Learning a musical instrument

[rmaryt]

Can anyone suggest a musical instrument that I could learn to play myself without having t take lessons - I have some music knowledge and experience, ie I learned the piano, violin & recorder when I was at school (20 yrs ago!!!) & can read music, but am very rusty. I recently tried the guitar, but found that I would really need some music theory knowledge in order to get to grips with chord patterns. Any ideas?

[Lonnie]

I taught myself the Mouth Organ, but I was told that one of the easiest instruments to learn is the Saxaphone, maybe someone will come up to say yea or nay to that.

[kepla]

Guitar chords are most often learned from a book of 'tab' chord diagrams. Given that most popular tunes are only in three or four keys and only use a few chords, you don't need to remember that many to have a fair repertiore. Aside from that, it depends greatly on what style of music you want to learn. There are tutor books and videos done for all styles and your ability to read music, along with the theory knowledge you will hav e from that, should give you a head start.
Saxophone isn't too difficult - and it is possible by following the 'Tune a Day' course of books. The embuoche is like Clarinet and not too difficult once someone has shown you how, whereas the fingering is similar to Flute - an advancement of that you'll be familiar with from recorder.
I would suggest you immerse yourself in as greater variety of music as possible and decide what you really WANT to play - then just 'go for it'. I did.

[milkybarkid]

yeh i would learn guitar as if you only know chords g, c and f you can play hundreds of songs. if you get a chord book you can teach yourself the basics and then get song chords off a tab website.

[Lynn_M]

I would definitely recommend guitar. You can chop and change between learning chords, scales, and riffs, and perhaps picking out note-for-note tunes (e.g. the Shadows). That way you don't get bored. I can't understand how you would need 'music theory knowledge in order to get to grips with chord patterns'; just try to copy popular tunes (or write your own)!

[islandgirl]

I taught myself both guitar and saxophone and didn't find either too bad. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't kept them up though. The saxophone fingering is similar to that of the recorder. Would any local music stores or schools have second hand instruments that you could try out?