Are you an adult who thinks your your musical instrument ship sailed long ago? Is playing an instrument such as guitar or piano something you always dreamed of, but you never received lessons as a child? Or maybe you have always just assumed you have no musical talent?
Many adults dream of experiencing the joy of playing a musical instrument, but assume it's just too late to start. But unlike your athletic career (yes your NBA or NFL window is probably shut tight at this point), music provides incredible opportunities to learn new skills and experience creative joy for adults in their 30's, 40's, 50's and older! To support this theory here are some age statistics that might surprise you regarding some of your possible popular favorite musical artists: B.B. King, 88 years old (was still doing tour dates in 2014), Paul McCartney age 72, Bruce Springsteen age 65 (he is apparently still a "spring chicken" compared to the other guys! If you could learn and instrument and play into your eighties or even nineties, wouldn't that be awesome?
Kind of crazy to think about! At Creative Guitar Learning of Carrollton (we also offer lessons on piano, voice, etc) we have lots of adult students who are having a great time learning and playing instruments. Some are just playing for fun at home, and some are actually learning to perform on stage!
There are some pretty important factors to consider when deciding to learn a musical instrument as an adult though:
1) Choosing the right instrument - Maybe your first instrument didn't turn out to be the musical journey you expected for one reason or another. Perhaps it was the right instrument but just the wrong time in your life to start it, or maybe it wasn't the right instrument for you. Or maybe you have never even tried to play a musical instrument. As an adult learner, choosing the right instrument is pretty critical. For example with piano, you can hear the melodies (the actual tune of the song) coming out typically from the right hand right away, even with beginner songs. It's easy to make notes have a good tone on the piano, you simply strike the key. With guitar, typically often beginners learn to strum chords first and you would need to sing or have someone else sing or play the melody if you are playing popular songs (although on guitar their are also styles such as chord melody, fingerstyle, etc where the melody comes out in the song as well). Or maybe your instrument is your voice, and you just need some proper training on how to use it correctly!
2) Are you a patient person? - Most adults in our society are conditioned to wanting to learn things FAST! Whether it's a new software at work or an app for your phone, it seems we want things to be super intuitive and quick, and if they are not, we can give up on them rapidly. Musical instruments are designed to make beautiful sounds, and rarely would anyone accuse a clarinet or saxophone of being super "intuitive". But both piano and guitar are pretty easy instruments to learn beginner skills where you can have a good time playing songs, and even sound like some songs on the radio. But you should know up front, learning and mastering a musical instrument is a life long relationship, and even artists who have been playing many years often just want to keep learning more and more. At Creative Guitar Learning, we are often asked by students "How long will take for me to get good". Well that depends on several factors such as how much God given ability or talent you have, and how also much time you have to practice. While having some musical talent does definitely help, even students with marginal talent who practice regularly can have a blast playing an instrument!
So, here is a conversation I often discuss with potential students. Your current self might be saying something along the lines of "I sure wish I could play guitar or piano, but it would probably take me a year or two before I could really sound like much, oh just forget it". However if your future self from two years from now could speak with your present self, it might be saying something like "Do it! This is so much fun, you sound great now! I'm sure glad you made the decision to start playing two years ago!"
Randy Stone, the author of this article, is the Owner and Senior Level Guitar Instuctor at Creative Guitar Learning of Carrollton. Over the span of his career he has taught many adult students ranging in age from eighteen to over eighty years old. For additional information please visit the Creative Guitar Learning website at www.creativeguitarlearning.com