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I may not be the first to do this but I discovered that any musical instrument can be mastered in short order by the disciplined playng of the scales (do re me fa so la te do) multiple times. My advice (and I use it myself) is to take a sheet of paper and mark off each time you play the scales. Your goal is to play them up and down on the instrument of your choice 100 times. You should never play them less than 5 times at a sitting.
I know! I can hear you now thniking "You mean to tell me that in 20 sittings of playing the scales (5 times each) I will be able to play the instrument wth no lessons and no outside help?" Yes, that is about what I said.
Why? Because the biggest part of learning to play any instrument is to learn where the notes are on that instrument. By playing the scales 100 times you automatically train your brain to subconciously know where the notes are. If we do anything 100 times we are much bettter at it then before we started. So this method will henceforth be known as the Dolmetsch Scale Method. There will come a point where you will just think in your head "I think I could play (for instance) Old Susana" or some other tune that comes to mind while you are practicing your scales each day and at that point you will be able to pick out the tune much to your surprise. The first time won't be perfect although occasionally that does happen. But from that point on it will be a matter of a few days and you will be able to play any tune you want with surprising ease. It will be simple at first but remember it was just a week or so ago this same instrument was impossible for you to play and here you are playing any tune you want on it. After this point it is just practice, practice, practice You will improve daily. Now you will be able to get pointers on finess from other players who will now consider you one of them , not just a wanna be. They will know to some extent that you have put forth some kind of a sreious effort or you wouldn't be there. Not all will understand the Dometsch Scale Method so for the time being keep it to yourself. Me, I share it only when someone asks how to learn to play.
How did i discover this? I sat down and tried to figure a way to learn to play my late mother's violin and this was the idea I came up with. It worked so well it almost scared me . I recently tried it on an very old Diatonic 10 button accordion. Diatonics are very difficult to play because the backstroke note is not the same as the squeeze stroke note. By the time I reached 41 scales up and down I took a try at a song and it came out fine. I tried several others including some more complicated stuff and still I could play it instinctively. I have told two other would be fiddle players this method and they tried it and are now playing in public even though they both have only been playng just a few months. One heard me telling someone the method who was doubting me and this fellow, a retired minister (one of the above mentioned violin players) leaned over and said to the person, "I know it sounds crazy and simplistic but just try it . For some carzy reason it actually works!"
SO DON'T ASK A BUNCH OF PEOPLE FOR AN OPINION. JUST TRY IT. I BET YOU CAN'T GET TO 100 TIMES BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO PLAY ANY SONG YOU CHOOSE. WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE?
WHAT IF IT WORKS?
DOLMETSCH SCALE METHOD of learning to play any instrment
