I think it's like using an app for language learning. If you think 10 minutes of Duolingo every day is going to make you fluent in Chinese you're deluding yourself, but it doesn't mean that it can't be a good entry point and a good way to build discipline and gauge your progress.
I've been learning the saxophone for a few months (ask my neighbours) and have used a bunch of different methods. I find that even bad practice is good practice, so to speak. It's just important to keep a feedback loop: listen to yourself, compare yourself to good players and look for the differences. And don't just use an app, vary your training using multiple sources and methods to find what works best for you, as well and filling the gaps.
For the saxophone I found that a good way to spot bad habits force yourself to "do things right" is to force yourself to play in a different key every day. This forces you to deconstruct what you're playing, as well as making sure that you can play on the entire range of your instrument.
Sure, it's better to start with good personalized private courses with a good teacher and excellent hardware but many people wouldn't even start if that was the barrier of entry. I know that I definitely wouldn't have.
Having to unlearn bad habits a few years down the line is annoying, but it's not the end of the world.
Bad habits are often linked to repetitive injuries in the long run. This is something that you don't really notice several months in, but will bite you when you start to play a lot.
If you really want to self-teach, I would suggest at least take some classes in the beginning to properly form your posture.
I feel like it's overstated. Take people's postures in front of a computer: it's often terrible. Bad posture, bad keyboard usage, non ergonomic hardware etc... Yet we survive. Sure, it can create problems after years of constant abuse (RSI etc...) but generally that's true for people who spend multiple hours every day doing it wrong.
If you learn to play piano 30 minutes every day for a year you'd really have to be doing it critically wrong to manage to maim yourself.
Of course if you manage to stick with it long term and really commit a lot of time practicing, you better learn good posture sooner or later, but I don't think it's worth front-loading all stuff. It just raises the barrier for entry without huge benefits IMO.
>This is something that you don't really notice several months in, but will bite you when you start to play a lot.
Sure, I completely agree, but unlearning bad habits, while annoying, is part of getting good at anything I think. You need to pick your battles when you're starting, there's so much to learn.
For me the equivalent would be teaching a programming course, but insist that everybody must be touchtyping in Dvorak on ergonomic keyboards when they're coding. While it's not necessarily bad advice in the long run all it'll achieve is make your students think that programming is a lot harder than it really is.
> Bad posture, bad keyboard usage, non ergonomic hardware etc... Yet we survive. Sure, it can create problems after years of constant abuse (RSI etc...)
Surely we’ve survived worse things. But that’s not the point.
The point is weighing the cost of a few months of lessons, and the risk of injuries.
Usually beginners don’t have to find the most expensive teacher; a undergraduate would suffice.
Why risk bad habits when there is an affordable alternative?
I've been learning the saxophone for a few months (ask my neighbours) and have used a bunch of different methods. I find that even bad practice is good practice, so to speak. It's just important to keep a feedback loop: listen to yourself, compare yourself to good players and look for the differences. And don't just use an app, vary your training using multiple sources and methods to find what works best for you, as well and filling the gaps.
For the saxophone I found that a good way to spot bad habits force yourself to "do things right" is to force yourself to play in a different key every day. This forces you to deconstruct what you're playing, as well as making sure that you can play on the entire range of your instrument.
Sure, it's better to start with good personalized private courses with a good teacher and excellent hardware but many people wouldn't even start if that was the barrier of entry. I know that I definitely wouldn't have.
Having to unlearn bad habits a few years down the line is annoying, but it's not the end of the world.