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[Angle]

I've never had any schooling on music, but I just decided I'd like to try it out. Do you guys have any advice on acquiring and learning to play an instrument, preferably for cheap?

[LordBucket]

1) There's no shortage of teaching material available online. Look, I'm sure you'll find it.

2) I advise learning to read sheet music in real time. That's likely to take a good deal of practice, but it pays off when it comes time to learn and play new pieces. You don't necessarily need to be the guy who can pick up a piece of sheet music he's never seen, glance at it then sit down and play it flawlessly, but you probably also don't want to be the guy who's memorized 2-3 songs and can't play anything else. Yes, improvisation is a thing, and it's impressive when done well, but unless you're specifically looking to play jazz, it's probably not a year one goal. Learn to read.

3) What do you want to learn to play? Ebay and craigslist are options. Acoustic guitars are cheap. Be patient and you might be able to find an electronic keyboard for $100 or less. Or, if you're near a college you might check their music department. It might be possible to take a semester long class for less than the cost to buy an instrument. Or, possibly borrow theirs for free. For example, at my local community college the piano rooms are kept unlocked and few people use them. Anyone can walk in pretty much any hour of the day or night and have their own private piano in a closet for a few hours. But you'll probably benefit more from choosing something you're enthusiastic about and making it happen than choosing something you don't care for only because it's cheap.

4) Practice a lot.

[Blargityblarg]

Possibly more important than practicing a lot is practicing regularly and often; the leap in learning rate for going from practicing once a week to practicing once a day, even for a short time, is phenomenal

[Helmaroc]

I've played guitar for about 5 or 6 years. I play every day and it is one of my favorite things to do. If I go several days without playing (while on a trip, for instance) I begin to miss it. Learning any instrument is a constructive and worthwhile endeavor, so good luck and I hope you stick with it!

Cheap acoustic or electric guitars run anywhere from <$100 up. If you are interested in guitar and don't have a preference, learning the basics on an acoustic will strengthen your hands and make playing an electric much easier. The main thing that turns people off from continuing to play guitar is the initial discomfort you will feel in your fingertips and hands. However, I promise if you practice just a little everyday, within a few weeks your fingers will toughen up and the muscles of your hand(s) will be strong enough for you to play comfortably. If you can get past this point, progression will be comfortable and enjoyable from then on. There are endless free resources online for learning to play guitar and learning to read tablature is easy and will allow you to learn almost any song. For popular songs there is an accurate tab out there 99% of the time. Unless you want to learn something very obscure you can use tabs to at least get the general idea.

LordBucket's advice to learn sheet music is solid. Learning the more 'technical' aspects of playing music (sheet, scales, theory, chord structure etc) will probably not be as exciting as learning to play actual songs but it greatly expands your ability to understand and create music. Understanding music at a technical level allows you to easily bring ideas to life without having to fumble around with trial-and-error. Lessons can help, but there are plenty of free resources online for this as well.

Whatever instrument you decide on, try to have fun with it and don't hesitate to mess around and make stuff up, even if at first you don't know what you're doing. A combination of serious practice and improvisation/playing around will make the experience more enjoyable and easier to stick with. I am most satisfied while playing either when I master a difficult piece, or when I make up something that I like.

[metime00]

If you're looking for something cheap, you can get a pretty great harmonica for about $35 dollars, although if you became serious you'd probably end up buying extras to play in different keys.

The main thing I can give as advice is to make practice fun. Don't focus so much on the "play this song good" as your goal, make the process of getting there and improving and just playing fun. That's the most important thing to me.

[Caz]

Get a flute. Flutes are cool.

[Angle]

I'm considering Either a flute or a guitar. I'm going to try and get a working version of Agora out before I take anything else up, though. Thanks everyone for the advice anyway, It'll come in handy when I get around to following it.

[Arx]

Flutes are hells of expensive, as a flautist. They sound amazing though.

[i2amroy]

1) Flutes are the type of instrument where the quality of the instrument and your sound is pretty directly related to the cost (and expensive ones can cost thousands of dollars). On the other hand if you are looking for a wind instrument that can still sound rather well even at cheap prices I'd suggest checking out a trombone. I've got a friend who literally picked his trombone up for $5 on ebay and according to a Trombone professor that I know the sound is almost identical to that of another friend's several hundred dollar one. Alternatively as people have mentioned you can pick up a stringed instrument like guitar or ukulele for pretty cheap and find tons of online resources.

2) Definite +1 to the reading music idea. I've been a musician for most of my life, and while it takes a bit more work to learn how to read, it's definitely worth it. If you are planning on playing something other than a guitar-esque instrument you will need to learn, no doubt about it (unless you are specifically playing jazz, and even then you still want to). If you are learning something guitar-esque then the difference between just being able to read tabs and being able to read sheet music is like the difference between being Joe-shmo with a hammer who "once built a box" and the guy with the complete carpenter's workshop in his garage who routinely builds his own furniture. It's a big difference.

3) Practicing sucks, unless you have a true "must be the best" mentality. My biggest suggestion is picking at least 3-5 half hour periods that you can reliably practice in, and making sure to do it at those times every week. I can tell you that even after years of playing I still don't like to practice, so it's just something you need to get used to in most cases.

