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How Old is to Old
- Thread starter Bassin4God
- Start date
Just starting to learn at 41... I hope that by the time I reach 56 I will be in a band, gigging and having fin!
All that healthy living weakened his immune system.
I'm gonna start using that.
"I have to consume beer and wings. It keeps my immune system strong.'
60 rocking the same band since 2003. waking up on the wrong side of the pavement is too old
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,793
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
I play with guys in their 70s. So they're around 30 years older than I am. They're great players! Local legends so to speak.
It's just science. Look at the mighty cockroach - they were here first and will be here last (except for Keith Richards) and look what they eat.I'm gonna start using that.
"I have to consume beer and wings. It keeps my immune system strong.'
I play for a hipster franchise.
They told me the following... "tenured people know how to sell beer... they can turn down the volume... are more authentic... and show up... band members normally treat the patrons better"
I normally am playing for an audience 30 years younger...
They told me the following... "tenured people know how to sell beer... they can turn down the volume... are more authentic... and show up... band members normally treat the patrons better"
I normally am playing for an audience 30 years younger...
This. Sure, at your age, and even mine, I doubt you'd mate it rockstar big - but that's no reason not to do it. Get out there, have fun, and meet some people.
I love these posts.
I'll be 49 in April, and still going to band rehearsal every week with some new guys all around the same age, working out a setlist to get some gigs. My profile pic is me at a gig ten years ago. I still look basically the same way, slightly heavier, but I play much, much better now than I did then, and I've been playing since I was 12. I've improved more with time, more tasteful - I've listened to recordings of the band I was in back when I was 39, and there are times when I was playing waaaay too much. I wouldn't play like that now.
Most of the people I've played with over the past ten years have been either around the same age as me or 10-12 years older. Even when I was 20, I was playing with a touring band where everyone else was in their mid-40s to early 60s. Our current drummer is in his early to mid sixties. Back in the 70s, he played in a few local funk and rock bands while pursuing a career in avionics and electrical engineering. He is an absolute *mofo* on the drums - my favourite drummer to play with ever in my 37 years of playing. Tasteful, but has a bloody metronomic sense of time, and has a great feel for anything and everything - country, blues, rock and roll, funk, whatever we throw at him.
I wouldn't say I have ever felt particularly talented in music - everything I've got, I worked for - but after 37 years, what I've worked for is apparent: I sound good, my timing is good, my phrasing is tasteful and appropriate or aggressive as the song requires. I often jam Metallica, Rush, and Sabbath with my 16 year old son, who has learned much more than I knew at his age, and I not only keep up with him but I teach him a few things.
Music isn't one of the things that you can be too old to do. It's possible to be too arthritic to play, but that's arthritis, not age. It's possible to get too tired standing for four hours and need to sit down, but again that speaks more to general health and fitness than to age. You don't get too old, you just get more experienced, wiser, more knowledgeable, and better.
Hope this helps. Go rock out dude. Have someone take pics.
I had never even touched a bass until I retired at age 58. Now I’m 65, going strong, becoming a better player everyday and getting increasingly better gigs. I don’t anticipate slowing down for a while.
It's just science. Look at the mighty cockroach - they were here first and will be here last (except for Keith Richards) and look what they eat.
Slow down. I'm writing all this down....
If you want to do it, do it. I am 55 and have no desire to be in a band ever again. I did it plenty of times, have enough memories to last me a lifetime. I plan on writing and recording for fun, may do the odd acoustic gig here and there. Time for someone younger than me to entertain me! Ha!
Not really when you consider Mick never really sang that song anyway. He sorta just shouted it.
Started when I was 50-something. Now I'm 68. Lots of play and exercise, got the heart of a 40 year old, the back of an 80 year old and the mind of a . . . Err, what were we talking about?
songwriter21
I have an obsession for wood. The musical kind.
THIS. Kills me when I hear younger people whine about wanting shorter nights and wanting more breaks. How hard is it just take care of yourself, really? Plus, isn't this what we love to do? Knock the stupid cigarettes off, stop drinking garbage energy drinks and/or pop, cut down drinking alcohol like a bastard, and start working out.
I suppose this kind simplicity is too tough? for many, though.
Got that right.
Even actively dying isn’t too late. David Bowie took his last bow right as he was moving forward with both boots three quarters of the way out the door.
I’m believing this is the answer! Most of even you older players start by stating you’ve been playing for a while and are out gigging.
But I’m 65 and just starting out. Got a couple of basses, been doing online lessons and absolutely hooked! So much rich musical bass playing history and so much to learn. I get excited every time I pick up my bass. And the satisfaction from even just mastering a lesson let alone a song is just so much fun. TB has added so much to the experience with knowledge, instruction, nuance and many contrary opinions. I will play bass the rest of my life.
So hope to check back in when I’m 70 commenting on who I’m out playing with!
