Too old to learn?

[WendyG]

I have had my Saltarelle melodeon since last Easter and so far can only play about 9 tunes and only 5 of these with a simple base accompaniment.  My aim is to learn to play an instrument before I die.  Have I left it too late, I am thinking that the saying ' you can't teach a dog new tricks' might well be true.  I am almost 50, so have I left it too late or are there others who started playing in the middle years and have reached a competent level.

Wendy

[Gandy]

If you can play 9 tunes then you CAN play an instrument, so that's sorted.

[Higgy]

It is NEVER too late to learn anything, keep at it and it really does become easier. I started to learn the BCC# about 15 months ago and am making steady, but unspectacular, progress and I am much more ancient than you. Do you have the opportunity to play with others at sessions? This makes a great difference to how quickly you make progress.

Best of luck

Mike

[Bill Young]

I have had my Saltarelle melodeon since last Easter and so far can only play about 9 tunes and only 5 of these with a simple base accompaniment.  My aim is to learn to play an instrument before I die.  Have I left it too late, I am thinking that the saying ' you can't teach a dog new tricks' might well be true.  I am almost 50, so have I left it too late or are there others who started playing in the middle years and have reached a competent level.

Wendy

I wish I had been able to start before I was 50! I suspect you know fine well that it's not too late. You possibly feel that you've reached some kind of plateau and are not progressing as fast as you would wish to. That happens to nearly all of us, and progress will come. It's not a linear process; you're probably due another advance soon.

As Mike has suggested, if you can get the opportunity to play with others it will help you to make progress. (After I had been playing for a year or so, I was able to join in with a local group of accordion and fiddle players, and that was a big help.) Try to go to courses or workshops - there seem to be quite a few for D/G melodeon in England - there's a lot of mutual support and you'll find out you're not in a unique position (and possibly one of the younger ones!).

Have a good look through this "Teaching and Learning" section of the forum, and you'll find that many of us are on a continuous learning curve. You're far from alone!

Bill

[tallship]

I'll be 57 in two months time and got my box for my 55th birthday. I can now play three tunes up to speed with basses. Granted I play other things and haven't really been that serious about practising until recently but you're never too old to learn so keep going!

[nfldbox]

Be methodical and deal with any problems that age MIGHT affect. I find various joints are not as fluid as they used to be so I will "give" myself a simple new tune to learn instead of constantly plaguing myself with ornamentation that I might get in my fingers eventually. However, I periodically go back to the more difficult stuff and am often surprised at how much closer I am.
This might not be your problem but I find that I have to force myself to do the above because in a sense it is illogical. If you can do grade 5 pieces quite well, why go back and learn a bunch of grade 3 pieces? Well, the answer is that the Grade 7 piece might just defeat you.

[Bill the Farmer]

I started when I was 54, I'd been playing guitar since I was a teenager, but it took about 4-5 years before I was good enough to play out for morris reasonably well on my own, and I still need a minder to remember the tunes. Playing the box uses far more brain cells than a guitar.

[ladydetemps]

Im 23 and I can only play 3 tunes using left and right hand just from memory at half decent pace.

[strad]

Never too late. I was 70 when I bought my first box and 71 when I got my second. I'm pleased with the progress I've made and, most importantly, I'm enjoying learning a new instrument and that's far more special.

Nigel

[xgx]

...  My aim is to learn to play an instrument before I die.  

Unless there's something you're not telling us you've time enough learn to play several more instruments

...can recommend smallpipes

Saltarelle... good choice!

[Rob Rycroft]

When I turned 50 (four years ago) I decided it was time to (a) learn to swim, and (b) having listened to folk music since I was at school, learn to play a musical instrument  -- so, for my 50th birthday I treated myself to a pair of prescription goggles and a tin whistle.

The swimming was OK. I went for lessons and didn't enjoy them much, but at least I can now swim enough to save myself (if nobody else). The tin whistle was a different proposition, however. I bought a "teach yourself" book and CD and absolutely loved it, even if progress was very slow. The tin whistle was followed about four months later by a Chinese concertina........  which was followed after about another four months by my first melodeon, a Pokerwork........  which was followed at the next Christmas by a Serenellini. You can guess the rest, I'm on a slippery slope.

A few months after falling in love with the melodeon (maybe a year or so) I arrived at a plateau. The progress slowed right down to virtually nothing. It was pretty demoralising. However, matters have improved. I think there have been three reasons. Firstly, I've been playing alongside other musicians. There's a session at a pub near me. It took a bit of courage to leap in at first (rather like swimming) but people were very kind. A melodeon player at the pub invited me to go along with him to a border morris side. I'm now just about able to play selection of their tunes at dancing speed (and see the value of dancing too). Secondly, I've found somebody to give me lessons. That really has made a huge difference. Thirdly, I've been hanging around melodeon players both virtually (here) and in real life (folk festivals, Whitney, etc.)

