
Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument - tortilla
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98754560
======
dilap
The article seems to imply that adults will find learning an instrument
extremely difficult and will likely never become really proficient -- but
suggests they should just lower their expectations and go ahead and try
anyway, because the experience will be enriching. Is that really "not too
late"?

As an adult trying to learn to play the piano, this is all rather depressing.

~~~
stcredzero
As someone who has taught music to adults, I can corroborate:

There is definitely a change in the brain that happens if you are heavily
exposed to playing an instrument or otherwise making music at and before 11 to
12 years of age. Adults who do not have this are handicapped like they are
missing some sort of sense. The difference is like the difference between an
immigrant's adopted language and that same language as spoken by their
children.

The former can work really, really hard and speak quite fluently and have the
grammar and most of the accent tamed as to speak very elegantly and
understandably, but they almost never get rid of the last vestiges of that
accent.

If you want your children to truly learn music, then hang out with and have
fun with people who do music effortlessly and for the sheer fun of it. This
means that you go to jam sessions at private houses. Anything that remotely
smells like a performance won't work the same way. Expose them to music done
purely for the fun of it.

If you want to learn music as an adult, you have to learn how to hear again.
The immigrant in the first example can think he's speaking perfectly, even
though native speakers clearly hear that he is not. You have to learn how to
hear again. You have to become directly aware sound stimulus, unfiltered
through the higher-level notions you've developed about it. Then you have to
correlate that with what happens when you manipulate your instrument. Keep
doing that for 3 to 5 years.

I should add that, while I was _exposed_ to music at an early age, I didn't
really take joy in it until I discovered Irish Traditional music at the age of
19. I knew back then, that it would be impossible for me to accomplish much. I
just thought if I could learn just this one tune. Then I learned a second
tune. Then I went through a period of time when I was feverishly listening to
tapes of myself and comparing what I heard myself play to recordings of
masters for 8 hours a day sometimes. Eventually, I got good enough to teach at
a school for Irish Music in the US and even qualified to compete at the Fleadh
Cheoil na hÉireann, which is basically the world competition.

My journey was two decades. The sooner you start, the more time you have to
enjoy fluency!

~~~
dilap
Hey, there's an inspirational story there. Thanks!

I think your personal experience holds true in a lot of domains: start with
something small you can wrap your head around, and then expand outward from
there.

------
projectileboy
I started taking violin lessons with my (then) 5-year-old daughter. We've been
going once a week for two years now (I'm 37), and it's a lot of fun, precisely
because I had no previous experience with musical instruments, and so I had no
expectations for myself. Additionally, it's a nice excuse to spend some time
with your kid.

~~~
cglee
That is very inspiring and yes, it does seem like a great way to connect with
your kids and at the same time teaching them the value of hard work (when I
was little, I remember thinking my parents just knew everything, with little
thought to how hard they worked to gain that knowledge).

On a separate note, are you any good? Are you better than your 5 year old?

~~~
projectileboy
Heh heh... well... I find we go back and forth, although I would imagine there
would be some inflection point at which she'll start rapidly getting better
than me.

------
Angostura
I watched GroundHog Day in my mid-30s and was inspired to learn the piano.
Stop laughing at the back. The fact is that you don't have to be good to enjoy
yourself.

My Dad started learning in his mid 70s.

~~~
tptacek
Why would anyone laugh at that? Groundhog Day is an _awesome_ movie.

