Learning an instrument later in life

A couple of years ago I started taking guitar lessons. I could already play drums, but drums aren't very practical (esp. if you like your neighbors/neighborhood), so guitar it was. It's been illuminating, but man, at 35 and with two kids, it's some slow going. Every time I practice - which is not that often - I wish I started back when I was 10 or something. Anyone else learning to play something new, with limited time and short term memory?

The key thing is to practice every day, even if it's just half an hour. It's much better to do 30mins/day than a couple of hours once a week. You'll remember what you learn far more easily.

^^^
I am re-learning the clarinet and music theory after 7 years of no contact and have realized small units of time devoted to practice every day is the only way. Which is the same for learning almost anything. Not that I have actually utilized this strategy with music since I was in high school, but I recognize its value.

It is difficult to set aside that time with so many other things to do! It must be even more difficult for you having children!

Picked up the guitar at 22. Still pretty putzy on it but I can play. Just play some every day and know there will be times when you fucking hate the thing and don't know why you even like music and no notes or progressions make sense coming out of you, but that mostly it will be real nice--particularly past a certain bend of the learning curve when you can noodle a simple something real casual-like, for the pleasure of it, without the megafocused strain you paddle against in the beginning even though lol u still kinda suck. It's honestly sort of zen for me to pick up my guitar, like a lot of the heaviness of the day melts off for those minutes I'm playing and I don't have to think about much else. It's just about getting past that first big hump.

This may not be an option but it really helps to have a few guitars just laying about yr pad, so whenever you find yourself with a few empty minutes it's like 'oh hay this thing', even if it's only ~five minutes~ you're at least picking it up, handling it, getting it stamped into your routine, making it something you DO, every day. Eventually it feels weird when you don't!

I have realized that I don't really have the discipline or time or skill to learn how to play an instrument very well (considered drums, but don't really want to invest the time/space/money required to be even passable) SO

I have decided to make weird dense sound collages using garageband, samples/found sound, and a synth that I bought (used) on a whim because I borrowed n/a's and was transported to awesomeland when I played with it. It's sort of a lark and sort of something I have wanted to do forever.

I don't care if anyone hears my music (will it be music? who knows), and I don't care if it's perfect. I just want to do it. I have a lot of ideas and I am looking forward to putting them somewhere. This is (one of) my resolution(s) for 2011, I am putting it here, the end.

awesome

what kind of synth did you get? how did you decide what synth to get?

well the answer to that is easy

i liked the one you loaned me (novation xio25), i managed to figure out how to use it, it was good enough for you and you're a smart person, so i bought the same one! i did a little research about it, read some reviews and looked at some tutorials/demonstrations on youtube and it seemed as good as i was likely to find at a decent price. i also figured it would give me room to grow because i don't have any idea what a lot of the features even ARE yet.

clearly i am an infantile noob when it comes to synths, but i made and recorded some satisgfyingly crushing noises yesterday and am super amped to make more.

yay! yeah it seemed like an affordable synth for all the features it has

dan has a ton of sound effects from his movies, so i look forward to incorporating stuff like that (so many kinds of wind noise!) into heavy dirgey noisy traditional songs. i am also going to try to record some stuff from movies and use that instead of lyrics. no one wants to hear me sing, i don't think. my goal is 5. 5 songs. doable, right?

i am starting with one song. if i can complete and successfully export ONE SONG i can do that 4 more times.

fully support you! friend of mine used to make records in that way, kinda. he'd run weird lost-and-found vinyl loops and cheapie field recordings and stuff through this old (i think) korg 770 he had (one time he told me, "you can make regular music on it, with notes and stuff, but it's pretty tricky.") into a 4-track. i've actually been listening to a few of them on walks to work lately, and they're really enjoyable but i kind of feel like a big disassociated weirdo by the time i get there and then have to interact with people.

you're gonna have fun with this imo

Man, I love that dissociated weirdo feeling! I hope to create that myself, like a self contained universe Thanks for your support; I too think this will be fun.

totally support everyone here. i'm 42 -- very soon to be 43 -- and i began taking classical guitar lessons a few years ago. i've now switched over to rock guitar. i play poorly, at best, but i love learning even rudimentary music theory. my experience is like josh's (v. hard to find time to practice).

i wanna hear arby's friends tapes

also yeah i know i have a horse in the race or whatever but srsly everybody with the slightest interest should take up an instrument imo, as lifelong hobbies go they are hard to beat

My combined birthday and christmas monies just about get me to digital piano range. I posted about my intention months ago, and am pretty good with the delayed gratification thing, so pleased this'll be coming to fruition shortly.

