It's only too late if you want to be the best
When people call my music school inquiring about lessons for adults, they often wonder in all sincerity if it’s even possible for them to learn. “I’m thirty-two. Is it too late for me to learn how to play the piano?”
Whenever I’m asked a question like this, I jokingly tell respond that they should’ve called a week earlier, and now it’s too late.
People get the “too late” idea from a misinterpretation of the research that shows that from the birth to age six, human beings have a much higher capacity for absorbing language and music. It’s during this time that children actually develop not only skill and knowledge in these areas, but the aptitude itself. In other words, they it’s not so much their ability but their potential ability that’s increasing. A child who has a lot of exposure to music during their formative years, then, will have increased potential in music as an adult.
This should not be interpreted to mean that the only time in which someone can develop musical skill is in their early childhood. For one thing, all of us are exposed to music constantly as children, even if we are not given formal instruction on an instrument. This exposure will help us all to develop our aptitude, even if we didn’t happen to have Leopold Mozart as a father, forcing us into lessons at a young age and taking us on performance tours of Europe. When people are wondering whether it’s too late, they may be afraid that they can’t learn music at all — that the window is closed forever. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Of course, you may not attain the pinnacle of success if you are starting music or any other skill an older age. If you do indeed start violin lessons at age three, then by the time you’re seventeen and applying to the famous Juilliard School, you will be in a much better position to be admitted than if you begin violin lessons at age sixteen. Assuming consistent practice in both cases, the violinist who started as a small child had that many more hours of playing time to absorb the necessary skills at an automatic level.
If you want to be a pro tennis player, it’s best to start early, because the players you’ll be competing against started early, too. If you start tennis at age thirty, your chances of winning at Wimbledon are significantly decreased. No, you know what, I’ll just come out and say it: You’re not even playing in a grand slam tournament, let alone winning one.
But it would be absurd to suggest that someone who starts tennis at age thirty can’t learn to play tennis. It is only true that they cannot become the best tennis player in the world. Go ahead and prove me wrong – that would delight me! But my point stands.
If you believe that the only reason to do something is so that you can be the best at it, then no, you shouldn’t take up an instrument or sport or any other hobby as an adult. However, your life will be much poorer for it. Even though it can be quite humbling to be working really hard on a musical piece and then find a six-year-old on YouTube making it look easy, that’s not enough of a reason not to do it.
There’s a proverb attributed to the Chinese that goes, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is today.” This is true no matter how old you are, no matter what “level” you think you can attain add your chosen skill. If you can learn to enjoy the process and accept that you won’t be the best, you can find a deeply satisfying, lifelong hobby for yourself. It’s never too late.