6 Things Adults Should Know About Taking Music Lessons
Adult students have many reasons for wanting to learn how to play an instrument. Maybe they played an instrument as a child, but stopped for one reason or other, and now as an adult are thinking of starting music lessons again. Or maybe like many adults, they regret never learning how to play music as a child, and want to start now. Or maybe they have recently been inspired by an amazing musician or piece of music, and would like to learn how to play like that one day. Whatever their reason may be for starting music lessons as an adult, there is no better time than now to start learning! Here are six things that that adults should know about taking music lessons, and that will help with the learning process:
It’s never too late to start. There are many paths to becoming a musician, and anyone at any age can learn how to play an instrument and experience the joy of playing music. Although children and adults learn in slightly different ways, it doesn’t really matter if you never learned music as a child, because learning as an adult can be just as effective, and in fact adults have certain advantages that children don’t yet have, like having more life experience to draw from, and the ability to understand concepts faster.
It’s okay to communicate with your teacher about your goals or any difficulties during practice. I ask all my students at the first lesson what their goals in playing are, regardless of their age, and I adjust my teaching methods for each individual student, and that should be something that all music teachers should want to know and be able to do. So if you have certain goals for your playing, like wanting to play a certain style of music, wanting to learn certain pieces, or wanting to be able to perform one day, you should feel free to let your teacher know. And letting your teacher know about any particular difficulties you had during practice that week is another important thing, because teachers want to help you overcome any difficulties in practicing or playing.
Life will get in the way sometimes, but that’s okay. One potential downside that adults can have when taking music lessons is that they have busy lives that can pull their attention away from music to other important things, like work, relationships, or family. But trying to keep a regular practice schedule, and getting back on track with practicing if you do happen to lose some practice time, is the most important thing you can do, because regular practice is the only way to keep learning and improving.
It takes time to learn how to play an instrument. Most students, regardless of their age, tend to underestimate how much time and work learning music will actually take. It can often look and sound so effortless when a professional musician is playing, so it’s natural to underestimate all the time and work it took for that person to be able to play like that. On average it takes around 10 years of daily practice for a musician to get to a professional playing level, so it’s good to keep that in mind when you set your own goals for playing, and being able to set realistic expectations for your rate of progress. While the amount of time spent practicing is important, the quality of your practice is just as important. You can read more about the most effective practice methods in my other article here, and learn about the best ways to practice at home.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. As people start to enter their teen years and beyond they become much more self-conscious and often too self-critical. While learning and playing music can be a lot of fun, it also takes a lot of time and hard work, and adult students often begin to doubt themselves in their learning. So being realistic about your goals, your speed of progress, and trying not to compare yourself with other musicians is important when learning music. Also take time to celebrate all the work you have done when you finally start to reach some of your playing goals.
Take time to experience the joy of playing music. Once you get to a certain point in your playing, you may suddenly notice that playing doesn’t feel quite as hard as it once was, and that you may sometimes get lost in the musical moment. Stop and enjoy that moment, because that means that you have reached another stage in your playing where playing music has become more automatic and effortless. Also as you start to become more advanced in your playing you can reach more of your music goals, have fun performing or playing with others, and experience the joy of being a part of the music.