What Is the Best First Instrument?

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: GUEST,MaJoC the Filk
Date: 07 Feb 22 - 11:17 AM

Personal memories: I did recorder in primary school, then went to piano lessons for a year or few, which is entirely not the same thing as learning the piano. (Had there been any music theory in there, or if I'd been bothered remembered to practice, I might have progressed better.) After that I taught myself to play the banjo, then the guitar, both of which I can play tolerably well.

My piano teacher got dischuffed that I played by ear; OTOH my godmother said that when she played four verses for a hymn at school assembly, she had to sight-read it four times. Each of us was in awe of the other's skill.

> Atarah Ben-Tovim

I know that name: she took over the teatime music education slot on Radio 3 when David Munro (of early-music fame) committed suicide. That's the first time in Simply Ages that I've even heard her mentioned.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Feb 22 - 11:35 AM

Ah yes, Atarah. Thanks for reminding me!

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 08 Feb 22 - 10:46 AM

I don't think there is a best. It would be terrible if everyone played the same thing. I think the best thing is to let children try every possible different kind. Unfortunately, this isn't practicable for most people.

My first instrument was the piano and I had very traditional music lessons for the first five or six years. It gave me a good basis for some things but playing by ear was discouraged, which was terrible. Also, you don't have to tune a piano yourself --- and can't, and you have no influence over the intonation, as with a violin, so you can't develop your ear very well with just the piano.

I think the guitar is a very good choice. On the other hand, when I was young, a plague of people strumming guitars covered the face of the land and swallowed up every crop and all the fruits of the trees. More recently, there's been a plague of ukeleles. I love the guitar and quite like the ukelele but like I said, it's terrible when everyone plays the same thing the same way.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Feb 22 - 03:39 PM

Ah yes, David Munrow: brilliant musician and a sad loss to the musical world, especially if you were into early music and well-played recorders!

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 04:51 AM

All the people recommending mouth organs are obviously naturals at playing by ear. I never could get a tune out of those that I pulled out of my Christmas stocking.
A keyboard to learn the basics on and something small to leave lying around to pick up and noodle on, maybe. Swanee whistle???

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 05:21 AM

I (well I would, wouldn't I?) suggest washboard and/or kazoo but others (especially if they've heard me) might question the term "music".
RtS

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 05:22 AM

Ah, but the one you pulled out of your Christmas stocking was likely an "entry-level" instrument or worse. Reeds that are already out of tune, uneven or nil reed response, reeds going flat after a few plays...untunable guitars made of plywood...cheap plastic recorders...those Chinese fiddles that even a seasoned sessionista couldn't scrape a decent tune out of... two-quid squawky tin whistles...

It's how to put children off playing music for life. When our two were learning the clarinet and concert flute respectively, we found the same thing. If you want your kids (a) to sound good, (b) to stick with it and have fun, "entry-level" should be regarded as dirty words. We had to pay relatively big mazumas, or at least do some canny second-hand purchasing, expert in tow (then do some servicing), in order to get properly playable instruments.

Mind you, you can get excellent blues harmonicas for about thirty quid/dollars. Life is such a learning curve.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 06:18 AM

Woodwinds are expensive. Good clarinets and oboes are usually made of grenadilla or sometimes rosewood or ebony, which are really expensive, not to mention the complicated key mechanism.

A few years ago, I was looking for a wind instrument to play and narrowed my choices down to a flute or a trumpet. With a flute, the more silver the better, which also drives the price up. In comparison, brass instruments are inexpensive. I got my trumpet at a discount, because the manufacturer had forgotten to add the fancy stamped emblem on the bell. I think the discount was at least 100 €. For that, I can easily forgo the stamping.

Flutes and trumpets use relatively litte material and are mass produced in large numbers and often in reasonable quality, so I think they are good choices for beginners.

I once had a school oboe made of wood (probably grenadilla) and I really liked it, but it had a crack, so my parents rented a plastic one from a music store. I never warmed up to it and, in fact, I've never warmed up to plastic instruments, such as my recorders. I quickly gave up on the oboe, but in those days I didn't like to practice, so it was really a no-goer from the start.

Price is another good argument for the guitar: Last year I bought a solid-body electric guitar from a well-known online music store for 128 €. I paid 60 € for the setup (it has a tremolo bar, so it was more expensive than normal), 59 € for a 10W amp, 66 € for a hard case and a few euros for cables. Would I prefer a hand-made arch-top? Sure, but I am nonetheless completely satisfied and I think what I ended up paying is a bargain for an instrument. Since then, I've spent several times that on effect pedals!

