Hey, everyone! I'm a native trombonist, guitar and pianist  (self-taught on those two), but I just recently bought myself a fife and I'm working on figuring the basics of woodwind instruments out. 
So I'm wondering; when you first get a new instrument that you haven't experienced before, how you YOU like to learn it?


For example, are you better with a teacher? Practicing 5 hours a day? Playing scales? Diddling around for the first 2 months? Watchya got? :)

Hello.
 
I think teaching yourself at the outset is good, it shows me how committed I'm going to be to the instrument, will normally take you far enough to produce some little pleasant passages and gives you enough knowledge to be able to select a good teacher from there.
 
Then again my main instrument is drums so it's likely I don't count. I played drums for 4 or 5 years and made out pretty well but got locked into some pretty deep ruts with my playing so eventually did some intensive coaching with some really good players.
 
If I didn't have some self-gained knowledge already though I wouldn't have known what the REAL questions were, where I was getting stuck, and conversely what my strengths were.

If you don't need to be a technician just learn lots of songs. If you need technique you need a teacher.

All a teacher is going to do (for the most part) is guide you, and force you to do the basics. Essentially, you always teach yourself. The teacher simply makes you do it....and can provide some handy tips and info to ease the path. 

I bought a mandolin a while back. It came with a chord/lesson book. That's all I needed. 

Sit down, put some music on that is compatible with a mandolin and experiment..... look up the chords in the book, try to remember the chords.... play the song again... repeat...... focus on the solo..... listen to some other mandolin players who are pro's..... try to pick up some licks...... try to replicate on the mando..... repeat..... repeat...... repeat...... do the same thing tomorrow..... 

yeah... self taught for me.

I've learned many things from You Tube instructional videos. There's many on there free for the taking. just do a search, and usually quite a few responses will come up. I've watched piano, guitar, bass, DAW lessons....

davdud101
when you first get a new instrument that you haven't experienced before, how you YOU like to learn it?

 
I think I would like to "esperience it" on my own, without any preconceived ideas ... for example ... I like my bass the way it is, and I can come up with bits and pieces that I can probably tell you a small story ... about my feel at that moment when I hear it ... it's not a song, or anything ... but it is something that I can do ... and good, bad, horrific, not a song, or bs ... is not important to me, because the feeling was there at that moment and tomorrow will be different.
 
But this is hard to do in music, and with other folks around, because so few folks are taught, to "discover" something new, and most of them think that the only time they can discover what they know/have inside, is AFTER you know the notes, the chords and what not ... and the very feeling you had, might have absolutely nothing to do with that whatsoever! I get criticized a bit for that now and then ... but it is the only way I can describe it ... I love it when someone wants to describe a moment in time, as a creative moment, and then ... on the next sentence, they work on invalidating that information because they can't repeat it ... sometimes it the "process" for learning about that moment in time, is NOT to know the notes, chords and timing ... but to simply play it as you feel it, and let it become "known" to you ... and the rest is easy for you and all of us.
 
I do this in writing all the time! and sometimes, the reason why I use ... is called  "thinking pause" in poetry, and in theater a "pregnant pause" ... but in a DAW ... a stupid waste of space and time! See the difference? ... now you lose a whole other bit and piece that woulc/could/should make a difference ... but it is not considered. You lose the ability to "color" the moment of the playing ... because it has become all too mechanical!
 
At that point, based on my experience with actors on the stage and film, you do not need 5 hours of practice a night ... all you need is "concentration", and the "pure'r" that concentration is, the better you will play it or read it, or love it, or hate it. But as you get older, sometimes the fingers don't move as well, or the legs or the teeth, and you have to limber up some ... but I'm not sure this is "practice" as much as it is just plain old ... loosen up! To help you do what you need to do. 
 
Daevid Allen used to talk about these in his guitar/spiritual seminars! And you still wonder how he has all that boundless energy on stage as he approaches 70 ...   and still does glissando better than anyone out there! ...
 
If you feel it, and get to know it ... the rest is easy and doesn't matter! You might get fussier about your setup, though, so you can get it right!

I feel I've "learned" when I can apply whatever it is I've come across in anyway I come across it.

Book a gig with it and see how concentrated you can get.  

That certainly used to be the case Mod, ol pal.  But today I'm not sure that not knowing how to actually play your instrument disqualifies you to perform in public;-)

I use the Affleck method.

Link