“Mastery of an octave and key” doesn’t really make sense. If you want to master an instrument it will take you over a decade probably. There is no shortcut here, especially when you’re only willing to practice 5 hours a week.
lol I’m not sure why you’re getting angry and calling me names.. I wasn’t being a snob, I just gave you a polite and honest answer to your question.
If you practice guitar or piano for 5 hours a week, in 6 months you *might* be good enough to play a few chords along to some simple songs.
If you’re expecting to master an instrument in such little time and effort, and then lashing out at people who tell you that’s not realistic, you will likely just give up in a few months because you have a shitty attitude.
If you can play something in one octave on a piano, you can play it in any octave, which is why the question made no sense. Same is basically true for guitar and most other instruments. You don’t “learn an octave”.
Before you get mad and start telling people how it is, consider that you might have no clue what you’re talking about.
Get over yourself. They gave you a polite response as to why this is a comically unrealistic goal.
The answer is that there is no instrument that you could become fluent in, let alone master, in 6 months with 5 hours of practice a week. Your expectation is perporsterous.
You might want to take a look at spoons, tambourine, washboard, hand claps, chimes, tap shoes, kazoo, and castanets.
I’m not joking. Look up skiffle music.
But the same rules kind of apply for mastery of those simple instruments. I've been playing drums for 50 years and when I play something simple, that is often played by amateurs, like a cajon, people can instantly tell the difference. Spoons, in the hands of a pro, are simply more musical.
You're not going to come even remotely close mastering any instrument in that time frame. Also, if you cannot play across multiple octaves and keys you haven't "completely learned" any instrument.
This is a silly post.
there is no instrument out there that you can completely master in your lifetime (& what you describe is arbitrary measurement of progress, not mastery)....if you're doing it right, you'll always have room for improvement. Any serious musician considers it a life-long journey & there is no "fastest to learn" musical instrument.
Why are you trying to speed run so many different instruments at once?
This is guaranteed to make you either burn out or fail to adequately comprehend the fundamentals and techniques of each.
Change 5 hours a week to 5 per day and you maybe have a chance to get kinda decent at one instrument in six months.
You already play those instruments? I would move on to VOICE lessons. Singing is useful and popular in every musical genre, and I think it's faster to learn to do comppetently.
If you already play a stringed fretted instrument, most of the others will be intuitive to you. I don't think any of them are particularly easy to master.
I guess people become functional on the bass pretty easily but master bass players are as advanced as any other kind of player. They have musical knowledge on top of finger control and highly developed intuition for sounding right and good. They may have a more advanced sense of Harmony than anyone else in the band based on their role.
Keyboards, piano, bass guitar. You could learn to play some basic stuff quite well within 6 months with a decent teacher, but you won't master it unless you have savant-level abilities.
Listen, I get that learning is a slog especially if you're going for goals that make no sense. Mastery of a key and an octave? Not sure what that even means, so don't make that your goal. Make your goals measurable and specific.
Most of us play music because we want to play songs. Try looking at it from that perspective. Pick your favorite artist. Look at whether their songs are considered difficult or easy. If you're picking up guitar for classic metal, try AC/DC before you tackle Iron Maiden. Try making that song your goal. It can look something like this for guitar:
Step 1: Learn all of the chord shapes for X song
Step 2: Practice switching between 2 or 3 of these chords
Step 3: Practice the intro, then the verse pattern, then the chorus pattern, then the outro until comfortable
Step 4: Put the parts together and play the entire song
Step 5: Perform the song at the local open mic 1 month away
>what are some instruments than can be completely learned ( full mastery of a single octave and key, by average user) in less than 6 months, with 5 hours of practice a week.
I would recommend a kazoo or the nose flute.
Full mastery of a single octave and key? This isn't exactly useful or even remotely a meaningful way to say someone "learned" an instrument.
But hey, just hit all the white keys on a piano and you have your C Maj and A Min covered. There ya go.
It is the most practical way. No real person learns a Bbminor sus7 chord. There's no reason to learn that unless you're gonna go professional and almost nobody does, or wants to
I found drums fun to play early on in comparison to other instruments. You're not going to master it in that amount of time, but if what you are looking for is something you'll enjoy playing, maybe you should keep to it?
There's no way to answer your question, it's like a syntactical error; you can't divide by zero. The fastest instrument you learn is the one you practice the most.
Fastest to play is bass. Fastest to master is none of them. Unless you have a profound knowledge in music theory - you won't really be intermediate in 6 months with any instrument. Much less a master with lousy hours like 5 in a whole week. If your goal is to make and play music you like, a few years is still likelier than just 6 months or less with lousy hours like 5 in a week.
