Even at 30, 40, 50... and beyond?

At any stage of life, past, childhood, people wonder, is it really possible to learn music later on in life?

In this blog post and video, I want to talk about the benefits of learning as a child and also the benefits of learning as an adult. And we're going to help you see what it is that actually helps you learn music as an adult.

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As I mentioned previously, there are definite advantages to learning music as a child. But I also want to say that there's definitely advantages to learning music as an adult as well.

They are really different phases of life. We have really different influences at play, and it's important to understand how learning as an adult is different to learning as a child.

The reason why people ask this question: “Is it too late to learn music?” is because they're afraid that they've lost something. Like they're not going to be able to do it, like they're not going to be able to absorb the information. There's something special about doing it as a kid that makes it easier, that makes it more accessible.

Pros and Cons: Kid vs Adult?

Let's talk about the pros and cons of learning as a kid and as an adult.

Some of the advantages to learning as a child is that you are literally like a sponge.

Kids are very open, they're very receptive, and they're in that phase of life where they're just learning everything. So they're pretty well set up for the learning process.

And especially if a child learns music through many years of their childhood, it becomes a very formative and developmental aspect of their lives. Now, there's no denying this is a great benefit.

The other things that they have going for them is because they're a child, they really listen to the teacher and to their parents for the structure, the boundaries and the consistent accountability to learning. So having those external influences is really helpful for children to develop and grow and learn a lot about music in those early years

For any parents who are thinking about getting their kids to do music lessons: 100%, 200, 1,000%, absolutely, unequivocally do it. It is so, so valuable on many levels.

Some of the downsides of learning as a kid is that you don't get a lot of choice about what you're learning.

Hopefully, if it's a good teacher, they're going to talk to the child about what music they like. They're going to talk to the parents about what their parents want. But a lot of the time, children are just receptive of what they're given. And so depending on the environment or the teacher that you had or what your parents expected of you, you may or may not have got what you needed.

I know for myself, I'm extremely grateful for the musical education I had as a child, but I didn't get to learn the music that I liked. And I had a very love-hate relationship with music and practice when I was younger.

So there are definitely pros and cons to the process, and it really all depends on your experience and the influences that you had during that time.

Now, learning as an adult can be really, really great. Because you're an adult, you get all the choice. You can determine your path. You can be very specific and very directive about what you want to learn - if you know what you want to learn.

Adults are more self-aware and usually they're a bit more connected to an understanding of what music is about and what it's for, what it's about for them in their lives. And that's a really great benefit to unfolding that music journey for yourself.

One of the really great things about learning music as an adult is that adults understand abstract concepts a bit more easily than kids do. In music, there is a bit of abstraction. In order to understand the structure of music and how it all works, we have to think in slightly abstract ways so that we can utilize that information. So it is a different way of learning. It's a different way of understanding.

Sometimes adults can actually absorb and understand information quicker and easier than kids do. What might take a child one year or two years to get through and to embody into their experience, an adult might do that in a much shorter time. Adults are fully developed human beings - well, at least for the most part! With commitment and with real intention in the music journey, they can really move through things in a relatively straightforward and quick fashion.

And that's the real key. It's about choices and commitment. As an adult, we have all the choice and you can learn anything that you choose and commit to.

I think what people fear is that when they're older, they lose something from what they had as a child. But I just want to clear that up. There's pros and cons to both, and it's absolutely possible for anyone to learn anything at any age if they choose to do it. If they choose to put in the work. And if they choose to understand what it means to do something at the age that they're at and what it's going to require of them.

I would say that what's really most important is that you truly understand the reason why you want to learn music, that deep core drive, that calling that you feel. Because I'm willing to guess that if you're 30, 40, 50, 60, 70... you might have felt that call for a little while. And more than likely you've had some kind of peak experiences in your life where music has just absolutely lit you up. Those are the experiences that drive your inspiration to learn music.

But then the doubts come in because we have these messages, we have these assumptions in our culture about who's talented, who is deserving, who has permission to learn music. And all of these assumptions are... just crap, quite frankly.

There's always some people for whom something is more challenging and another person is less challenging. That's just the nature of life. We all have aptitudes, we all have tendencies. But learning something like music is a lot more about intention, commitment and mindset than it is about talent.

So when you're asking the question, is it too late to learn music? NO, it is never too late to do anything that inspires you and lights you up as long as you know the reasons why and stay connected to those reasons.

Just think for a moment, what in life would be worth the commitment? What outcome would be worth the work?

If you think back to those peak experiences that you've had - and that could have been dancing, it could have been having a singalong around the campfire with friends, it could have been a concert of one of your favourite artists or bands. It could have been doing a performance yourself earlier in your life. Peak experience in music can come in many forms, but it's always the inspiration.

