This is an interesting article/podcast.
"If you have the urge to make music but never had lessons as a kid — or quit before you got any good — don't despair. Sure, most professional musicians started when they were young. But neuroscientists and music teachers alike say it's never too late. And it turns out, the biggest hurdles aren't stiff hands or an aging brain". http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98754560
Couldn't agree more. I started fiddle at 35 after playing wind instruments all my life. I'm loving it more everyday after a year and a half or so. Sure there are days I want to pitch it out the window, but frustration is part of learning! It's not too late if you want to bad enough!!
I started playing the banjo about 7 yrs ago, Im in my mid 40s now. I plan on learning new instruments and types of music when I get older. Some of the best musicians at my session are people at retirement age.
I started playing the fiddle at 54. I'm learning much faster then I thought was possible for someone starting at the age.
I love everyminute of the learning process as well as the playing. That's something I think younger folks sometimes dont appreciate. I do have issues with my hands but the mobility of my left hand has actually improved. I guess it's true that you should keep moving if you have arthritis.
"But neuroscientists and music teachers alike say it's never too late. And it turns out, the biggest hurdles aren't stiff hands or an aging brain."
No....I agree. Cranky bosses, attention-demanding Herselves and Himselves, falling down 'money-pits' that fit the family and are now to big to live in and to expensive to operate, the informal time-sucking obligations to those in the web of relationships woven over a life time.
I know I agreed with Bogman in another post yesterday about the value of the 'f-em' mind-set....It's just very hard to maintain when (after being completely focused on a phrase that the aging hands and aging brain are struggling to comprehend) Herself stands in front of you and proclaims "Didn't we say you were driving me to the _______ (fill in the Blank)??!?
But as I advance in maturity (better phrase than getting old) I am increasingly to err on the side of 'F-em'
I am playing my box. I may not get the tune as fast, or burn it in in a few reps....But every once in a while, something clicks....
One step forward.
I think I now know what the meaning of that old truism 'everything is fine as long as your health'.
I started fiddling after 40 though I did have violin lessons as a teen and a few later on. I started melodeon (one and two rows) at 50+. I have made progress, I believe I am approaching mediocrity and hope to go beyond.
I have decided, though, that for the next instrument I will start when I am 6, as my 4 children did!
I think that basically the way to think about it is that if say learning to play at all competently will take five years, those five years will go by anyway- whether you learn to play or not- and if you're learning to play, in five years you will be playing an instrument that you weren't before.
I didn't get to do any of this as a kid, so I'm just having a blast having my second childhood or something ;). I started playing fiddle, and still do- have since added whistle, started irish flute, and want to add low whistle as well. I really, really want to play the Uilleann pipes too so if I can pull that off as well, I'll be pretty pleased. I'm also learning irish step dancing as well- never got to take dance lessons as a kid either so why not...... and I have found I am catching on and it is loads of fun.
At a session I play at there is someone who occasionally attends who is an older woman who is a classical flute player who has recently taken up the whistle- her husband is in his 80's- he has never played an instrument before but has gotten inspired by what he has been hearing and is taking guitar lessons! I think this is way cool actually...... so go for it!
This was great fun: revisiting a session you'd bailed on and discovering that in the meanwhile very likable player X had been focusing on a new instrument and could now play circles around smug longtime player Y—on his very noise-maker of choice.
I'm 47 and started guitar at 11. I 'm now learning Flute from 3 months and my passion make me improve my playing each week!
Passion and regular work; that's all I think we need!
Christophe
Another advantage is that the pathways developed later in life help when something goes wrong. One of our session members had a stroke and lost the use of his hands temporarily; but because he was a whistle player, and whistles are small and easy to carry, he would play the whistle while waiting for his rehab and other medical things. it took some time, but his muscle memory helped him overcome the effects of the stroke faster than a lot of other people in his position. His doctor told him that he wasn't sure what he was doing, but to keep at it.
When you are older, frustration seems to be easier to deal with. Or perhaps there is more patience having worked through things in the normal drudgery of making of living.
