Am I too Old To Learn How To Play The Guitar???

The short answer – NO. You are never to “OLD” to try to learn anything, really. As long as your mind and body are up to it, you’re fully capable of taking on any new hobby that you choose. I realize this is NOT exactly the explanation behind the “short” answer that you were hoping to hear / read; however, it really just boils down to someone simply being willing to take on the challenges of learning the guitar.

Reasons for wanting to learn guitar

First, let me say (and, more importantly) that it really just depends on the reason(s) you want to learn how to play the guitar. Below are some of the most common reasons for wanting to learn:

Becoming a professional player – Making a living playing the guitar would seem to be many aspiring guitar players’ dream. Whether it is in a band performing at live shows, or behind the scenes in a recording studio (or both).

Writing potential hit songs – Maybe you just desire to learn enough to play some chords to help you fine tune your lyric writing capabilities in-order-to possibly write the world’s next hit song.

Play at friends’ get togethers – Similar to the description above, but without the national / international accomplishment of writing a hit song. Accomplishing such a feat isn’t no where near necessary for most people (myself included), but it’s still fun to entertain our friends around a camp fire playing well-known (or your own) songs…

Impress your friends or someone else – A few levels above playing around the camp fire, meaning that you are hoping to one day go from playing a couple of chords to playing a decent lead guitar accompaniment as well, or a complicated finger-style piece…

Checking off a bucket list item – Just something challenging that you wanted to be able to say you finally completed… If this is the reason, try including a song that you would like to be able to play so there’s an actual milestone / benchmark that you can reach in the process…

Make videos for YouTube and / or TikTok – You just like the idea of making YouTube, or TikTok videos for the purposes of entertaining and / or teaching others. This is not why exactly why I learned because neither service existed at the beginning of my journey; however, as you will soon be aware (if not already) I do enjoy passing on what I’ve learned over the years in the form of entertaining and / or educational videos…

Advice when starting to learn guitar

Have FUN! – After all, why else would anyone ultimately want to learn the guitar?… Look for the good in your learning progress, and try not to dwell on what you haven’t learned, or mastered yet… Celebrate learning that new chord, or being able to switch between a couple of chords more fluidly, etc. …

Set goals. – Have a couple of definitive milestones you wish to accomplish with the guitar. For example, perhaps you have a favorite song that you would like to one day be able to play. Or, maybe you would like to be able to improvise some jazz tunes not the weekend with some other musician buddies. Etc. ….

DO NOT Compare yourself to other guitar players. – Comparing yourself to other players too much could prove to “shut you down” before you even get started. So, just don’t do it. Everyone learns at different paces and some have more time to practice than others. Not to mention that some “beginner” players may have been playing longer than they let on (you never know sometimes)…

While any of the above reasons are all well-and-good reasons for wanting to learn guitar, each will have their own set of challenges – some far greater than others.

Challenges to learning any instrument

Some of the mental challenges may include

“I sound horrible and it will NEVER get better.” – From my experience, the hardest part about learning guitar for people past the age of, say…. 30-years-old… (maybe a little younger) is that they / you / we are tooooo critical of ourselves. When you’re younger, you’re just satisfied with strumming the chords not realizing that some notes might be “slightly” out of key… You’re just like….”I’m playing the guitar!… This is cool!”… When you’re older, you immediately notice bad things in your playing that others will notice and don’t want to be embarrassed, so you just don’t do it… Confidence is LOST WAY TOO EARLY in the process…….