4) Check our your community resources. Most cities will have some form of community band/orchestra that you can join once you get the basics down. Most larger cities will also have someone who can give you lessons at the beginning (though these can be kinda expensive depending on the instrument). If you live in a college town I highly suggest checking out the college music department for lesson givers. Most music education majors are required to give X many lessons as part of their degree schooling, so you can often get lessons for really cheap or even free. If you know what you want to play but haven't actually purchased an instrument yet, I'd say call up your local middle school or high school band director. Most of them will be willing to give you some good company names to check out and respective prices (though obviously this depends on your local music department, you might not have as much luck with the 7-person music class teacher as with the 40-person band only one).

[LordBucket]

I'm considering Either a flute or a guitar

 * You'll probably have more occasion to play guitar than flute
 * Guitar fills more roles than flute. You can play solo. You can play lead. You can play rhythym. What have you ever seen a flutist do besides sit in the back of the orchestra with a dozen other flutists all playing the same thing?
 * Related, if you ever want to jam with anyone or be in any band with friends, you're going to have a much easier time integrating with others playing guitar.
 * Playing guitar, it's possible to change your "sound" more easily. Even if you learn on acoustic, you can then pick up an electric and have an entirely different sound. Guitars have a wide range of sounds, and even a single instrument can produce a very different effect using a neck pickup. If you play flute...you're pretty much playing flute. Sure you can probably adapt easily enough to piccolo or something, but the range of types of sound is very much smaller.
 * It's possible to play both melody and harmony together on a guitar because you have five fingers. You can't with flute, because you have only one mouth. Flute makes a poor solo instrument. For example, Watch this video. He's playing harmony with his thumb and melody with his other fingers. Here's the same song on flute. She can't do that, so has to put in a CD for harmony and play melody only.
 * You're more likely to impress girls with a guitar than a flute
 * For that matter, not even just girls. Imagine showing up to a party with your guitar, and playing a couple songs. You could do that. Now imagine showing up to a party with your flute. Are you going to play it?

All that said, I think it's easier to learn to play flute well than to play guitar well. With guitar, it might take a few months even just to get to the point that your fingers stop hurting.

[Arx]

All that said, I think it's easier to learn to play flute well than to play guitar well. With guitar, it might take a few months even just to get to the point that your fingers stop hurting.

How much flute have you played? I would tend to disagree with this statement. You can pick up a guitar and start making sounds. If you have a friend with you, you can play some basic scales within twenty minutes, alhough it will hurt your fingers. If you pick up a flute for the first time, it will probably take you half an hour to be able to play all the notes in the base octave, let alone accurately or in the higher octaves.

That's actually probably pretty discouraging, unless you're a bloody minded elitist idiot like me.

* It's possible to play both melody and harmony together on a guitar because you have five fingers. You can't with flute, because you have only one mouth. Flute makes a poor solo instrument. For example, Watch this video. He's playing harmony with his thumb and melody with his other fingers. Here's the same song on flute. She can't do that, so has to put in a CD for harmony and play melody only.

Objection!

Also, that guitarist is way better than that flautist in your videos.

[LordBucket]

How much flute have you played

Personally? Probably under an hour total, 5-10 minutes here and there. Never took any classes. I did piano.

If you pick up a flute for the first time, it will probably take you half an hour to be able to play all the notes in the base octave, let alone accurately or in the higher octaves.

And possibly weeks even just to develop your lips to the point that you can consistently produce notes at all instead of lispy elephant honking noises. And to get over that constant lightheaded feeling from blowing so much. Plus all the frustration of learning fingering you can't even see while you play. Sure, I get it.

But now go ask someone who plays guitar how many chords they don't know and can't play after a year.

Also, that guitarist is way better than that flautist in your videos.

That wasn't by design. I chose a song off the top of my head and did a search for both guitar and flute. The guitar video I linked was the first search result, and for flute, her video was the only result.

Objection!

Interesting. Ok, I stand corrected. It is technically possible to "play" both melody and harmony on flute if you count humming while you play. I think the spirit of my point still pretty much stands.

[Doomblade187]

As a wind player (clarinet- flute is hard, in my opinion), while I agree with lordbucket that the guitar is more popular and versatile, I would say to pick the one you want to learn more. Many music stores will let you try out instruments for free, and while flute is probably harder to pick up than guitar- in my opinion, anyway- if you get more enjoyment out of a flute, you should learn that. While I don't bring my clarinet to parties, it's a skill that I enjoy using and maintaining simply because I enjoy it.

TL;DR: Pick the one you prefer. If you don't enjoy an instrument, you won't want to learn it. If you like them both equally, then eh. Pick and choose.

[Orestes]

Doomblade and LordBucket gave you very good advices — I would also suggest the following:

If you are going to play some woodwind or brass instrument be very careful about what you are going to buy or use. The best advise you can have is from someone who knows about the instrument. If not, you will be a bit confused about the measures of the mouthpiece and the reed. Also, it will be better if someone teaches you how to assemble the instrument: some like the clarinet or like the oboe, for example, are very fragile, and small "wrong" movements could break its mechanism (it might be very frustrating if the instrument is new)

Are you searching to learn an instrument to play with other people or for personal recreation? It would be interesting to know.
Good luck with that.

[Angle]

Personal recreation. And as I said, I've decided to put it off for a while anyway.