too old to learn?

im 46yrs and have wanted to learn to play the guitar for sometime. i tried lessons but was told it would be hard for me to learn cause i didnt sing along with what i was trying to play. needless to say i didnt learn much. what should i do

Poppycock!

You've never to old to learn and I didn't sing along with my guitar for the first 10 years of learning so you can disregard that advice.
Just think..the next year is going to go by whether you learn guitar or not. Would you like to be able to at least play some guitar in a year or be where you are right now?! What if you HAD started a couple years ago, where could you be right now?
Besides, when is 46 old? We have a member in his 80's, ask him if you're too old to learn guitar!

What should you do? Pick up your guitar and start with the GT basic lesson, my friend! you can never regret learning a musical instrument, it's very satisfying.

Neal
:)

thanks for the encouragement. was rather frustrating when after 3 months love me tender sound like, well ill leave it at that, lol. cant wait to get my callous back. thanks again

I recently turned 38 a few days ago. My wife wanted to know what I wanted for my b-day about a month ago and I said I wanted to be able to play guitar. I had always tinkered but never made an honest effort. I mostly blamed it on not being able to afford a nice guitar. I also secretly knew that if I bought too nice of a guitar the pressure would be too great to learn and that hindered me too.

At any rate I always wanted to say that by the time I turned 40 I could play guitar. My wife pointed out that whether or not I learned i was inevitably going to turn 40 either way and what do i have to lose except time? I talked to some musicians and they laughed when I told them this story, especially the part about not having enough money. One of them told me that he would be mad at me if I paid more than 100.00 for a guitar! He went on to tell me that I could find a nice starter acoustic for under 100.00. I might have to get a used one but I could do it.

I found a guitar online for 100.00. I had a 30 gift card left over from x-mas and I picked it up in person to avoid shipping. The total after taxes was a whopping 78.00. I then swapped the strings for 10 bucks and had a great acoustic Gibson Maestro that sounds nice and bright and actually holds a tuning remarkably long!

This was the best decision I've made in along time. It's like getting to learn a secret language. I've always been a late bloomer anyway and will cover a lot more ground now as an adult who appreciates how quickly time moves than I ever would have as a kid anyway!

Go old guys! You're never too old to rock!

Originally Posted by: playballdrim 46yrs and have wanted to learn to play the guitar for sometime. i tried lessons but was told it would be hard for me to learn cause i didnt sing along with what i was trying to play. needless to say i didnt learn much. what should i do

I started playing when I was a senior in High School. That was over a quarter century ago (ugh...sounds like such a long time that way, doesn't it?). I played pretty hardcore for about 10 or so years. Sold my gear to start a business because alas, I was never to be a rock star...not that I planned that anyway. The business worked out so it was a good decision.

Now that I have a good income and maybe an ounch of time, I' picking it back up and learning the things I never bothered with (like theory) now. Now is a great time t do so because you have something like a Guitar Tricks. Learn at your pace and with what you want to learn.

My late wife during last year had some time off and wanted to learn to play guitar. She said that she tried and was obvious to her that she lacked the skill to play. I told her she was wrong and proved to her, and her delight, that she could play. She was a good practicer and listened intently. It was funny because she was making leaps and bounds and she thought she was horrible because she compared herself to me who still maintained some dexterity. She was learning and it was very cool. She had fun.

So, nope. Not too late at all.

You're welcome playballdr,

Be patient with yourself, 3 months is not a very long time to expect yourself to knock out a song when you haven't played before. It's kinda like growing a plant, one step at a time..you can't tell yourself "hey, where's my tree?"
Steady practice on the basics: playing in time, being able to play chords and being able to change chords will create a solid foundation to grow from.

Being able to change chords is the first step, along with rhythm patterns. I have some simple lessons, on walking in and out of chords if you feel fairly confident at changing chords. My Dad showed me how to do this in the key of G, and I sat down and learned to do it in every key. I can't remember if these have HD vids yet, but they are very useful lessons.

I just checked them out, and they don't have HD vids yet. You may not be ready for this stuff yet, but doing this gives you time to set the other fingers for a chord. Here is the link for anyone that feels adventurous.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=260

JD

Originally Posted by: playballdrim 46yrs and have wanted to learn to play the guitar for sometime. i tried lessons but was told it would be hard for me to learn cause i didnt sing along with what i was trying to play. needless to say i didnt learn much. what should i do

I am a 52 year old female in Australia i always wanted to learn to play but never had the time and i started to play 4 months ago and had a couple of lessons with a teacher that was nto really intrested so i changed and i have a lesson once a week and i am just about managing a slow version of wild thing (dam cord changes lol) so stick with it.

Bravo to all of you! I love these stories.

Play on......
-Lisa

Originally Posted by: satinthecornerI am a 52 year old female in Australia i always wanted to learn to play but never had the time and i started to play 4 months ago and had a couple of lessons with a teacher that was nto really intrested so i changed and i have a lesson once a week and i am just about managing a slow version of wild thing (dam cord changes lol) so stick with it.

Keep it up! What a difference a great teacher makes, doesn't it! Especially when you're not sure exactly why you're doing it (other than fun).

I'm learning drums at age 36 - I'm one year into weekly lessons - and it's just plain fun. Not sure what my goals are for drumming. Maybe it's nice just not to have any goals for some activity, for once! To just enjoy it for playing's sake.

I miss drumming :( I almost bought an electronic set so I could play "quietly". Came very close. I might have an excuse yet if I get into some decent recording. I detest drum machines. (Just mho.)

Originally Posted by: RazboI miss drumming :( I almost bought an electronic set so I could play "quietly". Came very close. I might have an excuse yet if I get into some decent recording. I detest drum machines. (Just mho.)

I'm with you there. Right now I have plenty of space not to bother the neighbors, but we may have to move to a smaller place, and if we do, I may need to switch to an electronic drum set.

I can't really put my finger on why I don't like electronic drum sets, but when I see a drummer on an electronic set in a gig, somehow I feel cheated. Isn't it kind of analogous to someone playing a synth instead of a piano? (Somehow it feels like it's not, but I don't know why...)

Maybe if you buy the electronic set that might encourage you to get into some decent recording! Chicken and egg issue? :)

Think about the average teenager who starts at the age of, say 12, then really gets into it in high school and practices all the time after school, joins a band, gets to be really good by the time he goes to college. The timespan we're talking about is six years. You have six years don't you? It's all about how much you practice in that time.