“Will I be able to learn how to read music, or guitar tab?” – Well, the good news is, you’ll NEVER have to learn how to read music, or guitar tablature, if you don’t want to. Sure, that skill will be a definite asset for becoming increasingly more knowledgable about guitar playing overall, but not at all necessary for learning the basics. Thanks to YouTube, all guitar chords, and hundreds of popular “licks” can be learned just by watching others play them online…

“OK, I’ve learned a handful of chords, but can never remember how to play them.” – This is where practice time comes in. After a while, you will start to remember how certain chords are played without much effort at all…

“I can’t remember which chords go together.” – Same as above… this only gets better with time. Most people can learn a couple of chords progressions (chord progressions: a few chords that work together to make a song) within an hours time. Switching between those chords smoothly, will also take practice, but can be remembered within 30 minutes to an hour’s time, if not a shorter period of time…

“I’ll never remember scales and how to improvise playing them.” – Once again, practice, practice, practice… Also, to be perfectly honest, it is still possible to sound like a PRO without mastering even just one complete scale. Not to pat myself on the back too much here, but I can manage a decent lead over a few chords only playing a minute part (first position) of a scale (besides, I’ve never really mastered any scale anyway up to this point in my playing…)…

“I’ll quit two weeks into this…” – Sometimes, as we get older, it gets harder and harder to find the inspiration / motivation necessary to put one foot in front of the other and just keep pushing forward on some new (potentially unimportant) venture. Time management and priority setting becomes the key here…

Some of the physical challenges that you may encounter

Overall physical condition – Let’s face it. The healthier you are, the more energy, and perhaps, the more motivation you will have to pursue various daily tasks… Your hands, shoulders, and back are all equally important to maintaining a positive experience playing the guitar. The older one gets, the more likely he, or she, is to develop soreness, even arthritis, in important areas of his body. Stretching is your best friend the older you get, even hand / finger stretches. It simply helps (even for younger players) to loosen you up making it easier to reach those more difficult notes…

On a personal note: I have some mild arthritis in both hands (right thumb and left fore finger – both incredibly important), and sometimes I find that just running my hands under some warm water relaxes them to make it easier to play.  I’ve also purchased a couple of different types of gloves on amazon that help to support specific parts of the hand.  Of course, none of these gloves are full-fingered, or they would probably negatively affect my playing…

A second personal note: Try adding some exercise to your daily / weekly routine. No matter who you are and what you do, exercise can only serve to benefit your overall mental and physical condition (consult a doctor to be absolutely sure of course, especially if you have particular concerns). Over time the benefits of exercise will include: clearing thinking, more energy, more stamina, etc. …

“I have no rhythm, I’ll never make a good guitar player.” – If you’re able to tap your foot to the beat of your favorite song, then you have “some” rhythm. Furthermore, there are tools to help you when during your practicing that can assist you in keeping good rhythm. For example, all players, young and old, would benefit from playing along to a metronome every once-in-a-while. A metronome is a device that comes in various shapes and sizes and provides a consistent “click” set to a specific “beat,” or beats per minute…

But what will my friends say?

Well, who cares?  Unless you are deliberately bothering them with horrific playing at parties, or get-togethers, then they shouldn’t mind (if they’re really your friend(s). Some friends make poke some innocent fun at you saying things like: “I think it’s a little late for the “Rock Star” plan!” – OR – “You’re not going to play ‘Kumbaya’ again are you?”… Stay consistent for a year, and see what they say then………

Make them eat their words

I don’t mean to sound too negative here, but If you stay with it consistently for 6 months to a year (we’ll say a year just to be safe here), you’ll probably make any ‘nay-sayers’ eat their own words.  And by consistent, I mean playing a little (30 minutes+) every other day if possible.  Wouldn’t it be nice to prove to yourself and those that doubted you, that it IS possible to learn the guitar, even later in life, if you just stick with it…

However, “stuff” happens that can causes you (us) to lay off for a while, then a while becomes a little while longer, and yada… yada… yada…

It’s up to you. Just keep going. MORE IMPORTANTLY, KEEP HAVING FUN with it!…

In conclusion

Learning the guitar at a later age in life is certainly possible. Do set goals for your learning progress, but DO NOT compare yourself to other players. This will only serve to dishearten you possibly causing you to put down the guitar prematurely…

The number one, most important thing to remember is to simply just have fun while you’re doing it. Without the enjoyment that comes from playing the guitar, what’s the use of ever picking it up in the first place? So, go… find a guitar… pick it up… and play a little bit…

Until Next Time! . . .