Letters to the Editor
-
Better shorter Cary
Musicians are no different than you are. Pick up an instrument and learn.
-
It Happened to Me
I played guitar as a kid & put it away for 20 years. At age 40 I took some lessons, met some people who liked similar stuff, started getting together regularly in the living room. Now we are a band with regular gigs, a CD. We even get played on the radio sometimes. So get going.
-
Live to be a musician!
Being something of a late bloomer, I have largely lived according to George Sand's advice, "It is never too late to be what you might have been." I was a great fan of traditional Irish music for many years, yet didn't play an instrument. I bought a violin as a retirement gift to myself, and spent the next few months emitting sounds that evoked cat torture.
Like anything you begin, there is a steep learning curve at the beginning, which is rarely rewarding in learning an instrument. If you can be patient with yourself, acquire a good teacher, and devote yourself to the hours required to develop your skills, you will become a musician.
I have been playing Irish fiddle for 5 years now, and enjoy the camaraderie and community of musicians that are dedicated to learning new tunes. Several nights a week we gather in various coffee shops for sessions. I am delighted to be joined by the 6 year olds on their 1/4 size fiddles, who admire the repertoire of us old farts.
My husband, who has never played an instrument picked up the guitar in his mid-60's and started on his own musical journey.
If you want to be a musician in order to be famous, wealthy, or score, you won't have what it takes to get through the first painful months. If you want to be a musician to express your creativity, and find endless satisfaction alone or in a community of other musicians, go for it. It really is never too late.
-
and then, reality strikes
Not to be a wet blanket, but as a music teacher I am asked this question all the time, and usually, I say something like the article said, "yes, everyone can do something, you can have fun, etc etc etc". But the fact as I have observed it, is that if you ARE a musician, you play music, and if you didn't when you were 15, you AREN'T a musician; if you are not totally obsessed with it at a relatively young age, you probably aren't a musician. You could, of course, PLAY an instrument - I love seeing adults start playing for fun. But it is like walking; I started to walk at an appropriate age - if suddenly at age 30 I said "hey, walking looks like fun, I think I'll give it a try....."
-
Not a good analogy
if suddenly at age 30 I said "hey, walking looks like fun, I think I'll give it a try....."
Then you would need a lot of help, and a lot of practice to teach your muscles to do something they'd never done before. But if you put in your hours, and stuck with it, and persevered, then you would walk. You might never walk with the grace and skill of an athlete, but you would walk.
The myth that you're only an artist if you had artistic leanings as a child or a teen is exactly that - a myth. And saying that you "hate" to be a wet blanket doesn't absolve you. The LW dreams of being something s/he's not, and needs to work toward making it happen.
LW: you wanna be a musician? Be a musician. There's plenty of room for you in the community. Anyone who says there isn't is lying.
-
Must one be born with musical talent? Yes Is talent enough? NO.
Being a musician is not about how many lessons you take, or how well you can run a riff. It's about making the connection. That just can not be taught.
You may have talent. You should take some lessons, and start training your ears to find out. You can express yourself, play with others, everything you said you wanted to do.But what you want does not necessarily make you a musician. It makes you a player. There is a difference. Music requires talent, dicipline, and luck. It is a language. It will be you mistress, your love.
Subscribe to magazine like Keyboard, Guitar, or Bass mag. Look at Borders in the magazine section. These publications are for those who play and gig, and those who want to work on technique. They give advice on how to play, and what equipment to buy. Jazz Improve gives advice on how to play. Ignore Jazziz and others like that. They are for listening, not playing. The back page of Keyboard always has a gigging local musician talking about how they started, what their rigs are, etc. There are also boards and blogs to help get started.
You can learn to play for yourself. You can become technically proficient, you can play with others, you can train your ear,all of that. But no amount of lessons and technique make up for talent, for the gift of connection and creation. You either will have it, or you won't. But you can still enjoy playing and expressing yourself.
There are many ways to be a musician. There are multiple genres. Try rock guitar first. Find a good, patient private teacher (local university music departments are good.)
If you have the commitment, the addiction, the need, then the connection may happen. The fact that you have not been compelled, that you never craved it before now, makes me think you want to create, but not specifically music.
-
Relax Yoko, John left you enough money you can buy an audience to listen to you howl
phhht!
-
You won't know until you try it.
Take some lessons, it won't hurt. Well, actually, it's kind of painful to put yourself out there as a student if you haven't been in school for awhile, but it's good for you, I guarantee.
Don't go by what you read in articles about musicians--you can have a lot of fun as an amateur musician without having to make it your whole life. My husband and I have been in and around music all our lives, but chose health professions for our careers, although early in life we were both encouraged by our music teachers to become professional musicians. Music is pure enjoyment for us now, and we can pick it up or lay it down as we wish, rather than having to get paid for it, and that works fine for us.
It's the doing it that's fun, not the sitting around thinking about it. If you don't enjoy it as much as you thought you would, no harm done, you can go on and find a different way to express yourself artistically. Find your own path!