Recently, I was at a recital for an amateur strings concert band. I found the sounds of the cellos quite beautiful, deep and resonant and I thought, “I want to make that sound!”
So here I am, at 38, and I’m tossing around the idea of taking up the cello. This will be quite the challenge, particularly since I know less than nothing about music - still, I figure it’s better late than never.
So who here plays an instrument? What do you play? When did you start? Do you still play now?
First off, go for it. If you had that strong a reaction to anything, go for it. Find yourself a teacher, rent a cello and give yourself a year to just throw yourself into it. Being able to play music is the best thing in the world, and while it may take you time to get to the point where you can really just play, the whole journey is wildly rewarding. I love the cello, it’s a beautiful instrument. Do it.
I play guitar, bass, harmonica and can sort of fake my way around a piano.
I started playing when I was relatively young. I had violin lessons from the time I was 7 until I was 10 or 11. I don’t remember anything about it now unfortunately. That coupled with my elementary school’s really very good music education program meant that I had a solid grasp of basic theory from a young age. That said, I do not believe that the beginning music student is helped by this knowledge. Once you can get around the instrument, music theory is a huge help, but don’t be intimidated by not having the knowledge when you start off. I started studying guitar when I was 12 and took lessons for years, learning to play the bass along the way and took about a years worth of formal piano lessons when I was 16 before I decided that classical music wasn’t really my bag as a musician. I learned harmonica and the little bit I know about rock piano from other musicians I hung out with in my late teens and early 20s.
I still play guitar a lot. Not every day like I used to, but I don’t go much more than a week without picking the guitar up. I haven’t played bass in…a while, and I haven’t touched my harmonica since my daughter was born almost 2 years ago. I had the opportunity to sit at a piano and noodle around a bit the other day, but I can’t really play much and don’t get many opportunities anyway.
I started with saxophone back in 4th grade. I picked up bassoon in high school. I played that through college (it’s a lot easier to get a chair on a bassoon than a sax). I also sang in choirs and chamber ensembles throughout high school and college (I even proposed to my wife in the choir loft of the chapel we sang in, on the night of our last concert in college). I haven’t played an instrument in years, but I still sing.
NAF is correct in that you should go for it. Music is a passion…it ignites the soul. I would curl up and die if I couldn’t sing or play. Mjsic theory is great if you want to understand why and how music works, but it’s not a requirement.
You may conceivably wish to begin with an easier, maybe cheaper, possibly smaller instrument than a cello. But doing lots of practice is good.
I play harmonica, guitar, drums. I did sit over a cello and drag the bow across the strings and must agree, that of all the instruments, the cello imparts the vibrations directly into your body like no other. I had a few violin lessons.
What is the difference between a violin and a viola? According to a WW2 General, the viola will burn longer.
< — bassoonist.
Absolutely don’t let age stop you from picking up an instrument. There are lots of successful amateurs who started learning their instruments late in life.
I played violin and viola through high school, and was pretty good. I now own a damaged cello, and plan to get it fixed and learn to play it. I am 65.
Cello’s a good choice. You don’t have to sound like you are torturing cats for the first several months. I started violin lessons in elementary school and when my mother told me to practice, my brother complained. I often wished I had chosen cello over violin (it was a bit tough for a 9 year old to manage on the bus), so when I got to college I enrolled in a beginning strings class to play cello and had a lot of fun with it.
Another vote for “Go for it!”
But cellos are crazy expensive, so rent one until it grows on you enough to buy one.
I have a passion for jazz guitar. Sadly, I did not start studying the guitar until my thirties, so I missed that window of “huge amounts of free time” combined with “the concrete in the brain is not yet set” that teenagers have.
So, I learned I have to do a few things:
Keep taking lessons!
I have stopped a few times, and all progress stops as soon as the lessons do.
Look carefully for progress, so as to not be discouraged.
Rather than expect to be jamming with the best in a couple of years time, I simply have to be satisfied that I have committed yet another set of weird jazz chords to memory or I have learned some more arpeggios or a cool new bossa tune.
Have fun!
It’s easy to get bogged down in trying to learn difficult techniques or memorize elusive riffs, but at the end of the day, it should be an enjoyment to play your instrument.
Clarinet - started in 6th grade
Bassoon - started in 7th grade
I don’t play now, but would like to - the bassoon, not the clarinet. Unfortunately even crappy bassoons (as in, ones with a decent sound and not made of plastic) cost about as much as a good used car.
I started playing the flute in elementary school. I continued playing the flute, and the piccolo, through high school and college. Got married, sold the flute, raised children, enjoyed life.
As a senior citizen I bought a new flute, and relearned it. I played for my own enjoyment, played some with the church choir, etc.
I still pick it up once in a while. My eyesight no longer allows me to read music, but I can play a bit by ear, and I still enjoy it.
My advice - rent a cello, take some lessons, enjoy yourself. If you don’t try it, you will always wonder what it would have been like to do it. 
Check out this this book about a man who decided to learn the cello in middle age.
From the Amazon.com description: “At the age of forty, with no particular musical background, he took up the cello. His touching and hilarious account of his passionate second career demolished the myth that one must start an instrument (or a sport, or a language) in early childhood, and will inspire any reader who dreams of taking up a new skill.”
As has been said, do it!
Thank you, everyone, for your responses and encouragement!
Very interesting to see what people play. I know a lot of people who play violin, and I was expecting a lot of piano and guitar, but I never imagined bassoon was so popular! Go figure.
Very true. Coincidentally, my in-laws actually have a cello that I could borrow for a while, so that’s one less thing to think about.
Heh. My husband plays violin and he said it took years before he sounded remotely decent (to be fair, he started when he was four).
Cool! I just reserved that at the library!
The cool thing about being an older adult taking up an instrument is that you (usually) have deeper pockets than a pimply faced teenager.
There is an archtop Gibson guitar I am currently lusting after. Every few weeks I play the one at my local guitar shop. They want close to four grand for the thing. It may well happen, even though my talent doesn’t merit it.
As a kid I played the piano starting at six, and the violin at nine or so.
Then in my mid-20s I discovered I actually could sing and that singing in a choir was like musical crack. Two years of lessons and choir singing ensued. Totally awesome. Then life happened and I didn’t sing again until last fall when I joined a local choir. Then got sucked into the local Episcopal church choir, because if you dangle a choir in front of me and I have the time…I’m there. Crack, as I said. Plus nice people.
I’ve had a few lessons here but actually I owe my teacher before I start up again; he’s awesome. It is SO MUCH FUN. I can’t more highly recommend taking up music at any age.
Easier to get a chair with the bassoon? What other instrument would you say would be a good one for a kid looking to get a chair?
*kid currently plays the flute and tortures me with the trumpet
Moving from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Piano and flute here. I learned piano as a child and can still play; though I much prefer the flute, which I picked up later in life and took to like a duck to water. I can sing as well, and have enjoyed participating in choirs and various ensembles.
Music is fun. Learn an instrument and join in!
Violinist here. I started when I was seven and still haven’t stopped twelve years later. I took lessons all through school, and took up with the community orchestra last year. I love it - my life would be an emptier, less fun place without music in it.
Go for it! My girlfriend (28) has just recently started learning the piano, and she seems to be enjoying it so far. She fell in love with the piano the first time she read Little Women and finally decided she wanted to actually play it about a month ago.