A lot of older students ask me - am I too old to learn?
My take on it - absolutely not! I have personally taught adults as old as 75 in my teaching career, and I feel you can definitely learn to play or sing no matter how old you are. However, the method and approach you learn with in your adult years is not the same as when you were younger - as an adult your brain just works differently, and you are a different person with different ways of thinking than when you were a kid. So you just have to approach learning an instrument in new ways that work uniquely for you and your brain the way it is now - and you are the only one that can truly know how your brain uniquely learns. Are you a visual thinker? Print out pictures and charts. Do you need constant review? Make sure you request your LessonFace teacher to record your lessons so you can access them whenever you want. Play to your strengths!
There is a catch, however: when we're young, we have lots of free time, but not as much focus and discipline as we have when we're older. However, when we're older, we have learned how to focus well with discipline, but usually have no free time left! So when I teach adults, I like to adjust to the fact that they have a life outside of music lessons (wife/ husband/ boy/girl-friend, kids, full-time job, mortage, car payment, etc.) and are most likely there for fun personal reasons unless they specify otherwise. Therefore, I don't put pressure on any student right away to "produce product", and you shouldn't do this to yourself either - give yourself some time to adjust and develop some new habits! Although learning an instrument is challenging, it's also supposed to be fun. So I suggest focusing more on the personal rewards at first, and put pressure on yourself to produce product later when your hands have caught up with your head.
Just a few of my thoughts on the subject - what do you think? How do you learn differently as an adult than when you were a kid?
Tyson Farmer
https://www.lessonface.com/TysonFarmer