So if you were able to recreate that feeling or recreate what you intuitively know is possible with music because of that feeling, would that be worth the work and the commitment? Would that be worth challenging yourself? Would that be worth the growth that music would ask of you, not just in a musical way, but on a personal level as well?

The growth of being able to be intentional about your mindsets, the growth of how you relate to yourself, your self-belief, your self-worth,

We learn music when we learn music, quite obviously. We learn how to play an instrument, we learn maybe how to read music, maybe not. Maybe we learn music by ear or we learn it from recordings, or we learn just directly from somebody else by being shown. And those are the physical and the mental dimensions of learning music. What we learn to do with our body and what we learn with our mind. The knowledge that we gather and how we use that knowledge.

There are many more dimensions to learning music because, as I always say, it always brings up your stuff.

Music is going to challenge you not only physically and mentally, but it's going to challenge you emotionally and it will ask you to expand your concept of who you really are.

You can pace that journey however you like. You don't have to dive right in all at once and overwhelm yourself. It truly is a lifelong journey, but it's important to know that music will ask things of you that you haven't yet developed in yourself. And if you're willing to take that journey and embark on that growth, then you absolutely can start learning music at any age.

What stands in the way of somebody at a later stage of their life learning music has less to do with whether they have the actual physical and mental capacity to do so, but it has more to do with whether they allow themselves to do it. Whether they let their thoughts or their assumptions or their self judgments get in the way.

Brain Plasticity

It's also really helpful to know about brain plasticity, and if you're interested, you can search this up online. There's a lot of information out there about the nature of brain plasticity and the way that it's essentially like a muscle in the body.

If you use it, you get to keep it.

And the great thing is that the actual act of learning something new helps us to maintain and develop our brain plasticity all the way through our life. So the more you just continue to use your brain and body for something like learning music, the more that's going to be available to you.

There are also other things that you can do to create a lifestyle that supports your learning. Things like exercise, healthy diet, all of that foundational stuff really assists with the learning process and our brain plasticity as we age.

I think of my mother who reacquainted herself with watercolour painting in her seventies. She used to do it earlier on in life, but gave it up for many decades and she came back into that for her own enjoyment at a late stage of her life and absolutely loves it. She has many activities that she does, like singing, watercolor painting, sewing, plays bridge. She does all of these different things to maintain her brain plasticity and her presence in life and her capacity to continue doing the things that she loves in her later years.

So if anything, it's exactly what you need to do in order to allow yourself to continue learning new things all throughout your life and just continue having a life that feels worth living because you're filling it with the things that you love.

Start Learning Music?

To really determine if, personally for you, you should start learning music or whether you can, I want you to just contemplate these three questions:

What have been your peak music experiences?

Dancing, going to a concert, performing music yourself, singing with friends or playing with friends, whatever it might be. What are those peak experiences that give you that drive and that desire and that inspiration to learn music and get closer to that experience yourself? That's your North Star, and that would be the reason why it would be worth the work and the commitment.

Are you willing to create a lifestyle that supports your learning?

This has to do with time, giving the learning process enough time and enough space in your life. And it also has to do with supporting yourself to be in a good space for learning. Maybe it means also learning other new things at the same time so that you're in that mode just like kids are, you're in that mode of learning and you're in that receptive state. It can also have to do with self-care, making sure that you're exercising and eating well, because it definitely supports your brain, your ability to focus, your ability to pay attention, which of course is going to assist in the learning process.

Are you willing to face the process and the challenge of learning with a growth oriented mindset?

This means being willing to approach yourself with compassion to approach the process with understanding and patience, to bring an attitude and a mindset of curiosity and engagement. And are you willing to make that commitment over time? Because that's what those are the conditions that kids benefit from when they learn at a young age. So as adults, we just have the job of creating those conditions for ourselves.

If you answered yes to all these questions, you can really define your response to these questions in a way that gives you that inspiration and that willingness to roll up your sleeves and do the work....

Then there is no question that it is never too late to learn music.

Music can be a friend. It can be a companion to our lives. And that's really where it shines. You don't have to be a performer. Of course you can perform if you want to. There's always that wonderful contribution to our culture. But music doesn't have to be that for everyone. Music can just be our own personal friend. It can be a confidant, it can be a little bubble that we create for ourselves, that we get to inhabit and come to know and feel and express ourselves more deeply - for ourselves first and then for the people around us if we choose to share.

So please drop a comment on the video!. Let me know what age you are and what experience with music you've had. And if you're thinking about starting music again or starting it from scratch at this stage in your life. Share with me your doubts or your worries and your inspirations.

Music holds so much for us and it's so exciting to see people switch on to the possibilities of music in their lives and give it the attention and the commitment that it deserves to really bloom and flourish.

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Practice the beauty of sound, love the sounds you make!