Too late to learn music?

Do any of you think that there's a limit to how old you should start learning to play new musical instruments or learning about music in general?

I'm almost 21 and writing lyrics is my one and only forte. I want to create my own originals too, not just writing lyrics.
I feel like I wanna learn play the keyboard(since I always fail trying to learn the guitar ever since I was 14 years old - I can only play super basic guitar chords, no barre chords).

Most of the time I see people start learning music when they were at a really really young age but I don't know, what do you think ?



P.S: Go easy with your opinions. I've posted some other thread once and it became an online mini riot for god knows what reason. lol

It depends on your motive/goal for learning music. Generally speaking, it is never too old to begin to learn something. We learn new things in our everyday lives.

The only limit there is the Henry Ford saying - “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't. you are right.”

I'm 30 and I have my own way with words, have hearing sense almost as good as most musicians if not better but limbs and fingers do not want to play a single relation to music. I thought of learning but my brain is just not programmed for it. Like what Percivale has said, depends on your motive and goal. I wanted to learn the guitar at 15 to become a guitarist to get chicks. then I decided i'm a better recording guy than musician , even though we audiogeeknerds dont get chicks easily.
someone said to me : "follow your heart on whatever you do." I misheard as "follow your hard-on whatever you do." and I decided if I really want to go for chicks I should just work on my confidence, my "way with words" and that got me where I am today. So there you go, my motive is to 1) get laid and 2) get to work with music (though not in a musical way. in terms of audio production).

so what drives your goal and how are you going to go about achieving it? what do you see at the end of the path?

btw I also have an answer for your dilemma.. if you play piano, you're going to have very delicate soft fingers. if you play guitar , your left (assuming you're right handed) hand's fingers are going to be hardened lol. The last time I told this to a guy your age who considered picking up an instrument, he wanted his soft fingers ('For what' is what I didn't ask..) . but when I told him the costs of the average midi/piano equipment he just bailed. he loves money i guess.

Most ppl that start learning music at age 14 , usually listened to music till they got sick of just listening and decided to play/compose their own.

Most ppl that start learning music at age 4 onwards, usually are in the shadow expectations of their parents' living the dream they couldn't or most likely the parents are "working musicians" (or lecturers/teachers/classical performers) , some may like it, some have a suppressed voice that wished they had another choice to become something different like a PAP politician or a doctor that distributes MCs or a lawyer etc. To each his own here. I know some of us whose parents wished their kid wanted to be the ones I mentioned would love to be in that supportive situation.

To end it off , I'd like to say what kind of lyrics do you write? if it's kinda "rock" genre then go ahead with guitar. If you find yourself writing love songs and some day performing at your own wedding or something , then I'd go with keyboard. because with keyboard you could pick up MIDI arrangement etc the entire music production process, then with MIDI you could "play the guitar" (sound module) / other instruments with the keyboard. so that sorta makes up for it i guess. then again there are equipment that convert real-guitar playing >>> piano sound module... sorry i'm going deeper here. bye

No, keep going! I enjoyed reading your reply. I did gained some knowledge here and there. I have troubles with playing the guitar, especially barre chords. As a lyricist that plans to create/play her own originals, (in my opinion) I do need to learn more than just basic guitar chords.

Oh and yeah my fingers on my left hands hurt more than anythinggg whenever I try learning new chords, I keep asking myself "damn is this normal?" or is it because I have thin skin or am I trying way too hard due to having short fingers or is it because me and the guitar are not fated for each other lol? I really have no idea.

Maybe I'd give it a go and try again. Hah.

Erm... 21 is still considered young what! Most of my students are 30+ and are just setting out for what they've always wanted to learn in their younger days.

I would recommend switching to piano because u can see all the notes very clearly, and knowing everything clearly helps in composition. If u wanna be a virtuoso classical pianist it'll be hard, but to be a good keyboard player that can compose, not hard at all! (Provided u are hardworking) But if ur end-of-day aim is to compose, my advice is u'll need to find a teacher/mentor that has good music theory background and can compose too (rare). That'll save u alot of time.

That is the same excuses I had. "Short fingers"/"no musical genes"/"painful" then it means this - if you have excuses you don't deserve to succeed at it.. And you can from there choose to succeed at something else which you have no excuses for.

never too late, why not learn to sing ?

wooah wooah yeah ee yeaahh ...

I started learning guitar when I was 18 and the keyboard at 21. And I'm now an instructor for both the instruments. Start now and never look back!

Necrome said:

I started learning guitar when I was 18 and the keyboard at 21. And I'm now an instructor for both the instruments. Start now and never look back!

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Thanks! Kind of inspiring!

I started with drums @ 18 years old.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I'm too lazy.
Too lazy to move all my limbs around. Haha!
So I switched to guitar when I was 21.
And same here, I'm now a Guitar instructor @ Yamaha.

A fun and interesting learning journey helps a lot.

The simple punk rock songs from Blink 182 certainly kept me motivated throughout.
(The chords and it's progression were pretty simple at least. Haha)

I didn't had a worry about any sort of theory at all. I just wanted to play my fav songs.
And then comes the next step. Join a band.
Record yourself playing.
Basically, being aware of your capabilities.
I didn't hesitate to leave a band that sucked.
Not that I'm too good for them but they didn't have the same drive.
Plus the drummer couldn't keep time very well anyway.

