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Too old to take lessons?

#41
like many ^ above, i too have played (on and off) for many years, and i have
never takin lessons. im gunna be 40 this october. as soon as my money situation
is back on track that will be the first thing i do.....take lessons!!! with that being said,
wat r u waiting for.......be all u can be! gl
 
#42
I'm 33 and I've been taking lessons since late May of this year.

There's no such thing as being too old to learn something. Age may make the learning process take longer, but you can still learn if you're willing to work at it.

As for feeling out of place: you'll feel out of place until the lessons become routine. Once you've settled into a routine you'll find yourself becoming more and more comfortable and less and less out of place. Learning new things is often involves being taken out of your element.

Any instructor worth a damn will be willing to teach you regardless of your age. A good instructor will also be a source of encouragement when you find yourself frustrated and discouraged with your progress... or at least that's been the case for me.
 
#43
Leverus said:
Hi all, I'm relatively new to bass and I've been learning on my own so far. I've made some progress, but I feel that I could really benefit from some actual lessons instead of just following a method book.

My problem is, at every music store in my area, all the students I see are about 10 years old, give or take a few years. I've never seen anyone nearly as old as me (almost 23). They say that they teach all ages, but I'd feel very out of place and awkward taking lessons at this age. Is there any merit to my feeling, or am I just being dumb?
Click to expand...

I was 34 when I started taking piano lessons. My instructor (a not so mean little russian lady), had multiple students all much younger than I. So after taking lessons for about three months, we had a recital, and there I was at 35 playing my little Mozart piece in between the long procession of 6-18 year olds. Afterwards, I had many parents of the other kids telling me how awesome it was to see me taking lessons at my age, etc. Take the lessons, get over all that pride stuff. You are 23...I'm 43, and one major difference between our two ages is this sense of concern about what people will think, or say about this or that. Best of luck.
 
#44
Bass lessons are mostly given in private, so you probably won't have 10 year olds outplaying you when you try to learn "another one bites the dust" in class :)

I was 27 when i first took my lesson, the guy that had a lesson before me was about 16 and could hear some awesome slapping and technical playing coming from the practise room while I waited for my lesson to start.
On the other hand the guy that came after me was probably 50 and learning "seven nation army" :)

Bass teachers got students of all ages and all skill levels.

Don't let your pride get in your way, and sign up today! :)
 
#46
Leverus said:
Hi all, I'm relatively new to bass and I've been learning on my own so far. I've made some progress, but I feel that I could really benefit from some actual lessons instead of just following a method book.

My problem is, at every music store in my area, all the students I see are about 10 years old, give or take a few years. I've never seen anyone nearly as old as me (almost 23). They say that they teach all ages, but I'd feel very out of place and awkward taking lessons at this age. Is there any merit to my feeling, or am I just being dumb?
Click to expand...

I'm 37. I started playing about 25 years ago when I was in 8th grade. I've played many hundreds of gigs, some to thousands of people (although most are in in the hundreds). I've taught people older then you to play bass. When I was your age, I already had 10 years under my belt, and I still took lessons.

To this day, I still take lessons.... Not as frequently, but I still go!
 
#47
Since we are talking about lessons.

You should fire your teacher on a regular basis. Like every 6 month or ever 6 years doesn't matter but a fresh perspective can learn ya a lot and keep it from getting boring.

Consider taking piano lessons. Reading music, understanding theory, notes and time signatures, I could go on all day. Besides being able to read the keyboardist fingers is a good problem to have.

Consider taking guitar lessons. You will probably jam with more guitar players than anything else and reading fingers is handy. Four (4) fingerstyle guitar lessons improved my right hand technic 400% plus taught me to imply a bass line kinda like Entwhislte does.

Start a get together and play with other folks on a regular basis is better than lessons (even if the other players are worse than you).

Go anywhere that has live music and the bass player is giving lessons from the stage. I got a guitar lesson once from Eric Clapton in this way (MTV? VH1?).

Jam to the radio. They are bound to find a song you don't know, so...........theres your challenge. These kinds of lessons are what I call self taught.

Which one do I reccommend????

Any combination or all of 'em depending how much time you are gonna give it.
 
#49
First off...

Practice does not make perfect, it simply makes permanent. That includes the crappy technique you commit your self taught hands to.

Then when you finally swallow your pride and decide to take lessons, you must first unlearn all the bad habits and other unwise stuff you picked up on your own.

The sooner you start lessons, the sooner you can start learning the smart way(s) to play while avoiding all that unlearning.

Trust me, unlearning is much harder than learning.
 
#50
I'm 46 and just started taking bass lessons. I took guitar lessons 20 years ago and still use skills I learned then. I know to grow as a player there is only so much I can do on my own. Also, there isn't a better way to get an unbiased and credible critique of your playing. Since I'm in between bands, it's also another way for me to network with other musicians. :cool:
 
#53
+1 to the comments above. Just to add a touch different spin on this, it is CRUCIAL to take at least a few lessons when you are first starting out, just to make sure your mechanics are relatively correct.

Back when I was teaching on a somewhat regular basis, a majority of the beginning players were using a left hand (fretting hand) position with their thumb parallel to the neck. While this is comfortable and feels 'natural' when you are first starting out, this is a disaster for later development, and is a VERY hard bad habit to break if you don't catch it early. Similarly, alternating the two fingers of your plucking hand is not a 'natural' thing for the beginning bassist, and greatly favoring one finger over the other is also very limiting as you progress, and is a similarly difficult bad habit to break.
 
#54
KJung said:
+1 to the comments above. Just to add a touch different spin on this, it is CRUCIAL to take at least a few lessons when you are first starting out, just to make sure your mechanics are relatively correct.

Back when I was teaching on a somewhat regular basis, a majority of the beginning players were using a left hand (fretting hand) position with their thumb parallel to the neck. While this is comfortable and feels 'natural' when you are first starting out, this is a disaster for later development, and is a VERY hard bad habit to break if you don't catch it early. Similarly, alternating the two fingers of your plucking hand is not a 'natural' thing for the beginning bassist, and greatly favoring one finger over the other is also very limiting as you progress, and is a similarly difficult bad habit to break.
Click to expand...

I'm lucky to have a friend who is a Nazi when it comes to doing things right. Although he's a guitarist, he'll correct me if I'm doing something incorrect with my left hand.
 
#55
To anyone who thinks they're too old for lessons, take a look a my father. He's 84 years old and yesterday I got him signed up for violin lessons. Yes, you read that right - 84 years old.

Life is for the living - so LIVE! :bassist:
 
#56
I was expecting to see you were in your 4, 5, 60's plus! When you said 23 I nearly wet my pants! When I turned 23 I was in the first gulf war, divorced and hoping I'd live to see 24. I thought I was "too old" for a lot of things too but now I look back and realize I was just about to start puberty. AAAAAAND, if I would have started bass then I'd have 20 years under my belt by now! Go for it and make the most of everyday.
 
#57
Like other have said, youre never too old. Heck, I was thinking about taking some lessons and I am 40, have been playing for 25 years, and took lessons for the first 3 years. I havent worked on theory since those first lessons and wanted to get back to it.
 

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