~~~
gruseom
If you like Groundhog Day that much, you should check out the novel it was
loosely inspired by, The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin by P.D. Ouspensky.
Ouspensky isn't known as a novelist (he became a guru type) but up until the
end where it gets a bit doctrinal, I thought it was a thoroughly delightful
book. It's also a psychological tour de force, but I don't want to spoil the
story by explaining why.

~~~
gruseom
Oops: apparently not inspired by but, let's say, resonant with. See the
(rather pretentious) blurb by Harold Ramis on the back of the book:

[http://books.google.com/books?id=d15Nk9MmAMcC&pg=PT1&...](http://books.google.com/books?id=d15Nk9MmAMcC&pg=PT1&lpg=PT1&dq=groundhog+osokin&source=bl&ots=SwrHBGRZ2W&sig=VAqlVK2PVDUuhaNioz1TjJXJIQc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result)

------
tlb
I've been learning guitar for the last few years, never having had much
musical training as a kid. I fiddle around with it most evenings, just trying
to play stuff I like, not taking it too seriously, and I've gotten good enough
to enjoy it. I'll never be as good as [insert guitar hero here]. So what? Most
nights, my place has the best free live music within miles.

------
undertoad
"Hawkins says fear of failure is a big issue for his adult students: "We don't
want to be seen as incompetent or struggling with a task, because we are so
competent in so many areas of our life. We do so many things well, so to start
with something we don't do well is a real challenge.""

------
biohacker42
This together with The Economist article on music:
[http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story...](http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=12795510)

Is definitely tempting me to pick up a guitar again, that I have not played
since I was 12.

Anyone know if you can play quietly with an amp?

~~~
nostrademons
What I did in college was to run the guitar through a digital effects board
and then into my cheapo computer speakers (which could be set to reasonable
volume levels) or into headphones. Sound quality isn't as great, of course,
but the digital stuff doesn't really care how loud you play and sounds about
the same at all volume levels. You could get some pretty decent tones out of
the higher-end effects boards, too.

If you want sweet tube amp sound, you're basically out of luck. That's caused
by the power tubes and speakers distorting ( _not_ the pre-amp tubes), so
you've gotta crank them up to 11.

There're also some products available that cut the power ratings on standard
amplifiers. When I was into this stuff around 1998, your options were
basically limited to YellowJackets (which let you substitute 18W EL84 tubes
for EL34 amplifiers, like 50W and 100W Marshalls) and the PowerSink, which was
an induction coil that would bleed off excess power as heat before it reached
the speaker. Both of these would only cut the noise level from "will blow your
eardrums out" to "will annoy the neighbors", and so weren't really suitable
for apartments or dorms. Since then, I've heard that a bunch of manufacturers
have wised up that there's a huge market in low-power tube amps, and it looks
like you may be able to find 1-5W tube amps out there now.

~~~
Shooter
There are definitely many more low-power tube amps available now. There are
some really neat ones in the 1.5 watt config. Even still, I think there is
room in the market for more.

If you already have a larger tube amp for gigs and are obsessive about the
tube tone, I'd recommend searching for "power scaling" and "amp attenuator."
You'd be very surprised with the sounds you can achieve at decent volumes. You
can buy amps with power scaling built in or you can retrofit the circuit.
Attenuators vary in quality, but they are easy to use external devices. I'm
addicted to tube amps...and I used to like playing in my office in downtown
Chicago to blow off steam. I often used a 30 watt amp with an Air Brake
(attenuator) and I never got into any trouble because of the noise. I was able
to use the same amp to play a gig in Grant Park on a Saturday and then to play
in my 10 X 12' office on Monday.

------
ph0rque
I learned the cello for one year when I was 7 (ah, free music schools in the
USSR, one thing I do miss about that country...) I've had a renewed interest
in learning it since one of my favorite bands is Apocalyptica. But for now, I
don't have the time or money for private music lessons.

~~~
akronim
just buy a second hand cello. You'll be surprised how much you remember, and
while you may have lost the rapid learning ability you have at 7, you might
find you now associate practising more with fun than homework :)

------
sh1mmer
At 27 (not that old I know) I'm often on the road for work. I played sax for
years as a kid but I haven't picked one up in at least 12 years.

Recently I taught myself blues harp (harmonica) because it's something I can
slip in my bag. With the help of web sites and gritting my teeth I'm getting
pretty good. I'm now learning the accordion as well and plan to start on the
trumpet some time in 2009.

I love music and there is something wonderful about being able to make it your
own again. I would really recommend picking and instrument up whatever you
age. The harmonica was a great introduction for me because it's cheap, easy
and my wife could put up with me playing it.

------
ryanmahoski
I've always wanted to play the bassoon but it seemed too expensive an
instrument to purchase so until last year I had not played a single note. That
really bugged me until finally I accepted that I didn't need to buy one, I
could just rent from the local music store. It's a puzzle of an instrument -
your thumbs control ~12 keys - but half the fun was figuring some of those
nuances out by trial and error.

