Thursday, October 1, 2015

Is it too late for me to start learning a musical instrument ?

First of all, apologies for writing after such a long while. I was way too distracted with a bunch of things which included re-organization of the venture(s), operations, teaching and in the midst of all this chaos, releasing another single and a full album. Phew! But the learning has been fun.

While wondering about what to write, especially after a long break, I thought this would be a good topic. We keep getting asked this by a number of people who we get to meet at RaGa. Typically, when they come to inquire about music classes for their children! In many cases, these are folks who have even made an attempt to start learning a few years' ago and then their work pressures caught up or they lost hope.

I'd say, it is never too late to learn anything. Well, almost anything - I'm turning 50 soon and I don't think I am in a position to get into some adventure sport, especially given my current fitness levels! I have a friend, who is probably 60+, so passionate about fitness that he might have a different opinion. Well, let's focus on music. Answer is no, never too late! All you need is - desire, some amount of conviction that you can do it and a little time to devote to practise. Practise is the key and the patience to not expect results overnight.

Over the years' I've noticed that the ability to learn is not really linked to one's age. I've had students who are school-going but struggling to come to terms with learning to play the guitar while a 40+ working professional has put them to shame both in terms of time taken and ability to play. Yes, as we get older we tend to become more analytical. It helps if one avoids getting into too much detail in terms of hand positions, type of pick, type of instrument, body posture and so on. Reminds me of a quote which I think was by 'Ugly' from the movie 'Good Bad and Ugly' - "When you want to shoot, shoot. Don't talk"! So just get down to playing and practising for God's sake! Optimization of movement, posture and so on can happen over time. If you are a software professional, you probably heard the term, Agile. Follow that model, and it helps in motivating you to keep going further.

That's it for now. Oh by the way, I've also picked up a bit on video editing and using the knowledge to create some simple videos for my music to post on youtube. See! The learning never stops. Only your will to do or not to. All the best!

You can check out the promo for the latest album from Instrumental Conversations (yeah, the father-son band which is my son Rahul and I). The album, Nature and Places, has tracks inspired by different places which we've had the opportunity to visit.

Nature and Places - Promo

Ravi