Its been said that the best time to learn the piano or any other musical instrument is when you are young and it does make sense because the human brain can grow, develop and expand the most when people are young. Neuroscientists currently think that the human brain does not peak in its development until the age of 24.
So we are clearly not at our peak BUT and its a really big but, just because our ability to learn is no longer at its optimum, doesn’t mean that we can’t learn anymore. WE CAN ALWAYS LEARN, NO MATTER WHAT OUR AGE.
In fact, I think that retirees have ADVANTAGES in the learning process that young piano students do not.
- Retirees usually have much more spare time than a young person. Kids and teenagers have their school work and various other activities such as sport or dance or drama that they are doing regularly and then there’s the all important circle of friends that they need to keep up with. Sometimes kids are so busy with activities that parents have a hard time managing their kids’ busy schedules. Retirees can be busy, especially if they are regularly looking after their grandkids, but retirees obviously don’t have work commitments anymore which must free up so much extra time.
- Retirees know how to manage their time and have balance in their lives – this is the benefit of being older – you have life experience and you know how to balance all the important and not so important things in your life.
- You can set your goals and know what you want to achieve by taking up the piano (sometimes for the second time). Kids often start learning a musical instrument without any idea of where it will lead them and sometimes parents insist on music lessons for their kids, regardless of whether the child has expressed an interest or not.
- Retirees would have much more patience than a young person. Retirees would understand that learning or re-learning is a process that will take time and that the journey, however long it takes, can be enjoyable. The youth often don’t have that type of patience, they stereo-typically want to be good at something instantly.
- Mature adults are far less likely to suffer from ‘shiny object syndrome’ (which refers to the situation where people flit from one good idea to the next, without really committing to anything and not really achieving anything). Young people are far more likely to start on something and not see it through to the conclusion.
- My years of teaching the piano to many students of all ages has shown that adult students are far, far less likely to get frustrated over a piece of music that just isn’t working yet or a technique that they are struggling to learn. Adults understand, through life experience, that persistence eventually pays off.
- That mature adults understand that situations and circumstances don’t have to be perfect for things to work out. I personally think that most things in life occur when circumstances are far from perfect.
I’m sure there are more than these 7 reasons, but this should be enough to convince you that you shouldn’t let anything get in your way if you truly want to play the piano in your retirement.