Incidentally, how would you suggest actually taking the plunge - online or proper shop? I have been to a couple of shops already and had fun; had most fun on a Farsifa as I recall.

i wanna hear arby's friends tapes

i did just open a sendspace account

i can't find the cd right now, tho :\

I played other instruments throughout my life but it was a dream of mine to play guitar. I started with guitar about 15 years ago, in my mid 20s, which seemed late at the time. I'm now actually really good at it, but for the first 3-4 years it was pretty frustrating.

The important thing as was said is to keep playing and you'll eventually improve. Past a certain point you are still learning but you sound good so it's all enjoyable. Don't worry about you should have started early - if you really love the instrument you will continue and it won't be long til you like what you hear. Think about all those kids who start bands in high school or college - they've only been playing a few years at that point, most of the time. You just have to get past the horrible first few years of playing that other people go through as goofy teenagers.

I can play bass pretty well and guitar fairly passible but I have been debating taking up the drums. I've got a practice pad and have worked on some rudiments a bit, but it is totally alien to what I know. I think I'd just like to be able to kick out a decent roll so I could use it to overdub well on recordings and better use a drum machine. I tend to doubt with my lack of coordination that I would ever be able to get my foot going to be able to play a full kit.

i might buy an organ this weekend?

i took a tiny bit of piano lessons as a kid and grew up noodling lead lines while my dad playing classic rock tunes on the living room baldwin, but i want to get good enough at least to lay down my own overdubs on recordings

What kind of organ are you thinking of getting?

grew up noodling lead lines while my dad played classic rock tunes on the living room baldwin

come to think of it this explains so much of the music i listen to

i actually am getting it at a consignment shop and i didn't make a note of the brand or anything, it was more like 'holy hell an organ i can afford that sounds ok and looks rad'

but will investigate and report back

there's always a black market for organs

it is v important to me that my secondhand liver sound awesome

you can often get big grandma organs for cheap on ebay because no one wants to ship them so they all sell to people who can pick them up. so you can always just search for ones for sale within driving distance, I got one for like $50 about 8-9 years ago

lol big grandma organs

then it will sit unused in your living room until you have to move, and the cycle continues

ha ha otm i had to get rid of my organ when we moved to chicago

except I used mine! I have some cool recordings I did with it!

some friends of mine have a grandma organ on their porch. seemed awesome at summer parties when the smokers were having organ karaoke, but now it is covered with snow. :(

i started playing with a guitar 25 months ago. is it normal to not really want to learn songs?

i have little interest in songs at all, but so many of the youtubey things are about how to learn to play something. most of the songs offered i don't like enough to learn, or they are still beyond me. my attempt at sweet jane almost gave me a seizure tho it was great fun for a minute.

i do sometimes look up a song to learn what a particular sound or sequence consists of.

i've never had lessons. i now fear i don't really think i wish to do. but i did learn the open chords and i am getting pretty tolerable at barring with the easy shapes E and A. boy did my recent electric purchase make barring feel easy. i learnt what a few of the keys consist of. and i learned quickly what caged is about.

so i just sit and practice being better at getting between chords, and more intuitive about what progressions sound good to me. it's kinda meditative. it's like, that's enough. i don't know if it'd be enough for always, but it is for now.

i'm actually rather sure i'm not making "music." it's very nice to me though.

don't know why i need to share this but maybe i'm hoping to find a different inspiration, though i'm v glad this now is satisfying.

I learned guitar in my late teens and I still think I’m learning. I basically just pick a song that’s well out of my ability and force myself to learn it with brute repetition. I play fingerstyle, so it was Nick Drake, then John Fahey, then Bruce Cockburn, and most recently Bonnie Raitt and Jobim/Gilberto. Learning songs is good, there’s a definite goal in mind and you pick up all sorts of interesting new things on the way

I've been playing since I was a kid, 30+ years I bet I've maybe learned 15 songs on guitar if that

How late in life are we talking?

I'm 50 and have been playing for 15 years maybe, I've learned less than ten songs - fingerstyle mostly. I wish I had learned more but I really struggle with getting from 80% or 90% or 95% 'complete' to 100% or close enough, to be able to fairly reliably play a song through without fucking up one thing or another. I mean I don't practise every day and sometimes I don't pick it up for months - but that's partially because of that struggle, and because it doesn't come naturally.

my wife just started learning the melodica! she's 67 <3

the dog howls along <3 <3

open C tuning is great cuz you can just put your fingers places and almost everything sounds good