by Tod Demuth

Created on: November 17, 2008

I've heard people say that they wish they had continued music lessons as a kid, but now they are too old to learn. I beg to differ; in my experience, adults make the best music students and usually the best musicians, no matter when they started playing. If you are an adult and are thinking of learning to play, there are a few general things to keep in mind.

As an adult music student, you bring much more to the table than a child brings to the study of music. You bring desire, life experience and physical maturity.

First, you have desire. You want to learn. You want to make music. The dropout rate for children taking piano is just about 99% within the first two years. I believe this is due to the fact that they 'think' they want to learn and make music due to social and parental influence. You 'know' you want to learn. The desire is yours and comes directly from you. You are the person with the vision and the dream of making music.

Next, you bring a life-long body of knowledge and life experience with you into your pursuit of music. As we like to say in the Midwest "This ain't your first rodeo!" You've been to school, you know how to work at something in order to gain a skill or to comprehend principles, etc. Most adults have mastered basic math, reading and comprehension skills. If you drive, or type (more or less) or write with a pen or pencil you've even mastered some basic tactile skills - all skills you'll be using to learn to make music on a musical instrument. Say that of a 7 year old!

Next, you're an adult, and most musical instruments are adult-sized. The piano keyboard is a perfect example. Most adults can span the eight or nine keys need to play music, while most 6 and 7 year olds can only reach five at best. That's why guitars, violins and cellos come in 1/2 and 3/4 sizes, and certain instruments are not even used in elementary band and orchestra programs - they're too big for little beginners!

Of course, you're going to have some road blocks that some children don't have. Lack of time is probably the first and biggest enemy. You have many more time commitments that will demand your attention. You're tendency will be to be frustrated with slow progress as your fingers won't do what your mind is telling them to do. You could set your desires aside. As adults, we tend to do this well. We can also be stubbornly successful when we really want to be.

Set your mind like this:

Success in making music is in the journey, not in the destination.

Once you learn to

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