Being an adult beginner

As a music teacher with a more years of experience teaching adults than teaching children, I think I have a lot to share on the subject of learning an instrument from scratch as an adult.
I get a lot of "am I too old?"s and I really wish people wouldn't think like that. I always answer, you can't go back in time and have your soloist debut be with Berlin phil at the age of 12, BUT, you don't need to be a violin rockstar to be a good fiddler and enjoy the music.
Learning an instrument will do a lot for you as an individual, for the connection between your body and soul, and will also bring a lot to your social and community life. I made a list of reasons to call that music school nearby. :)

"The Turkish violinist" by Jamie Alexander

Adults DO learn fast

Childrens' brains are more plastic than adults', and childrens' bodies tend to be less stiff too. That's all true. HOWEVER, all children do when they learn an instrument is to follow directions, often mindlessly (I know, I'm being cynic, I swear I love children, but the younger they are, the truer this statement is).
Learning adults, on the other hand, have a mind capable of complex abstraction and much deeper learning. You will get music theory since the beginning and will learn to read music much, much faster than a kid.

Music is great for everybody's brain

Did you see that TED talk about how musician's brains are different than everybody else's? [in YouTube here] Reading music can be like a puzzle to your brain, with the difference that it has the potential for many different kinds of social interaction.

Adults enjoy it more

On that social interaction thing. Think playing in an orchestra, a band, or in a chamber music group. Community and school ensembles, in particular, are wonderful - you get to cooperate with people you might have never expected to team up with. The mild anxiety of the dress rehearsal, and then the feeling you get after a successful concert (and then there's the traditional stop by the pub or having dinner afterwards).

Also, for many of my students, learning an instrument opened a door to a new cultural universe. When you experience the process of making music, the way you appreciate it changes. By being more informed about new and old composers, styles, and atists, you'll acquire a clearer perception of your own taste in music. 

 from http://es.artquid.com/artwork/226228/despues-de-que-el-violinista-flamenco-amplia-astoshenko.html

Adult beginners inspire

And by bringing culture to yourself, you bring culture to you home and community. Children of musician parents have a better chance of appreciating music and wanting to learn an instrument themselves. Families of a musician go to concerts more often. It's great for your family and for the cultural life of your city - ballet and opera companies, orchestras, concert halls, emerging artists and composers, they all survive on public appreciation.

"The old violinist" by Mark Landis. http://www.intenttodeceive.org/gallery/

Bonus: adult beginners are so supportive of each other!

There are some really nice resources out there for adult beginners to consult and be inspired. I will list the violin ones, because that's what I know best. If you know of any others, please let me know.

The Violin Guild is one of my favorite facebook groups, has many insightful and inspiring posts from amateurs and professionals. There are tons of violinists (and adult beginner) groups in FB, some of them area-specific.

Violinist.com has an adult beginner blogger called Krista it's worth the read;

ViolinMasterClass has some nice videos of technique if you need a quick review of something you went over in class and don't quite remember how to do when you get to practice (common complaint for both young and old btw).

If you are an adult beginner or are thinking about learning an instrument, please share your story on the comments section. What is the best part? What is the hardest?


***
I wrote this text as an aid to help me organize a speech in this course on Public Speaking I'm taking at Coursera; if you're interested on public speaking (or, like me, just need to know more about it for professional reasons) I definitely recommend this course.

Also I had lots of fun looking for images for this post. I tried to include only art I could publicize, but some links were confusing. I do not own any of these images. If you are the owner of one of them and need me to take it down, let me know.

A slow beginning

Hi there.
I know I said there would be one post per week. Truth is, I'm not used to such discipline anymore. I have about a dozen post sketches that are this close to be completed, but for some reason they won't complete themselves, no matter how long I stare at them blankly.

This is my last week of vacations and I'm stuck in Parkinson's law: too much free time, so no shit gets done. I do all productive stuff (including writing here) in homeopathic dosage, usually by the end of the day, when I feel a little desperate about how much time I already wasted.

As sitting my ass at the desk and actually writing is still a bit painful, it might take a little while for me to get going with this. But I promise there are already a bunch of interesting posts on their way.

See you next time.