Where do you stand now on your skills at your musical instrument?

Adequate

>>69734619
valley of despair
i've been there for 3 years

well underneath the peak of stupidity. You'd have to be a real dick to consider yourself good at piano at my level, but I can play pretty convincingly for the average listener

valley of despair

my instrument is my mouth and my subject is imitation bird calls via whistling

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>>69734619
Really shitty, but I'm just starting.

>>69734663

Just remember once you start getting confident, it's when you are at your most shittiest stage and you would have to start all over again. But this time, you will finally learn to be humble.

I'm a professional music producer. If I ever get out of the valley of despair I'll let you know.

>>69734619
>>69734619
alley of despair

And that's where I'll stay

im at know-nothing

>>69735073
this.

>taking the time to become a "guru"
>not wanting to die before you turn 30

>>69735029
Why

Every producer I've met/worked with has been really chilled out

Enjoying the cold and clear air while trekking up the slopes of Mt. Stupid

started guitar like a month ago pham

I'm long past the plateau of sustainability, hanging over the precipice of immortality that a select few other visionary musical savants such as Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain once peered down.

>>69735112

Hows the view from Mt stupid

>>69735085
>Every producer I've met/worked with has been really chilled out

It's an illusion. We have to know how to be chill when we're working with people, but in reality our lives are usually chaos.

It's fun when it works, though.

>>69734999
The dependent variable is confidence, not musical talent

>>69734619
valley of despair, where i belong

>>69734619
>reach plateau of sustainability
>instantly join the 27 club

>>69735155
>but in reality our lives are usually chaos
I can imagine.

You guys are cool dudes though. I was lucky enough to do a bit of work with a producer who had previously worked with some HUGE names, and he was completely down to earth.

>>69734619
prob just coming down mt stupid, at least i know things will get better and my motivation will keep me going.

>>69734619
pretty sure the slope of enlightenment (blues/rock)

9 years of guitar

definitely on the plateau but I keep slipping off because I never practise now

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Just finished semester 1 of a music degree so I'm firmly in the valley of despair and won't be leaving for a long time.

>>69738235

Nice. Do you guys like literally practice all day long.

Somewhere in the valley of despair

>>69734619
I think I hit rock bottom two or three years ago and I'm slowly pulling out of the valley. In music and in general with all my interests.

>>69735145
This

>>69734619
Already past mt. stupid confidence wise, but still on the same level of technical skill

>>69739065
Yeah, we have about 12-15 hours of class per week, and then about 40-50 of group/personal practice, then projects on top of that.

>>69735237
I'm going to school for music production, and most of my professors are like this. They seem like the most mellow people, but as soon as you learn a bit about their personal lives you realize they're barely hanging on to sanity. Most of them probably also did too much acid over the course of their lives though.

>>69734636
make it 4 and its me

Mt. Stupid here

this effect is pseudoscience bullshit.

>>69739261

That's like 8 hours of practice a day man..

>>69739555
It usually ends up being more if you factor in gigs and other extra stuff like recording which starts next semester, or if exams are coming up. The thing is that you have to sightread, learn the piano and/or drums, do aural training and all these other new things that your average self taught musician hasn't done before on top of studying your main instrument. That's why we practice so much, barely a quarter of my practice time is spent on the bass guitar, which is my main instrument.

>>69739868

Woah man. Are people there generally talented as fuck, or are there people who work really hard to get there?

>>69734619
This is actually a real good graph, im on the slope somewhere a little past the valley of despair

>>69740870
It's mostly people who worked hard, funny story actually, during our first harmony class, our lecturer, (who also worked as a psychologist as well as writing our course) basically told us that he didn't think talent existed, and what we called talent was just a combination of strong interest (and therefore practice and exposure) and musically nurturing environments. I'm kind of inclined to agree.

>>69741258

Yeah I always felt that talent was just intense interest and passion for something, which drives that person to work really hard for that particular field. It's kind of like an excuse for some people who always claim they are bad at something because they are not talented in that field, when they just aren't showing enough dedication to it

>>69734649
sounds like you're starting your way up the slope of enlightenment my friend
stay woke for me

>>69741258
>It's mostly people who worked hard, funny story actually, during our first harmony class, our lecturer, (who also worked as a psychologist as well as writing our course) basically told us that he didn't think talent existed, and what we called talent was just a combination of strong interest (and therefore practice and exposure) and musically nurturing environments. I'm kind of inclined to agree.

This is fucking bullshit.

There is absolutely a thing such as musical intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Cb1qwCUvI

>>69743051
From the description.

>Dylan has been exposed, from 5 months prenatal, to the same high information music education system now available in the baby brain training app found at nuryl.com

>>69743051
Hendrix was living proof of that.

No formal instruction yet he had an innate understanding of pitch, almost not even having to think about what he was playing. Never mind being able to transpose keys instantly whilst barely even knowing the name of basic notes. Undeniable genius and if born in another era who knows, he could well have been a classical composer.

>>69743312
people on this forum think steve vai is better than hendrix

>>69743312
That's because he practiced a shitload, if you've listened to any of the interviews with people who were close to him like his girlfriends or his brother he literally never put down his guitar, he'd wake up and put on his clothes and his strat. he also learned a shitload of jazz theory playing on the Chitlin circuit.