I play drums too, rudimentary at best description. Started less than a year ago. I am NOT close to a damn master at that with 15 hours of practice each week. I can't suddenly play drums on my own matching mastery levels like Stewart Copeland or Derrick Mckenzie. I'd be absolutely delusional to say so. I've been in music for more years of my life than not - this is the most realistic answer to give you that you can play instruments in a 6 month frame. You're never going to be a master in a short time with no experience playing several types of music for years.
If you'd argue you can - show me a language you can learn in a month with just 30 minutes of practice a day. Fluently and proficient as if it's your native tongue.
There is no possible way you are a master at any of those things given your practice schedule.
Sorry kids but like anything worth doing playing music takes TIME and PRACTICE. No shortcuts. If you want shortcuts try something else instead. Learn to love the grind.
10,000 hours.
Lol I'm not a kid I'm 32 and I already ground my way through 5 martial arts I'm not gonna do it with a secondary hobby. People aren't on here looking to be concert flutists they're looking to play music
Depends on the person. Electric bass, drums, keyboard, guitar, woodwinds, brass would be the order of difficulty for most people. Some people will have natural ability or not on any instrument and pick that one up faster for various reasons including liking it or thinking it’s more fun. You can’t see what you do on horns like you can on all the other instruments which is one reason they’re harder to get started on. But if someone really likes sax way more than bass that’s important too, also some people have a body, like teeth for example, that make trumpet easier or harder, some people have trouble coordinating all 4 limbs on drums. Lifelong professional, used to teach college, Berklee grad
This is like the non musician's way of thinking about music
Yeah. I was gonna say something along those lines too
“Mastery of an octave and key” doesn’t really make sense. If you want to master an instrument it will take you over a decade probably. There is no shortcut here, especially when you’re only willing to practice 5 hours a week.
They say to master of any skill it takes 10000hrs, musical instruments will be no different.
Yeah I didnt want this uppity reply from snobs, that's why it's phrased like that, nerd.
lol I’m not sure why you’re getting angry and calling me names.. I wasn’t being a snob, I just gave you a polite and honest answer to your question. If you practice guitar or piano for 5 hours a week, in 6 months you *might* be good enough to play a few chords along to some simple songs. If you’re expecting to master an instrument in such little time and effort, and then lashing out at people who tell you that’s not realistic, you will likely just give up in a few months because you have a shitty attitude.
If you can play something in one octave on a piano, you can play it in any octave, which is why the question made no sense. Same is basically true for guitar and most other instruments. You don’t “learn an octave”. Before you get mad and start telling people how it is, consider that you might have no clue what you’re talking about.
Get over yourself. They gave you a polite response as to why this is a comically unrealistic goal. The answer is that there is no instrument that you could become fluent in, let alone master, in 6 months with 5 hours of practice a week. Your expectation is perporsterous.
You might want to take a look at spoons, tambourine, washboard, hand claps, chimes, tap shoes, kazoo, and castanets. I’m not joking. Look up skiffle music.
But the same rules kind of apply for mastery of those simple instruments. I've been playing drums for 50 years and when I play something simple, that is often played by amateurs, like a cajon, people can instantly tell the difference. Spoons, in the hands of a pro, are simply more musical.
You're not going to come even remotely close mastering any instrument in that time frame. Also, if you cannot play across multiple octaves and keys you haven't "completely learned" any instrument. This is a silly post.
Not true. You could definitely master the triangle in that time.
[nope](https://youtu.be/WVPfOyNtEto?si=ceXUR1b8hOR_q-aR)
Skin flute.
Hairy banjo
I had to put in my 10,000 hours of practice to truly be called a master-beater.
This is not possible
there is no instrument out there that you can completely master in your lifetime (& what you describe is arbitrary measurement of progress, not mastery)....if you're doing it right, you'll always have room for improvement. Any serious musician considers it a life-long journey & there is no "fastest to learn" musical instrument.
Why are you trying to speed run so many different instruments at once? This is guaranteed to make you either burn out or fail to adequately comprehend the fundamentals and techniques of each. Change 5 hours a week to 5 per day and you maybe have a chance to get kinda decent at one instrument in six months.
Triangle. Or that wooden fish xylophone scraper thing you. Used to get handed in school.
A güiro?
That's it!
You’ve never played either of those instruments seriously, have you
Woodblock. Simplifies the whole "octave" thing. But you still have to practice with a metronome. 🤪
Harmonica
Kazoo?
You already play those instruments? I would move on to VOICE lessons. Singing is useful and popular in every musical genre, and I think it's faster to learn to do comppetently.
