Seniorstrummer

In this day and age young people are ruling the tech world, and most everything else. People over 45 start thinking about playing guitar or ukulele. They feel like they now have time to devote to learning this skill and think that they would really enjoy being a guitar player—“a plucker.” (Let’s don’t get on to politics!)

They are right. From 45 to 95 is a great time to start your musical adventure. One of the many things you will gain from it is an increase in your overall mental acuity and a reversal of brainpower diminishing. Of course, there is the joy of making music.

Have you ever thought about what music means in your life? Have you ever realized that you take music for granted? Do you just sort smile at the first sound of music being played? Watch people as they come across music. They invariably smile, at least at first. Music videos are the primary videos on YouTube. If you attend church, you sing. We sing the Star Spangle Banner before almost every public event, especially sporting events. It’s a big deal who sings this song at the Super Bowl, World Series Games, NBA playoffs, etc. Sing, sing, sing.

Two instruments, piano and guitar, accompany singing. Piano is much older and a truly beautiful instrument. Not so portable. Guitars are incredibly versatile and used in all kinds of ways. They produce fantastic sound, are quite portable, and loved by everybody. Wooden guitars are quite gorgeous, so elegant. Electric guitars can be stunning and exciting just to look at. Rock artists love to work with wild looking guitars, like Prince (check out his video on “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child).

STYLES OF MUSIC

Here is something for you to think about—musical styles. Let’s discuss a few. There is pop, rock, hard rock, metal, endless variations of hardless rock and medal, folk, Southern, blues and zydeco. That’s all generally singing styles. But there is classical music, chamber music (mostly classical) and Opera (more singing). How about spirituals, hymns, and organ music? Around the world there are different style of music and percussion—fifes in Ireland, pan flutes in Chile and Peru, many, many different kinds of drums throughout Africa. Harps. Penny-whistles.

Then, of course, there are all the stringed instruments. Violins, violas, basses, cellos, banjos, guitars, ukuleles, cavatinas and many, many others.

YOU

People want to make music and they do.

You can make music. You can start learning guitar and/or ukulele at any age. If you stick with it, you will make beautiful music. You will bring joy to yourself and those around you. It will become one of the most important experiences in the your life. But. You must start and you must stick with it.

God bless you for going after it. Best wishes.