to what new-timey instruments?

guitar
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ArchiePeck posted...

Learning an instrument teaches you a lot of life skills like patience, discipline, coordination and not immediately quitting things just because they are hard and you are getting frustrated.

so do fighting games but people don't force their children to learn those
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Jerry_Hellyeah posted...

Old-timey? Jesus Christ....

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Choco posted...

specialkid8 posted...

As opposed to what new-timey instruments?

guitar

the guitar has existed in its current form... about as long as the piano has
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averagejoel posted...

Choco posted...

specialkid8 posted...

As opposed to what new-timey instruments?

guitar

the guitar has existed in its current form... about as long as the piano has

how many classical pieces of music use a guitar? checkmate
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alimajor posted...

The piano is easiest to learn when your 4-5 and I think string instruments at 7-9

Is piano easier to learn than violin? I started violin much younger than I did piano. I think "reading music" is much more central to piano (at beginner levels), whereas the common violin pedagogy, the Suzuki method, starts with a lot of rote memorization of songs.

Each approach has its own pros and cons, but it means that I can play almost every violin piece by memory I learned growing up whereas piano not nearly to that extent.
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Choco posted...

averagejoel posted...

Choco posted...

specialkid8 posted...

As opposed to what new-timey instruments?

guitar

the guitar has existed in its current form... about as long as the piano has

how many classical pieces of music use a guitar? checkmate

there are many, many pieces written for classical guitar. lol
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averagejoel posted...

Choco posted...

averagejoel posted...

Choco posted...

specialkid8 posted...

As opposed to what new-timey instruments?

guitar

the guitar has existed in its current form... about as long as the piano has

how many classical pieces of music use a guitar? checkmate

there are many, many pieces written for classical guitar. lol

:( okay
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Anteaterking posted...

alimajor posted...

The piano is easiest to learn when your 4-5 and I think string instruments at 7-9

Is piano easier to learn than violin? I started violin much younger than I did piano. I think "reading music" is much more central to piano (at beginner levels), whereas the common violin pedagogy, the Suzuki method, starts with a lot of rote memorization of songs.

Each approach has its own pros and cons, but it means that I can play almost every violin piece by memory I learned growing up whereas piano not nearly to that extent.

I conceptualize the pitched instrument on a spectrum. at one end, you have the piano and other keyboard instruments: they're very visual, very tactile, very concrete. everything is laid out in front of you, you make a sound by pressing a key, and you could, in theory, become a skilled pianist without developing your ears at all.

at the other end, you have the voice. there are no visual or tactile cues. it's entirely auditory, and the way the sound gets produced is much more abstract.

every pitched instrument falls somewhere on that spectrum: fretted string instruments are close to the keyboard end of things, non-fretted a little farther away, woodwinds farther away still, brass instruments closer to the Voice end

it's not that they're necessarily easier or harder to learn (though the very basic technique of producing a sound gets more difficult the farther you get from the keyboard side), they're just more abstract
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averagejoel posted...

I conceptualize the pitched instrument on a spectrum. at one end, you have the piano and other keyboard instruments: they're very visual, very tactile, very concrete. everything is laid out in front of you, you make a sound by pressing a key, and you could, in theory, become a skilled pianist without developing your ears at all.

at the other end, you have the voice. there are no visual or tactile cues. it's entirely auditory, and the way the sound gets produced is much more abstract.

every pitched instrument falls somewhere on that spectrum: fretted string instruments are close to the keyboard end of things, non-fretted a little farther away, woodwinds farther away still, brass instruments closer to the Voice end

it's not that they're necessarily easier or harder to learn (though the very basic technique of producing a sound gets more difficult the farther you get from the keyboard side), they're just more abstract

I guess easier to learn is the wrong thing to say anyway. I really mean which one do people start their kids on younger.
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Anteaterking posted...

I guess easier to learn is the wrong thing to say anyway. I really mean which one do people start their kids on younger.

the age at which people start is irrelevant to the nature of the instruments themselves

but the most common instruments that people start playing really young are piano and violin. at least within the context of western music
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Gonna get my daughter on the octobass

You know, stuff like this can grow without anybody really being at fault.

A kid's movie centers on a little league baseball team. A memorable side character is Asian. Another kid's movie decides to copy this by having an Asian friend who likes baseball even though this movie doesn't center around baseball. Then a show with a teen cast has the Asian guy who likes baseball. And it gets repeated again and again because writers and directors continue to play Follow the Leader.

First, it becomes a stereotype.
Then it becomes an offensive stereotype.
Then any movie or show with an Asian guy who likes baseball is retroactively demonized.

I wouldn't be surprised if movies or TV shows started having Asian students knock old instruments before playing the most trendy form of electronic instrumentation possible. That seems like something hack writers would come up with when they think they're being empowering and subverting stereotypes.