And then, after a while of playing covers, I tried composing my own rock songs.
The idea is to be pleased with your own accomplishments.
I was glad I didn't care if people likes my songs or not.

The song is for yourself but I did consider all the constructive opinions.
And bit by bit I got better. (Well at least I think I did because people were inviting me to join their bands)

And then.... Comes the theory and everything I did before that just made even more sense and made everything after easier.

my oldest student is close to 40 yrs old.. and my uncle who is well above his 50s just picked up guitar. so nobody is too old for anything man

When music hits, it doesnt hurt!

Ive got to agree with everyone above man.. and once you start, you'll never stop.
Husband's a bass player and its crazy how music has done so much for our relationship.

Also the bond with music can start at any age, young or old! im going for this vocal workshop conducted by the crazy talented Richard Jackson so if youre interested heres the link!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1414065668868010/

in any case, theres no harm to pick up anything at any age
my husband started his musical career at 23 and he's now a sessionist for events and gigs as well!!
we've rocked the stage tgt for quite a few times because im a vocalist. i started late (professionally) too although ive always enjoyed singing as a kid!

gotta say its an amazing feeling to be performing on the same stage with the ones you love.
i say 'ones' because along the way i met amazing friends and it feels good to be tgt on stage.
chemistry and all.. really amazing.
replying this in 2013 and it seems like im so late but im gonna reply anyway because music makes the world go round hahahaha

hope youve now started your musical journey!!! cheers x

never too late !!!

before you start learning music,

let's do the JUMPING JACK !!!

Thnks for the link!

Cheers

pinkiepie said:

When music hits, it doesnt hurt!

Ive got to agree with everyone above man.. and once you start, you'll never stop.
Husband's a bass player and its crazy how music has done so much for our relationship.

Also the bond with music can start at any age, young or old! im going for this vocal workshop conducted by the crazy talented Richard Jackson so if youre interested heres the link!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1414065668868010/

in any case, theres no harm to pick up anything at any age
my husband started his musical career at 23 and he's now a sessionist for events and gigs as well!!
we've rocked the stage tgt for quite a few times because im a vocalist. i started late (professionally) too although ive always enjoyed singing as a kid!

gotta say its an amazing feeling to be performing on the same stage with the ones you love.
i say 'ones' because along the way i met amazing friends and it feels good to be tgt on stage.
chemistry and all.. really amazing.
replying this in 2013 and it seems like im so late but im gonna reply anyway because music makes the world go round hahahaha

hope youve now started your musical journey!!! cheers x

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ahh i see what you did thereee xD

JumpingJack2014 said:

never too late !!!

before you start learning music,

let's do the JUMPING JACK !!!

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tresurepressure007 said:

P.S: Go easy with your opinions. I've posted some other thread once and it became an online mini riot for god knows what reason. lol

Click to expand...

That had nothing to do with you. Somebody buisong me for whatever reason.

blueprintstudios said:

That is the same excuses I had. "Short fingers"/"no musical genes"/"painful" then it means this - if you have excuses you don't deserve to succeed at it.. And you can from there choose to succeed at something else which you have no excuses for.

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Yup. You basically limit yourself to everything you have in life. Like what blueprintstudios said, making excuses. Human often seen comfort in belittling themselves by pitying themselves, don't be one of those humans. "Oh, I can't play basketball, I am too short. Oh, I cannot dance, my body is very stiff."

I learnt the guitar when I was 21, recently learning the erhu and maybe the saxophone. I love learning and I don't care if I play bad music since I play for myself to hear. But as long as I'm having fun and I'm not harming anyone, who cares? Since your passion is in writing lyrics, pick up an instrument, and write away.

I actually recommend the guitar rather than piano for a start because chords and etc are easier on the guitar...then you move on to the piano from there but others would disagree and would prefer their musical foundation to be stronger before moving to another instrument.

But anyway, just pick up an instrument you want that can help you compose and write lyrics, and do what you want.

By the way, my erhu teacher said her oldest student is about 60 years old. My uncle at the age of 67 picked up the Cantonese opera, now going to CC to perform. So hey, never too old to start.

The hardest part about learning at an age older than our teenage years is the perceived shame of it all. The only people who would question your age when you pick up an instrument are likely the same people who have not learned an instrument at all.

Practice matters much more than our age, and the coolest part about learning an instrument is that once you get over the initial curve and you really start enjoying yourself, you will just seek out music yourself to learn.

How to get over the initial learning curve?

...Guilt yourself into doing it. I know I did.

Never too late... It's more about how far you wanna go.
Playing for ur own leisure? For friends? Performing? Taking exam? Wanna be teacher?
You choose where you want to be.

We live to an average age of 86-7 in SG. So think of all the musical enjoyment you can have ahead of you. Since you love composition, way easier and more fun to do so if you play a melodic instrument.

I am 39, started when I was 18 and never looked back! What's ahead looks even better as we mature as musicians. Look hard enough and you will find good friends to jam with. I play in 3 bands today. In one as a lead guitarist and the other two as the bass player and we do originals. The satisfaction you get from playing your own music with a fun bunch of people is something special indeed.

The learning never ends. Once you know how to learn and what to look out for, it's so easy to get material out there on the web.

So well, it's all up to you to get up and get in the shed.

Cheers

Chin Yuen