This post was inspired by a Dtube post that I just finished watching and felt the need to respond to. I actually wasn't going to write a post today because I didn't really have anything to write about, until now. Part of this post will actually consist of the comment that I left on the Dtube post. I felt that it was important to write this post while I was inspired to do it.
I think this Dtube post is well worth your time to watch, the link is here. The title of her post is "It's never too late!"
https://steemit.com/music/@deepsouthpiddlin/6y4rbs1i
I turned 63 last August, and I've been contemplating this subject a lot lately.
A little back story, back in the 1980s and 90s, I was the bass player and one of the singers in a local classic rock band. I say classic rock, because we played songs from the 60s, 70s and a few current ones, songs that are now classic 80s songs. :-)
Anyway, in about 2001, my day job started scheduling me for weekends. That was pretty much the end of my music playing days. After that, I hardly ever picked up my bass guitar because, what was the point, I wasn't ever going to be able to play again...
I had learned some basic chords on the guitar, but I never worked at it very much because again, what would be the point of it...
It never really occurred to me that I could just play for my own enjoyment. Then, pile clinical depression on top of that and mix well, not a very good recipe for success.
Then, in May of 2016, I discovered steemit, and a few months later I discovered the open mic contest on steemit. All of a sudden, playing music seemed like a possibility again. There was a problem with that though, I couldn't play the guitar well enough to accompany myself. Attempting to learn to play the guitar has been an on again, off again thing since then, and I haven't made much progress, because I still couldn't find a good reason to continue to learn to play.
It's only recently, within the last month or 2 that I finally found a reason to work on music again, and that reason is the simplest one, because I enjoy doing it.
Something else that also got me thinking that playing for my on enjoyment was a valid reason to keep doing it was a bit of conversation that I had with @pechichemena about practicing, be it for work as a musician, or just for pleasure. I realized that my pessimistic nature was robbing me of a simple pleasure, just because I didn't have a "reason" to keep trying to learn to play the guitar. Trying to learn to play the guitar has always been a bit frustrating for me because I find a lot of the open chords difficult to make with my fingers. I've used bar chords in the past when playing my electric guitars, but even those take more practice than I was giving them. Also, I've never found an acoustic guitar that was easy to play bar chords on, and my struggle with open chords makes playing an acoustic guitar difficult.
Last summer, after messing around with the ukuleles at a local music shop, I decided that I wanted to buy one and learn to play it. I could see even then that it would be easier to learn to play than the guitar. Due to a lack of available cash, I ended up trading one of my electric guitars for a good quality ukulele and have been working on learning how to play it. I can't say that I'm very good at it yet, but I can say that I'm already better at playing the ukulele than I've ever been at playing the guitar. Just that bit of progress gives me hope that I'll continue to get better with it, as long as I keep working at it. And, I actually finally have a reason to keep working at it, and that reason is simply because I enjoy it.
So, as the title says, it's never too late to start!
Thank you for stopping by my page to read my post, eh!
I hope you found at least a little bit of wisdom in it.
for sure it's never to late. Music is a great healer and if it calling you it's time to engage with it again. Everyone should have music in their lives in some for or another I think. There are so many options to choose from I find it hard someone could not find something that suited them, it just a case of exploring. All the best 💯🐒
Thank you!
I agree, everyone should have some form of music in their life.
For sure it's worth keep learning if you love music. The only reason of self-satisfaction should be enough but definetely the blockchain adds a new ítem to the list.
The fact that you can create your own sounds as a musical expression of your feelings should be a "must" in that list of reasons to keep on playing and learning.
I would add sharing time with other musicians to only get a nice time is a great heavy reason in my humble opinión.
Keep on playing and learning!
My best wishes, cheers.
Thank you!
Yes, sharing time and music with other musicians is an added bonus.
This was so nice to wake up too today :) Thanks so much! Stay inspired always my new friend :)
Thank you for the inspiration! :-)