There are also good acoustic guitars for very reasonable prices and you don't need an amp or cables or effects, for that matter. One recent purchase was of a resonator guitar (on sale) for 378 € and it's become one of my favorite instruments.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 07:56 AM

Yes my Christmas stocking mouth organ was a toy not an 'instrument', but the point remains, my husband made sense of the blow/suck system and preferred to play by ear. I never did.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: The Og
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 10:32 AM

The thing that opened it all for me was not an instrument but learning about the Circle of 5ths (ok...4ths for you hardheads). Once that fell into place it all made sense!

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 12:11 PM

Wait until you find out about the circle of minor thirds!

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 01:14 PM

The circle of major thirds is nice, too.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: reggie miles
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 12:21 AM

Such an unusual question. I, like some others chose guitar. I played for several years before finding myself a part of a trio that had a smokin hot guitarist and acid fiddler. My finger style guitar picking didn't work for the trio. They wanted me because I had just began to play washboard. I wasn't very good at it but I enjoyed finding and adding weird sound effects into the mix of the things that I banged on. It soon became quite a visually stimulating design.

About five years ago, decades after I began this exploration of the zany side of washboard percussion, I discovered how attractive my washboard was to children. I left it unattended near a friend's booth, at a festival. When I returned, there was a line of children waiting their turn to blow in all of my whistles and bang on all of my bells, wood blocks, cymbal... My first thought was to save my instrument from such uninvited exploration. But instead, I pulled out my camera and began recording images and video clips of how much fun they were having. After reviewing what I had captured, it occurred to me that I had a box or two of spare parts in the basement. I wondered about the notion of making similar loony laundries just for children to enjoy exploring. The idea wasn't to teach music but merely allow them the freedom to explore sound, as they did while exploring my washboard. The idea was a sound one. After all, the children had already demonstrated their interest.

In creating them, I didn't want them to look like a children's toy. I wanted them to be a genuine adult level zany percussion instrument, like my own board. After years of building and rebuilding my own board, I had already acquired the ability to build with durability in mind. I used the same lessons learned to craft each one and they've handled thousands of interactions with children of all ages.

I call them Gadgets. I provide mallets for children to use to explore the percussive elements with. Even before the pandemic, I had begun making the transformation away from orally operated sounds, to all squeeze bulb operated sound-effects. This whole project has become a sweet mix of both my interest in music and art. As, each one that I've made is a uniquely different design from the rest and are as much art and they are musical in nature.

So, if your goal is to teach "music" to little ones, I can't say that I have an acceptable answer as to "What is the best first instrument?" But if your goal is to share the free exploration of unstructured sound, what I call Kidcophony, which is what I find most children who've encountered my Gadgets love to do, I'd say that simple percussion instrumentation, with a few weird sounds thrown in just for the fun of it, might be the way to go. Thousands of children have enjoyed my Another Road-Side Gadget Attraction. They can't all be wrong.

I say, at that age range, let kids be kids. Give them something to engage their boundless curiosity and desire for fun. I mean, besides staring into a cell phone and wiggling their thumbs. The sounds I've included can be struck with a mallet, spring triggered, foot and bulb operated.

I've collected sounds from cultures all over the world. Some are sounds used in spiritual ceremonies. Most have their unique designs rooted in specific cultures. I also include common items that were never intended to be musical in nature, which is part of the long tradition of washboard design. Will any of those who've encountered my Gadgets ever grow up to be percussionist or washboard players? Will any of those thousands be moved to discover music in any more in depth manner? Who can say for certain? But what I've done is create and introduction to concept of playing with sound and isn't that where this musical path starts?

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 12:40 AM

What an interesting posting! Got any photos on the internet anywhere? Sounds like you struck gold with that idea. How fortunate that you didn't chase off the first kids who hijacked your rig.

I just remembered a good recorder story. Anyone who hates cute kid stories should stop reading now.

Giving recorder lessons started when the middle child of my friends was 5 years old and really wanted to learn the recorder. I happened to mention to my friend that I was playing the recorder. Up until that time, I hadn't seen her very often since she started having kids. So, I got three recorders (the parents paid for them) and we got started.

Sometime later the mother told me that the girl in question was going out onto the patio with her recorder and she told her to stay inside with it. She replied that she wanted to go talk to the birds.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 12:41 AM

I think the best first instument is a piano or electric piano. It teaches melody, harmony, musical expression and timing, and it teaches the left hand to communicate with the right. A piano teacher who teaches theory along with technique is good.

The things one learns on a piano then make it easier to learn other instruments.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: reggie miles
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 12:57 AM

Piers Plowman, yes. In fact, I actively capture images of the interactions that children have with my Gadgets and use them to create mini documentaries. There are some photos posted on my ReverbNation page.

