I played my first guitar recital on May 17th, 2026 at age 47. I sang and finger-picked a song called “I will follow you into the dark” by Death Cab for Cutie. It went off pretty well considering, I’d never practiced singing into a microphone with the guitar plugged into an amp before.
I was the oldest “student” there by at least 30 years, mostly closer to 35 years. It is kind of weird, if you think about it, that 99% of people learning to play are kids. Ironically, a lot of kids give up on learning because they’re being forced to go.
No music lessons as a kid
I always wanted to be able to play an instrument but never took lessons as a kid. None of my siblings did and I don’t recall any of my friends taking lessons either. As one of four kids in a working class family with working class friends and neighbors, I just don’t think it was even a consideration.
I did (and continued) to sing
I did always love to sing though. I remember singing a lot with my dad. We listened to lots of radio. Most of the music was from the 50s-80s so like classic “oldies” and a lot of “smooth”, love song type stuff. Some of my favorite memories are working along side my dad on some project with the radio turned up with us belting out the words.
Deciphering notes seemed magical
Later, as a teenager and early adult, I was always so impressed by people who played instruments and read music. It seemed magical. Some of my highschool friends had electric guitars they played some songs and I did some singing but I never knew how to decipher the notes on the sheet music. I think back and wonder why I didn’t ask someone to just explain it to me.
Bad timing last attempt at lessons
Fast forward, 12 years after college about a month before my 12yo daughter was born, my wife got me piano lessons for my birthday! We had inherited her mom’s piano and I mentioned to her that I always wanted to learn how to play. It was a great several weeks of lessons. I FINALLY learned how to read the notes, which now seems (at least logically) straight forward. Connecting the reading to ones fingers is another story. Unfortunately, a newborn is not conducive to practicing piano (or much else for that matter), so I stopped.
11 years later
As parents know, the days are long and the years are short. My second daughter was taking piano lessons and, as kids do, decided she wasn’t particularly interested in continuing. As she was quitting, I thought I’d really like to learn so decided I would give it a shot. (Yes, part of my motivation was to show her that all the practice would eventually grow into enjoyment. Typical parental thinking!)
Part of my calculation was also that, from a life expectancy standpoint, I should still have another 35ish years of living and that is still a lot of years to either be disappointed that I don’t play an instrument or excited that I do.
Progress was/is slow
Honestly, the first few months were a slog and I felt like I wasn’t making much progress. I’d go in for my lesson, practice a bit througout the week, and then go back and feel like I wasn’t really better. I wanted to quit! (I get why the kids want to now!) But, I kept at it. Started trying to get 15 minutes a day in. Would strum before heading up to bed. I’d try to play while the family watched some TV (and was eventually banished to my office).
Every once in a while I’d notice that making a chord shape was slightly better and faster. I’d be able to play a chord that I couldn’t before. Or I’d be able to transition between chords slightly faster. It was a lot of sucking and a lot of terrible sounds and out of rhythm strumming. Frankly it still is mostly suck but also it is good enough that I’ve progressed to this-is-kind-of-fun stage.
I recommend sucking at an instrument
It is good to be bad at stuff. Being bad at stuff takes us out of our comfort zone and asks us what we’re going to do about it. Are we going to give up and regret it or are we going to suffer through the effort to get to some viable level?
I’ve got a lifetime left to get better but I am excited to be able to read music, play some chords, strum along, and belt out some songs that are meaningful to me.