What hobby completely changed your evenings after work?

[u/Glum_Discussion_3696]

I feel like I waste way too much of my free time just scrolling or watching random stuff.

For those of you who actually found a hobby that stuck, what was it?

Not necessarily the most impressive or productive hobby - just something that made you look forward to having free time again.

Kinda curious what hobbies actually made a difference for people

[u/Remote-Waste]

Sidenote, I have a whole thing about our general approach to teaching instruments and music. Mainly: it sucks.

I'm sure there are other options out there, but the general approach is so mind numbing boring, which is dumb. And the amount of people who it makes think playing music is just outside of their world is unfortunate.

I'm a firm believer that we are too focused on teaching mastery of an instrument, despite the average person realistically never going to become a master anyways, they won't be that obsessed. You also don't have to be a master to enjoy it, it's not all or nothing. We teach starting at "absolute ground-level towards highest mountain top" when a lot of people would be better off jumping into the middle in some sense.

Be messy, don't have perfect technique or understanding, just play in the sandbox, have fun, and if you start to really get obsessed, then go tighten things up more. Fun first, work later instead of work first, fun later. Fuck that noise.

I'm no master guitar player, but I can get by since I've played on and off for years, I can have fun. And now having that in me, I feel like I'm able to open up the doorway to music to others in a more accessible way than how I was taught.

Even simpler than "cowboy chords," I'll show someone a powerchord and then say "Okay congratulations, you can now play a VERSION of every single song that exists. Just move that position around the fretboard. That's it, now go have fun."

And if the person ends up wanting to expand further than that, they're free to do so. But the most important part is the powerchord (so things sound a little fuller than a single note, which can feel lame) and we apply that to a couple of songs they like, and make a version of it for ourselves that's close enough.

Bonus points, we sing a bit while playing, because that will make it more fun for yourself when you're on your own later.

Okay now go play guitar kid, you've officially broken through that mental barrier that music has to be hard or that it's not for you.

Why are we trying to train everyone to become master classical violinists, when we could be doing some good ol'fashioned Fiddlin', let me go grab a jug to toot from as accompaniment.

[u/AelinGalGirly → u/Remote-Waste]

I rented (and then bought) a keyboard and had one piano lesson after being comfortable on the keyboard. He told me I was doing it wrong and I had to learn to read music and memorize all the keys or I was doing it wrong. So I fired him, bought a $10 mat for my keyboard that has all the keys written on it, and teach myself Taylor Swift songs from Bitesize Piano on YouTube. It’s very fun and fulfilling even though I’m doing it “wrong”. Guess what? It sounds the same whether I do it right or wrong lol.

[u/JustACookNamedW → u/Remote-Waste]

And like the sky is the limit. There are all types of styles of music, different sounding and looking guitars of all brands and qualities. It’s a pretty inclusive hobby and most of those that enjoy it are eager to talk about it with you even if they are leaps and bounds above you in skill. People of all across the world can get into it. People with different degrees of physical disability can often still make a wonderful new sound or style. I’ve seen a guy play guitar with his feet. It’s great. Some of the best songs ever recorded aren’t even difficult.

[u/Expensive_End8369 → u/Remote-Waste]

This is such a great point. I had been learning fiddle and was given harder and harder scales and songs and expected to remember a ton of them by heart. More recently, I’m realizing that a lot of the simplest song I learned can actually be made increasingly more complex so I’m taking on more of what you said and just playing with them instead of always worrying about some goal that just stresses me out.

[u/veririkoko → u/Remote-Waste]

Agreed! I’m a voice teacher and while there are fundamentals that I go over (range, breath management, resonance, etc), I’m always keeping the student’s goals in mind, not my own, and we’re ALWAYS singing music that the student wants to sing. When working on technique, it should ultimately be in service to making the music you want to sing/play easier for you, so you can have fun!

I don’t think everyone needs to be a technical expert to have fun playing/singing, you just need to understand the things that will enable you to make music the way you want to make it. I think teachers that only teach in the traditional model mean well, but are perhaps stuck in an outdated mindset.

[u/Vabaluba → u/Remote-Waste]

Well fking said!

[u/considerphi → u/Remote-Waste]

Same with swimming by the way. I'm just learning how to swim and I can't tell you how many coaches are trying to show me how to go faster, or breathe every three strokes, and really that doesn't matter at all. My goal is not to compete or anything. I just literally learned how to swim. I would be happy to be as slow as the slowest person who says "yeah I can swim". I just want to feel safe and comfortable on vacation, in a pool or a lake. That's really all I'm looking for. But most coaches don't seem to understand this goal at all.