Open Thread

[greenchestnuts]

Today's open thread is about musical instruments. Do you play any? Do you wish you played any? Did you know that the biggest woodwind instrument in the world is seven feet tall?

Comments

[shiyiya]

I kind of wish I could play piano, but I can't read music. (I was in choir for eight years. There's just... my brain can't translate it at speed. No matter how much I try.)

[metapianycist]

I think I was lucky wrt reading music, because at my (public) school, we were taught how to read music starting in third grade, and this was reviewed every week for the entirety of elementary school during music class. (I think I am also lucky in that I am good at learning to read different symbol systems, like memorizing the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets.)

[shiyiya]

I know academically how to do it - I had it drilled into me for years - it just doesn't work. I tend to assume it's the same missing connection in my brain that's responsible for my inability to read analog clocks without thinking about it for way too long, the fact that I have to look at my hands and see which one makes an L to tell which way is left, and my total inability to judge distance, volume, or mass.

[metapianycist]

Oh, it sounds like you might have some symptoms of dyscalculia. Having difficulty with reading analog clocks and with telling left from right are very common in people with dyscalculia.

Also, I forgot to mention: sight-reading is really difficult for me. I wish I had my keyboard back so I could actually attempt to sight-read better, but the reason I gave away my keyboard in the first place is that I don't know how to play without injuring my wrists.

[shiyiya]

Yeah, I've looked at the criteria for dyscalculia a few times, and I have a fair number of the things there. I remember I had a really godawful time with the timed math tests in elementary school, too.

But yeah! Sightreading. Can't do it. If I write the letters of all the notes on the staff or memorize them, I can actually play piano reasonably well (I can - or could last time I tried - play the first portion of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor from memory), but I have to learn all music - whether for instrument or vocal - by rote. Which isn't that much of a hardship for me, really, as I'm primarily a singer (again, eight years of choir) and quite happy to listen to/sing things on infinite repeat until they're burned into my brain.

[metapianycist]

I learned a few simple piano pieces six years ago, but I haven't had consistent access to a keyboard in a few years. I also have a lot of issues with coordination between my hands (and other fine motor coordination things in general), so I haven't felt like there is much hope of me getting better at piano. Unless anyone is an instructor who has studied piano pedagogy (so I can learn how to not injure myself while playing) AND knows how to encourage potentially dyspraxic students?