Or maybe appreciating the escape the instument gives from the drudgery
Mandogal-I had a stroke after play guitar my entire life. Blew out the left hand completely. The small movements of whistle playing were so much easier to do than stretching across a guitar fretboard. The whistle was great therapy for me also! Now, 8 years later, I'm back to (simple) guitar, play banjo pretty well(because of the small scale and an odd tuning) and can play a few jigs on a concertina.
Maybe tin whistles should be standard equip in the neurology depts of hospitals everywhere!
Back when I was in my 20's a few of us set up a music school for adult beginners. I always found them much easier to teach - not because they learned faster, but because they let me know if they didn't understand anything, and because they practiced because they really wanted to, not because they were made to.
a friend of mine taught me 2 or 3 chords on guitar a few years ago and i'd love to really start learning. he used to draw out the six lines for the strings and would have circles on each of them (some filled in, some blank circles) and i was able to parctice a few songs.
i think they might've been called 'tabs', anyone know where i can get these on the net? i found them very easy to follow and could easily sit and read them on my own.
i'd also like to try the tin whistle while i'm at it, if there's a way of learning it that way as well?
Thanks all
I have played guitar most of my life and fretless banjo in a band.I am now 64. I have always said in my mind that one instrument I will never be able to play is the violin and I think I based this on trying my youngest sons instrument when he was learning violin and realising that it was in a different league to guitar and fretless banjo in terms of difficulty to learn.
Now I am thinking differently and have bid on a fiddle on ebay and going to give it a real try. OK I will never be a Nigel Kennedy. none of that kind of thing matters. Just being able to play a little but reasonably well is all I want
Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
This is an interesting article/podcast.
"If you have the urge to make music but never had lessons as a kid — or quit before you got any good — don't despair. Sure, most professional musicians started when they were young. But neuroscientists and music teachers alike say it's never too late. And it turns out, the biggest hurdles aren't stiff hands or an aging brain".
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98754560
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by old and in the way
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
Slogan for the Lionel Train Company-
"it's never too late to have a happy childhood"
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
Couldn't agree more. I started fiddle at 35 after playing wind instruments all my life. I'm loving it more everyday after a year and a half or so. Sure there are days I want to pitch it out the window, but frustration is part of learning! It's not too late if you want to bad enough!!
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by FiferFiddler
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
I started playing the banjo about 7 yrs ago, Im in my mid 40s now. I plan on learning new instruments and types of music when I get older. Some of the best musicians at my session are people at retirement age.
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by BanjoBongo
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
I started playing the fiddle at 54. I'm learning much faster then I thought was possible for someone starting at the age.
I love everyminute of the learning process as well as the playing. That's something I think younger folks sometimes dont appreciate. I do have issues with my hands but the mobility of my left hand has actually improved. I guess it's true that you should keep moving if you have arthritis.
Mary
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by Antikhntr
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
"But neuroscientists and music teachers alike say it's never too late. And it turns out, the biggest hurdles aren't stiff hands or an aging brain."
No....I agree. Cranky bosses, attention-demanding Herselves and Himselves, falling down 'money-pits' that fit the family and are now to big to live in and to expensive to operate, the informal time-sucking obligations to those in the web of relationships woven over a life time.
I know I agreed with Bogman in another post yesterday about the value of the 'f-em' mind-set....It's just very hard to maintain when (after being completely focused on a phrase that the aging hands and aging brain are struggling to comprehend) Herself stands in front of you and proclaims "Didn't we say you were driving me to the _______ (fill in the Blank)??!?
But as I advance in maturity (better phrase than getting old) I am increasingly to err on the side of 'F-em'
I am playing my box. I may not get the tune as fast, or burn it in in a few reps....But every once in a while, something clicks....
One step forward.
I think I now know what the meaning of that old truism 'everything is fine as long as your health'.
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
not no. I meant yes...in line 2
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
A friend of mine started to play accordeon only two years ago. And she's 78 now!! And she's doing fine actually.
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by brotherstorm
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
I started fiddling after 40 though I did have violin lessons as a teen and a few later on. I started melodeon (one and two rows) at 50+. I have made progress, I believe I am approaching mediocrity and hope to go beyond.
I have decided, though, that for the next instrument I will start when I am 6, as my 4 children did!