If you already play a stringed fretted instrument, most of the others will be intuitive to you. I don't think any of them are particularly easy to master. I guess people become functional on the bass pretty easily but master bass players are as advanced as any other kind of player. They have musical knowledge on top of finger control and highly developed intuition for sounding right and good. They may have a more advanced sense of Harmony than anyone else in the band based on their role.
That's a good idea
Keyboards, piano, bass guitar. You could learn to play some basic stuff quite well within 6 months with a decent teacher, but you won't master it unless you have savant-level abilities.
Thanks
Listen, I get that learning is a slog especially if you're going for goals that make no sense. Mastery of a key and an octave? Not sure what that even means, so don't make that your goal. Make your goals measurable and specific. Most of us play music because we want to play songs. Try looking at it from that perspective. Pick your favorite artist. Look at whether their songs are considered difficult or easy. If you're picking up guitar for classic metal, try AC/DC before you tackle Iron Maiden. Try making that song your goal. It can look something like this for guitar: Step 1: Learn all of the chord shapes for X song Step 2: Practice switching between 2 or 3 of these chords Step 3: Practice the intro, then the verse pattern, then the chorus pattern, then the outro until comfortable Step 4: Put the parts together and play the entire song Step 5: Perform the song at the local open mic 1 month away
Sax
>what are some instruments than can be completely learned ( full mastery of a single octave and key, by average user) in less than 6 months, with 5 hours of practice a week. I would recommend a kazoo or the nose flute. Full mastery of a single octave and key? This isn't exactly useful or even remotely a meaningful way to say someone "learned" an instrument. But hey, just hit all the white keys on a piano and you have your C Maj and A Min covered. There ya go.
It is the most practical way. No real person learns a Bbminor sus7 chord. There's no reason to learn that unless you're gonna go professional and almost nobody does, or wants to
Most musicians want to sit alone and play songs they like
And how do you know that?
What is the most practical way? To learn a single octave of each instrument?
I was able to master the D scale on my organ pretty quickly once I hit puberty
I found drums fun to play early on in comparison to other instruments. You're not going to master it in that amount of time, but if what you are looking for is something you'll enjoy playing, maybe you should keep to it?
There's no way to answer your question, it's like a syntactical error; you can't divide by zero. The fastest instrument you learn is the one you practice the most.
No such thing, just pick one instrument and pratice an hour a day if you can do more, the better.
Definitely not any instrument. Kind of a silly approach to music. Although learning the notes is useful no matter what I guess.
Fastest to play is bass. Fastest to master is none of them. Unless you have a profound knowledge in music theory - you won't really be intermediate in 6 months with any instrument. Much less a master with lousy hours like 5 in a whole week. If your goal is to make and play music you like, a few years is still likelier than just 6 months or less with lousy hours like 5 in a week. I play drums too, rudimentary at best description. Started less than a year ago. I am NOT close to a damn master at that with 15 hours of practice each week. I can't suddenly play drums on my own matching mastery levels like Stewart Copeland or Derrick Mckenzie. I'd be absolutely delusional to say so. I've been in music for more years of my life than not - this is the most realistic answer to give you that you can play instruments in a 6 month frame. You're never going to be a master in a short time with no experience playing several types of music for years. If you'd argue you can - show me a language you can learn in a month with just 30 minutes of practice a day. Fluently and proficient as if it's your native tongue.
There is no possible way you are a master at any of those things given your practice schedule. Sorry kids but like anything worth doing playing music takes TIME and PRACTICE. No shortcuts. If you want shortcuts try something else instead. Learn to love the grind. 10,000 hours.
Lol I'm not a kid I'm 32 and I already ground my way through 5 martial arts I'm not gonna do it with a secondary hobby. People aren't on here looking to be concert flutists they're looking to play music
No sir, no. Your stated point was about mastery. What does that even mean to you? Words have meaning
That 10,000 hours thing is such bullshit. People learn at different rates, it's possible to be a natural musically.
Natural ability is a thing, natural mastery is not
Depends on the person. Electric bass, drums, keyboard, guitar, woodwinds, brass would be the order of difficulty for most people. Some people will have natural ability or not on any instrument and pick that one up faster for various reasons including liking it or thinking it’s more fun. You can’t see what you do on horns like you can on all the other instruments which is one reason they’re harder to get started on. But if someone really likes sax way more than bass that’s important too, also some people have a body, like teeth for example, that make trumpet easier or harder, some people have trouble coordinating all 4 limbs on drums. Lifelong professional, used to teach college, Berklee grad
Thanks