Did I leave it too late? Yes, if I wanted to be a virtuoso. But no, not if I wanted to have a huge amount of fun, meet some fabulous people and experience the satisfaction of gradually seeing improvements. Stay with it, Wendy!

Rob

[ganderbox]

Definitely agree with what people have said about getting out and playing with other people. It's the best way to learn.
You will  probably find that you will meet other box players who will give you helpful tips, you will hear lots of tunes and find new ones to learn, and you'll have the incentive to keep at it.
I've always found that, if I've gone for a long time without having the opportunity to play an instrument other than at home, it has tended to spend more and more time sitting in the corner,untouched. 

[Theo]

 My aim is to learn to play an instrument before I die.  Have I left it too late, I am thinking that the saying ' you can't teach a dog new tricks' might well be true.  

You can have a lot of fun proving it's not.

I am almost 50, so have I left it too late

Not if you are still alive.

[Ebor_fiddler]

I got my first box with a grant from the Government. They call it the Heating Allowance, but we al know what it's really for! 

[WendyG]

Many thanks for your words of encouragement, maybe I am expecting too much of myself.  As to playing in sessions, not sure if I am up to that yet, I can't even play in front of my family .  I had a few guitar lessons at school, but it was classical style and I didn't enjoy it so stopped (also lugging a guitar to school on a bus was a pain).  A couple of years ago I tried learning to play the anglo concertina, but that was a non-starter in the end due to arthritis at the base of my right thumb (couldn't push the air button), so I thought the the melodeon should be okay (air button being on the left, I also spent a lot of my youth living in Towersey and quite liked the sound of the melodeon and morris music).  I try to practice most days, having an expensive box does help to encourage using it.  So I will persevere and continue practicing, if I have the courage I may even take the Saltarelle to Towersey!

Wendy

[an bosca ceoil]

I got my first box with a grant from the Government. They call it the Heating Allowance, but we al know what it's really for! 

Was it not Theo who reckoned old bellows made good firelighters

[Bryson]

Learning keeps you young!
One thing about the learning curve is that its not a staight line. It's more like a quantum system with steps. This means that you may practice for weeks and weeks and seemingly make no progress. Then you pick up the box one day and the whole thing comes together... suddenly, out of the blue. You've made a quantum leap to the next stage.
One thing that I find frustrating though is that after making the leap I feel I ought to be able to quickly make the next jump... but once again it can take weeks, months before you clamber up the next step.
The feeling when you do is fantatstic though and for me spurs me on to continue learning.
btw I started cross-rowing just two years ago when I was 55 it's only now that I feel I'm getting the just rewards for patient and regular practice.
One tip. There are thousands of tunes out there don't be tempted to take on too many. Choose the ones you really like and practice them until they feel as part of you. Some of my favourite tunes I started to play 20 years ago and I still discover something new each time I play them.
Good luck with your box!

[Theo]

I started cross-rowing just two years ago when I was 55

Is that legal?

Seriously though, I firmly believe that it is a mistake to just start plying on one row to begin with, because then playing across the rows can get to seem like something difficult or 'advanced'.   Its not, is still just a matter of pressing a button! 

I'm part way through teaching a short course for absolute beginners,  and the first tune we are learning is played using both rows.  The second tune is in A.  When I first learned I played up and down one row, and for a long time there seemed to be a barriers in my head, which made me avoid using both rows in one tune, and even more so made me avoid playing in A.  I'm hoping that my current students will be more open minded about what they can play.

ps. all the students are over 50!

[tiny]

Theo, your group sounds fun,  what tune do you use to start playing in A? 

[Dadshep]

An interesting thread; as another oldie, (71), I have also determined to learn to make music after a lifetime of just simply enjoying being a listener.
One cold shopping day just before Christmas, the cheerful and happy sound of Melodeon music wafting through the crowds over here in Newport Isle of Wight finally brought me to the "now or never" stage. A brief chat with the source of the magic, and he said he thought he could certainly manage to play quite well with my very minor disability, so the adventure begins!
Lurking on this site for around a total of dozen hours has been most enlightening and encouraging, already I feel a part of the scene, albeit so far as a silent spectator.
My purchase so far has been from Mike in Cornwall, of a D/G Hohner Pressedwood, and together with a couple of the popular tuition books and CDs I am just stumbling through 2 or 3 very simple tunes.
Being daft enough to cut off my right small finger when I first retired, I am trying to decide if it is best to drum into my skull a "fingering to set buttons" regime, or just blunder on and just see which finger happens to hit the required button. (Any other 4 digit right handers out there with gems of wisdom to impart?)
So, back to the practice....

Dadshep.