Reggie Miles @ReverbNation

And there are a few mini docs on my YouTube page's "For Kids" playlist to give you an idea of what this notion has been about.

Gadgets @YouTube

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 01:37 AM

Those kids look like they're having fun. So much for children should be seen and not heard.

Your instruments remind me of Spike Jones and PDQ Bach.

One of the things I got for my friend's kids was a metallophone from an antique/junk store. I think it cost 5 €. It's like a toy xylophone but with lengths of aluminum pipe, like they sell at building supply stores, cut to various lengths and thus tuned to the chromatic (I think) scale, and painted in different colors. I think they played with it some.

I would have been very happy to keep it for myself and now that they've outgrown it, I asked the mother if I could buy it back (the parents had paid for it). She said she'd give it to me and I should get it the next time I'm over there. I can't wait! I wanted it to record "Suzy Snowflake" for Christmas but now I'll have to wait until December.

Something that resonated (so to speak) better with the children was the practice pad I got for them, which they referred to as "the drum". They played with it in my presence several times. I wonder if they realize what a useful item it is for adults, too.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 01:48 AM

The seriousness of their faces while they bang away at your instruments!
Someone ought to give you a grant.

It reminds of a scene in Kenneth Grahame's (the author of "The Wind in the Willows") "The Golden Age" or possibly "Dream Days" when the child narrator ends up in the rooms of a university student where there's a piano and the latter asks him if he wants to "have a strum". That was one of my favorite activities as a child. I remember it well.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 02:16 AM

I think the contrast between your approach and the Orff method is quite interesting. I admit to not being a fan of Orff as a person and I used to like his music more than I do now.

I find the Orff instruments interesting and there is at least one manufacturer in Germany, Sonor, that makes very high-quality versions of them. On the other hand, I had a book out of the library about the method and it was huge and full of theory. And it wasn't just the one book, it was part of a whole series. I thought and still think, that anything that needs this amount of theoretical underpinning has to be BS.

There's nothing wrong with pentatonic, but it's one of those things where you can't go wrong: Multiple people can noodle simultaneously all day and nothing will sound too awful. That's not what I call music, though. Sometimes I hear music and I think that it goes up and down but it doesn't go anywhere. Often with jazz solos, especially free jazz, before I switch them off.

Orff was big on improvisation but he didn't like jazz or popular music and didn't include it in his system, whereby jazz was the one kind of contemporary Western music where people were improvising. And I think what he did choose as repertoire seems very corny nowadays.

I think what you're doing is great and may well inspire many kids to want to make music. This isn't a criticism, but there is kind of a leap between making noise (or sounds) on instruments and practicing drum rudiments or learning to play the guitar or the piano or another instrument. However, that's where parents and teachers come in.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: reggie miles
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 02:52 AM

Yes, there is a big difference between the study of music and free play with sounds. On occasion, actual percussionists would venture by to share their prowess, which didn't interrupt what the children were doing in the least. It was nice to see and hear that contrast of studied talent and free exploration. I had one guy walk by to merely record what was happening, no doubt, to use in some future musical project. I asked if he would send me a copy of what he captured but received no response.

The display also prompts lots of parents to capture images of their children having fun. So, it's a means to engage their interest in capturing a sweet moment of their little ones having fun in a very unusual creative setting.

I try to make a point of offering no rules whatsoever, regarding access to my Gadgets. I keep them set low enough for even the tiniest tot to be able to reach them.

The largest event that I've been invited to feature my Gadgets was the Oregon Country Fair's 50th anniversary in 2019. Imagine three eight hour days of children having non-stop fun exploring sound. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

I realized that lots of events have very little to offer in the way of children's programming. Most grown-up events are created to satisfy the needs of big kids, big kid's music, big kid's arts and crafts but precious little in the way of creative thought to craft a truly entertaining interactive display for little ones to enjoy. I'm hoping that once things begin to open back up, I'll find more opportunities to share them.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 03:08 AM

> I asked if he would send me a copy of what he captured but received no > response.

What can you say? You cast your bread upon the waters ... I admire people who put themselves out among the public. You have no control over who you'll meet up with and have to learn to take the rough with the smooth.

I think your work would go over well in Germany, especially with what they call "68er" here, i.e., alternative, anti-authoritarian, counter-culture types, Waldorf and Montessori schools and such-like.

Maybe not with neighbours, though.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 03:16 AM

> I keep them set low enough for even the tiniest tot to be able to reach them.

You mentioned that on one of your videos. It's obvious that you've reflected on what you're doing. I think it's very good that you provide something for really little kids. I remember being bored out of my mind when dragged to events.