Slán
Dan
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by curamach
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
I think that basically the way to think about it is that if say learning to play at all competently will take five years, those five years will go by anyway- whether you learn to play or not- and if you're learning to play, in five years you will be playing an instrument that you weren't before.
I didn't get to do any of this as a kid, so I'm just having a blast having my second childhood or something ;). I started playing fiddle, and still do- have since added whistle, started irish flute, and want to add low whistle as well. I really, really want to play the Uilleann pipes too so if I can pull that off as well, I'll be pretty pleased. I'm also learning irish step dancing as well- never got to take dance lessons as a kid either so why not...... and I have found I am catching on and it is loads of fun.
At a session I play at there is someone who occasionally attends who is an older woman who is a classical flute player who has recently taken up the whistle- her husband is in his 80's- he has never played an instrument before but has gotten inspired by what he has been hearing and is taking guitar lessons! I think this is way cool actually...... so go for it!
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by fiddlinfarmer
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
Started the fiddle when I was 63, but I'd been playing the cello since I was 11, and the piano since 5, so there must have been some carry-over.
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
This was great fun: revisiting a session you'd bailed on and discovering that in the meanwhile very likable player X had been focusing on a new instrument and could now play circles around smug longtime player Y—on his very noise-maker of choice.
Priceless fun for everyone there. Almost.
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
I'm 47 and started guitar at 11. I 'm now learning Flute from 3 months and my passion make me improve my playing each week!
Passion and regular work; that's all I think we need!
Christophe
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by KrisAudio
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
Another advantage is that the pathways developed later in life help when something goes wrong. One of our session members had a stroke and lost the use of his hands temporarily; but because he was a whistle player, and whistles are small and easy to carry, he would play the whistle while waiting for his rehab and other medical things. it took some time, but his muscle memory helped him overcome the effects of the stroke faster than a lot of other people in his position. His doctor told him that he wasn't sure what he was doing, but to keep at it.
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by Mandogal
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
When you are older, frustration seems to be easier to deal with. Or perhaps there is more patience having worked through things in the normal drudgery of making of living.
Or maybe appreciating the escape the instument gives from the drudgery
# Posted on March 26th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
Mandogal-I had a stroke after play guitar my entire life. Blew out the left hand completely. The small movements of whistle playing were so much easier to do than stretching across a guitar fretboard. The whistle was great therapy for me also! Now, 8 years later, I'm back to (simple) guitar, play banjo pretty well(because of the small scale and an odd tuning) and can play a few jigs on a concertina.
Maybe tin whistles should be standard equip in the neurology depts of hospitals everywhere!
# Posted on March 27th 2009 by shanty
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
I saw a guy at a session once that was like 45 and just learning the fiddle.
# Posted on March 27th 2009 by beginner4567
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
Back when I was in my 20's a few of us set up a music school for adult beginners. I always found them much easier to teach - not because they learned faster, but because they let me know if they didn't understand anything, and because they practiced because they really wanted to, not because they were made to.
# Posted on March 27th 2009 by Bredna
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
a friend of mine taught me 2 or 3 chords on guitar a few years ago and i'd love to really start learning. he used to draw out the six lines for the strings and would have circles on each of them (some filled in, some blank circles) and i was able to parctice a few songs.
i think they might've been called 'tabs', anyone know where i can get these on the net? i found them very easy to follow and could easily sit and read them on my own.
i'd also like to try the tin whistle while i'm at it, if there's a way of learning it that way as well?
Gerard, http://www.raidiofailte.com
# Posted on March 30th 2009 by Raidio Failte
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
If you're on your death bed, it's too late.
# Posted on April 13th 2009 by Leendah
Re: Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument
Thanks all
I have played guitar most of my life and fretless banjo in a band.I am now 64. I have always said in my mind that one instrument I will never be able to play is the violin and I think I based this on trying my youngest sons instrument when he was learning violin and realising that it was in a different league to guitar and fretless banjo in terms of difficulty to learn.
Now I am thinking differently and have bid on a fiddle on ebay and going to give it a real try. OK I will never be a Nigel Kennedy. none of that kind of thing matters. Just being able to play a little but reasonably well is all I want
# Posted on April 16th 2009 by dockbogggs