Why adults can still learn to play an instrument
"Oh, I am already 46, why should I start to learn an instrument? This train I missed a long time ago...."
No! The human brain is able to learn for your entire lifetime - yes, it is indeed a necessarity in the human being: constant learning. We learn every day even until we are very old. Why do we have the opinion, that an adult can't learn an instrument anymore?
Of course as a late beginner you can not expect, that your skills are ever comparable to a child beginner. An adult beginner can never catch up this early mover advantage .
But a nice sounding musicplay is possible later too. It is never to late to start something new and if we are looking at it from the other side, we can see the 20,30,40, X years we can play music ahead of us. This can easily be many decades (!!) for an young or a midage adult!
One of the biggest advantages of adult beginner is sure the high motivation. Adults have a better mental comprehension for theory and you can easily practice for 1 - 2 hours a day in motivated phases and can work really properly on a specific training. Of course the young beginners get this theoretical knowledge in their teenager years too and they sure have a better physical training until then. Even that good, that an adult beginner can never catch up.
But hey, aren't we playing music, because we wanted to listen and play these wonderful creations ourselves? Music is deep inside everyone of us and it is such a good feeling, being able to play something that beautiful ourselves. We don't need to be perfect and don't need to have unreachable goals. Having fun on the selfmade music is the main goal. That is the beauty of music and this is worth striving for us adult learners too. And it can be reached!!! ;)
When I started to play piano as a late beginner, I learned autodidactic for the first months. It was OK for a certain time. To read notes is just theory and application - almost like learning a language. More difficult was the training of specific handmovementes and position of the chair or the arms, hands and fingers. After some months there were a lot of questions about how to manage everything with rhythm, with both hands playing different rhythms, chords, dynamics and so on. At this point I hired a teacher. Now I go to pianolessons every 2-3 weeks and I make good progress right now. The exercises for rhythm, dynamics, training routines and general advices to handposistions are very useful to me.
That is why I recommend everyone who wants to learn an instrument later in life: just do it - no matter how old you are! You will not have the speed of a 8 year old, yes. You will be even slower than your children are (*caugh) - but hey: there are decades full of the beauty of music ahead of you. It is never to late ;)
I firmly believe you only start becoming old when you stop learning new things.
46 is still young.. can play well on instrument.. start choose ur instrument.. now I'm just try learning on playing flute..
Thank you and you are so right. I'm in my upper forties and have tried to learn the guitar since I was a kid. Picking it up and putting it down so many times. Never really learning it like I would like too. I think it is time to pick it up again and see where is goes.
Sure, and grant yourself lessons from a good teacher. It makes a real difference ;) Mainly on the motivational part!
I kind of feel stupid to take lessons when I am not that young man first learning. I will have to think about that.
So I'm 37 now and I have lot of time to learn - lol
I started with 35 ;) Yes, you have still a lot of time @jawad09 :) Go for it!!!
unlike others here I'm actually gonna upvote this post
Thank you @sulev - I was wondering myself too. But maybe they waited for the 30 minutes or so
Thank you, I appreciate it :)
now you have 224 votes... that escalated quickly.
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Hmm very interesting thought! Yes, it should be normal to go to piano or guitar lessons after work.... We used to take lots of activities after school, now I wonder why everything should change radically just because we're working...
Thanks for sharing!! 😊
You're perfectly right about this. And you're right about the higher motivation adults have too. I often think how education in general might look different if we could choose what we learned the same way we do as adults. It would sure make school much more interesting! I spent so many years learning things I thought were unnecessary, only to forget them, and then having to relearn them at a later date when I realized I needed them. You can see this for instance in how many universities have a let's call it "catch up" course in their introductory year, where they basically reteach things like basic math skills, or if you take any other course they run you through the basics once more to make sure you got it. This is sad, in that it's like implying that the last 12 or so years of your life were a waste! But how do you make kids understand they need to learn something? I think giving them choices that are similar, but still give the illusion of choice, would a good way to go about it. So, for instance, if you think everyone should know math, then give them the choice between algebra and geometry, say, and then teach them roughly the same things in different ways whatever they choose! The emphasis would be different, but they would gain very similar skills, and they might be more motivated cos they think "I chose this".
I wanna learn so many things but time is the issue. I wanna learn the piano among other things.
nice Tabea, I started to play piano 5 years ago, I always play guitar, in 5 years I think Im playing very well. Today I'm 37, never is too late :-)
Please check my Yesterday or music guitar solo videos in my page :-)
Great post!!
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