Many people have a dream of learning the guitar but imagine that the moment has passed. Well it almost certainly has not! And the benefits are a good deal bigger than banging out a tune.
The statement you can do whatever you want in life sounds really funky and uplifting, unfortunately it is just as much fantasy at 70 as it was at 17. But let’s not waste good panic just yet the truth is actually so much better. You have gifts and perspectives that are uniquely you, and for the muzo this means there is potential for each player to have their own voice.
Your brain is probably the most complex thing it the known universe. It is certainly not a computer even though there is a modern propensity to draw this analogy. An interface between mind and body only hints at the wonder between our ears. The fun thing for us as budding musicians or teachers or artists, linguists or whatever is that the brain is plastic. Not so much hardwired as loose and living, with an ability to learn new things virtually till we die.
I have lost track of the times I have sat with my guitar feeling frustrated, not able to get some line of music, only to come back an hour or a day latter and bang I’ve got it. So what happened? Something wonderful as it turns out, I gave my brain the chance to grow these strange new connections I’m not as thick as I thought! But it gets better, the next similar trick I try to grab is easier and the next easier again. Like building a road after the hard work of excavation has been done, now the traffic really flows.
So where does that leave our aspiring maestro. Well... ready to start. If this is a new project for you be patient, watch yourself learn. Don’t worry if at first it takes time to blow out the cobwebs. Think of this as brain training, and it is. It will sharpen you in other areas not just music, like any exercise the whole you will cash in.
OK. Back to my first perhaps provocative line. We don’t need another Hendrix or Segovia you will do just fine. The sound you make is the one you are best equipped for, and in truth no one will ever do it just like you or you like them. Take your time ten minutes practice a day yields much better learning results than say one 2 hour block once a week. But if your 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 and wish you could play, get cracking make a start, that’s the hard part. There’s about 4000 weeks in a life and none to lose. I personally prefer learning mostly on my own for some a teacher is an asset. Take your learning seriously and you will be thrilled and amazed maybe not the next Jimmy page but man, a much richer person. And the thing you always wished you did, you did. And good luck.
Saving Money By Cutting Hair
In the time it takes to drive down town for a hair cut you might get it done at home just as good and no cost pretty cool!
Adults learning A New Language Can It Be Done... A Boomers Guide
Can a second language be learned as an adult? Well the short answer is yes, but as anyone who has tried can attest, there are a few hurdles to overcome. And a few mental monsters that have to be defeated.
Lip Syncing Is It A big Deal?
There is wonderful place in the live version of the U2 song Party Girl were the Edge plays a bum note and Bono yells out “Guitar hero”. Far from blowing the song it makes it, straight away the audience is involved, the Edge is maybe a wee bit embarrassed but this is live and scary, buckle up for the ride.