I haven't had a very thorough look but I like the "War of the Worlds" sculpture and the other stuff with lights and the sort of oscilloscope-like object.

Obviously, not everyone is going to like the noise, e.g., if someone's performing a concert, it wouldn't work to have your gadgets set up nearby. Sometimes organizers don't think of these things.

I once went to see a friend play with her group at a small event and they'd set up the stage next to the grill and the wind blew the smoke right at the musicians. I would have told them to move it or I wouldn't play. You really have to think of everything.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: GUEST,Harry
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 04:21 AM

From today's Guardian:

The humble recorder is equal to any other instrument

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: reggie miles
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 12:51 PM

Pier Plowman, what is astonishing to me is the one-sided nature of those who program such events, to be considerate of the desires of big kids and dismissive of the needs of little ones. Those same little ones are our collective future. Treating them like so much excess baggage, to be parked somewhere, so big kids can have their fun, just seems completely backward.

I've took my inspiration to develop this idea from children and created something for children, which also appeals to the child in all of us. Most of the children's programming efforts that I've seen have always been rather traditional in its intent and execution. A big kid reads a story to little ones, or creates a puppet show for little ones, or paints the faces of little ones... It always places a big kid as the entertainer and treats little ones much the same way that big kids entertain other big kids, as an audience to be entertained. With my Gadgets, I don't dictate a role for the children to follow. I merely set-up what becomes an irresistible attraction of zany sounds, a kind of sonic jungle gym and provide the means by which they can explore them. I let the little ones entertain themselves, with no rules,just fun.

The volume level of most amplified stages at such events have no difficulty, whatsoever, of maintaining a sonic dominance over the available listening environment via their volume knobs, PA systems and amplifiers. My Gadgets are not amplified in any way. They are completely acoustic in nature.

I wonder what on earth is so important, so vitally necessary, that any big kid might perform/share on an amplified stage, that is so urgent, that it must take precedence over children having fun? This sort of reaction brings me right back to the beginning of this whole endeavor, where I was the big kid, about to shut down the fun that a group of little ones were having with my personal Gadget. Had I followed through with that notion, I would have never taken the time to capture the images and video clips of those little ones having fun and without those images and clips to look back on and reflect about, I likely would have never made the connection I did, to consider creating my loony laundries and other wild and crazy instruments. And ultimately, the thousands of interactions with my maniacal musical menageries might never have happened. And the world would be that much less fun for a whole bunch of children. Would the children have survived the loss? Of course, if nothing else, children are resilient to a fault. But I count it as one of my most priceless musical pursuits, to have taken the time to set aside my own desires and accommodate the insatiable curiosity of children.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 13 Feb 22 - 05:31 AM

It took me awhile to realize when you say "big kids", you mean adults. Sorry if I'm slow on the uptake.

I think there's a time and a place for both things, namely unstructured play and more-or-less passive consumption of entertainment designed and executed by adults. While I enjoy hearing children at play, I am sometimes annoyed by the noise. I don't think I'm different from anybody else in this.

I have always hated structured activities, for children or adults. (I was bitten by a camp counselor as a child.) But I have always loved animated cartoons and as a child I was certainly inspired to draw by the MGM cartoons (my favorites). And the forms of children's entertainment (books included) that are most inspiring are usually not the preachy ones or the ones with an explicit pedagogical intention, but the ones that are meant to entertain (e.g., Otfried Preussler, (German) author of "The Satanic Mill").

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Feb 22 - 07:37 AM

Reggie’s Gadgets - no rules, get whatever noise you can out of them - remind me of the very Big Kid music of Helmut Lachenmann, who asks his performers to ignore what they’ve been taught about how to use their instruments and do entirely new things with them.

Laurence Picken’s book on Turkish folk instruments is an eyeopener because it’s entirely written around the Sachs-Hornbostel classification - instruments are grouped according to the physics of their sound production. Turns out that most of the space of possibilities is taken up with things classed as children’s toys. I particularly liked the one where you form a bubble of potter’s clay and smack it so it pops.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 13 Feb 22 - 08:33 AM

Reggie seems to imply that his gadgets are unusual in the US. Not so unusual at UK folk festivals, I think. E.g. Jan's Blackboard Van at Bromyard.

Subject: RE: What Is the Best First Instrument?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 13 Feb 22 - 04:09 PM

I happened to mention "banjo" to my 7-year-old grand-daughter today: "What's a banjo, Grannie?" she says. I tried to explain what they looked like, but then called up a YouTube of 2 guys playing "Duelling Banjos": guess what? She loved it and she wants a banjo!