>>69743369
Comparing the best of the best players is a pointless excercise, but yeah he serves as a good example too. Musical minds are clearly a real thing, fascinating and there's so little knowledge on why and how these people operate cognitively like that.

slop of enlightenment

still not that good, but I know WHY I'm not that good.
>tfw you know you're a trash keyboardist but your friends always say you're really good

>>69734619
Slowly climbing the slope

>>69743422
>he also learned a shitload of jazz theory playing on the Chitlin circuit

Masterful blues guitarist long before his entry to jazz

Also he didn't as much study theory as incorporate whatever sounded good into his playing and end up influencing everyone around him. Obviously his theoretical knowledge wasn't a void, but he didn't utilise it except to experiment with sound. His improv and writing was pure passion and instinct.

With percussion I'm on the upper end of the slope of enlightenment. I'm not very confident on guitar or piano but I'm happy with my progress so far

>>69734619
As a drummer, I'm finally hitting enlightenment.

I was on Mt. Stupid for the longest time because I could play along with classic rock songs in high school, then I found out that I actually still sucked.

But I'm finally gitting gud and it feels nice. I still have a long way to go

>>69743766
That kind of represents a misunderstanding of what music theory is and how it's utilised. What it is is describing, using an array of terminology, why music sounds to us the way it does, you always use music theory when you play regardless of whether you understand it or not, I'm arguing, using the information I've found from the documentaries and interviews I've seen about him, that his head wasn't just full of passion and acid, and instead that he fully and consciously understood the theory of what he was doing while he played, including the advanced harmony concepts he learned from jazz, the simpler blues ideas that we all know, and the avant-garde stuff that he was a trail blazer in.

>>69744017
>you always use music theory when you play regardless of whether you understand it or not

that's a very meaningless definition of music theory, and it obscures the truth a whole lot.

there are certain bedrock qualities of music that are founded in nature and the human brain, but the list is very short- consonance is math, rhythm is related to human functions like heartbeat and walking, the range of human hearing is centered around human speech, and the limits of our memory.

the rest of theory comes from the consequences of making music, not the other way around. at first there was plainchant, then duophony, this created the perfect 4th and 5th, then diatonic scales, then chromatic scales following modulation...

but they always were theorized after the music was made.

I played drums and bass, never got out of the valley of despair cause I didn't like either instrument as much to put the effort into it. I'm going into the electronic route, I feel much more complete as a "composer" there.

>>69744017
fucking christ
you also always use physics theory just by walking around and use ontology theory just by existing and use biology theory just by continuing to breathe through your mouth as you push signal-noise theory to its absolute limit just by posting all of these shit tier posts that you post in here

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10 years of playing guitar, 8 years of singing seriously, going up the slope of enlightenment.

>>69744491
thats' so based

If I practiced my sax for a week or so, I could bring myself back to being near the valley of despair. I guess 4 years off after playing for 8 years didn't do much.

>>69743312
lmao. he literally played blues, which is easy as fuck theoretically

he was constantly playing his guitar and played in bands throughout his life

>>69744364
That's kind of what I said, those concepts and tools appeared because composers used them, they were described and named, music theory was born and contributed to.

>>69744430
God forbid I'd go into detail and try to explain something to someone who misunderstood it.

>>69739449
not alone mate

>>69744676
yes god forbid indeed because you are the one who misunderstands it

I can say with 100% honesty that i am probably a better musician then 99% of people on this board.

I'm climbing Mt. Stupid on the piano.
Each piece i learn has a new element that makes it more difficult than the others and i know i'll get stuck sometime in the valley of despair.

>>69734619
Coming down from mt stupid
feels bad man

>>69734619
Drums : On the climb to Mt Stupid
Keyboards : Falling off mt stupid

Guitar : 1/2 through slope of enlightment. Still hilly

I'd say I'm climbing down mount stupid. I learn something new and as I start to apply it I realize just how shit I was. Then I'll learn my understanding of the thing wasn't quite right and the cycle repeats. I might actually be entering the valley of despair actually.

>>69744929
im part of the 1% then with the rest of the board

>>69744822
You seem very knowledgeable on this subject, could you please explain to someone like me exactly what is the nature of talent and music theory?

>>69745338
god forbidded me, sorry pal-- you either get it or you don't (sorry pal)

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>tfw have perfect pitch but no way to describe it or prove it

I'm getting close to the top of the "slope of enlightenment" on guitar. I still have a few kinks to work out with sweep picking and super speed playing, but I can shred and play better than 75% of players so I am happy.

>>69734619
was at peak of mt stupid and was pretty happy there, now am in valley of despair.

>>69745420
ok then, thank you, I've really been enlightened.

>>69745738
i doubt that

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>>69745167
hate to say it but i doubt that friendo

>>69739555
another music student, most people at school practice their main instrument by themselves with varying levels of focus for like 3 to 6 hours a day and then theres piano practice and ear training practice, ensembles, and if your lucky a gig. so we probably play between 6 to 10 hours a day on average

I've been playing guitar for about a decade (22 Y.O.) and recently got really into recording songs and working seriously on making my own music.

I am thrilled by the amount I have to learn and look forward to sitting at my desk and finding shit out every day.

>>69747850

I'm a burnt out pile of shit and would gladly change brains with you

>>69747892
I really wish that I had something constructive or helpful to tell you to make it better. The beautiful things in the world make it all worth it, that's what I try to remember in rough patches. Usually, they pass, eventually. B. fortunam, bud.