New keyboard!

[garrettendi]

No, its not for me. Miss Endi has been wanting a "piano" of her own for some time now. I have my 88 key MIDI controller that works great but it's a faff to connect to a laptop, open a DAW (or standalone program) and then finally play.

On the way back from the school run this morning I spotted a Gear4Music MK-1000 keyboard in the local charity shop. No sustain input, it was missing the microphone and the keyboard has note name stickers on it, but it was going cheap, it is for charity after all, and Miss Endi would probably need the stickers so I went back during my work break to go buy that puppy!

It's as basic as basic could be, 56 keys (I think) and the lack of a sustain pedal is an issue, but it'll do for now.

The plan is for me and her to play it together and I can teach her the piano. It'll be good bonding time, and it gets her off the screens she often uses to entertain herself.

I'm looking forward to her coming home from school!

Oh, and the piano sound is surprisingly usable considering how basic it is...

All going well, we can get her proper lessons with someone more qualified than I, and we can upgrade to a better proper digital piano...

[OneWorld]

Well done and hope all goes well, there can never be too many musicians in this world! Sez I, I sometimes think of trying to become one myself every now and again till I discover some aspirations are way too lofty and beyond my ken, doesn't stop me trying though

[RichardT]

Sounds great. A nice way to have some father / daughter time too.

[Folderol]

That's good... Very good. it's much easier for kids to learn these kinds of skills than adults. They have both the mental and physically flexibility.

[OneWorld]

That's good... Very good. it's much easier for kids to learn these kinds of skills than adults. They have both the mental and physically flexibility.

Many years, at the age of around 33ish, after completing an advanced music course, I applied for a place at one of the UK's top music colleges. I was particularly interested in composition as opposed to performing. I started music relatively late - 18, 19ish I could never be an outstanding performer, but I liked composing.

I was told by the admissions department, that although they welcome 'mature students' they have a cut off point of 27 years of age. Somewhat surprised I asked why, they explained that at 27 years of age I was too old to develop much further than I'd already got.

I had at that time a few friends that were psychologists, one in fact had a PHd, and she, along with the others were horrified, and claimed that the brain did not become ossified, and they had many mature students that went on to success after being a mature student.

Instinctively, I was inclined to agree, but there was something niggling at me. I did research of my own, and it occurred to me, yes we can and do flourish in whatever endeavour, irrespective of age. But on reflection, we tend to learn more about what we know already, it is less often that we take up a completely new pursuit - for example, when have we ever heard of say a painter casting aide their oils and canvas and taking up AstroPhysics? Where do we hear of someone taking up a musical instrument in their 30's/40's and beyond, and going on to become a top performer?

I also came across a school of thought, populated with professionals where they did indeed buy into this claim that by the age of 27ish, we have learned all we'll ever learn, the brain soaks up less but deals with what we know in greater depth, the transformation between familiarity and expertise. Beneath the age of around 27ish we are still in our formative years.

So the child being given the keyboard, if they take to it will hopefully flourish and by the time they reach adulthood, they might well have quite an impressive ability. Almost exclusively, those musicians I know that I respect and in many cases am in reverence of their ability, started when they were young, some as young as 5, and had supportive parents and well done those parents

[Folderol]

Well if that's true I must be some kind of freak.
I didn't have any knowledge of computers and software development until I was in my 30s.

P.S. sometimes I think I still don't

[BigRedX]

Many years, at the age of around 33ish, after completing an advanced music course, I applied for a place at one of the UK's top music colleges. I was particularly interested in composition as opposed to performing. I started music relatively late - 18, 19ish I could never be an outstanding performer, but I liked composing.

I was told by the admissions department, that although they welcome 'mature students' they have a cut off point of 27 years of age. Somewhat surprised I asked why, they explained that at 27 years of age I was too old to develop much further than I'd already got.

I had at that time a few friends that were psychologists, one in fact had a PHd, and she, along with the others were horrified, and claimed that the brain did not become ossified, and they had many mature students that went on to success after being a mature student.

That's very disappointing to read. I have been more productive with composing, recording and performing music since I turned 50 some 15 years ago then any time previously and I've been doing this since I was 13, including a period in the 80s when I was essentially doing music full time.

[OneWorld]

Just another part of life, you roll with the punch, yes of course many will go on the defensive and state "I have been doing this or that since I was 40,50 or whatever" Yes that is true - but they are doing more of what they did already, and doing it better, but not having the same capacity to embrace and 'master' radically new endeavours, as per the example I gave.

There were many amongst my psychologist friends who gave many examples of "Well I knew a shop worker that went on to do a degree in Women's Studies(for example)" yes, but that hardly boils your brain.

The inference of what they were saying at the music college was - "Whilst you might already be an accomplished performer, we will expect you to play piano at a very high standard, you'll have to sight read along with people that could sight read a complex piece of Bach(for example), we have visiting performers/composers who will expect the students they are expected to perform with exceptional dexterity(Would you expect a 30 year old to take up football and expect to join a premier league club? after having just played pub football in the Sunday League?)..........what they were essentially telling me was - 'we're saving you from yourself, we don't want to see you embarrass yourself" The aural skills required at that level is staggering, other students of that age on the Diploma Level I did could listen to say 32 bars of 4 part music, listen 3 times and then write it down from memory, note for note, bar for bar - prior to that I didn't think it was humanly possible to have such powers of recall, and a skill that dispenses the myth that classical musicians cannot play by ear - they can and do it with their eyes shut!!!!

And whilst I was irked and dis-appointed, I was quite an accomplished performer at being turned down, that didn't dissuade me, not at all, and in the end, several years later, I went on to do a degree in Artificial Intelligence and that knocked me for six, it really did, but I got through due to exceptionally lucky circumstances. I digress, there is a phenomenon whereby it is said the brain becomes 'crystalized' and many are hostile to that claim, but they miss the point, it is not to say we cannot learn new things, that would be absurd, but the point being made is that generally speaking, after a certain age, in certain disciplines, the odds of excelling at something which requires an exceptionally good degree of intellectual, creative, physical dexterity and all the other qualities a top musician needs, are slim. Bear in mind, a classical musician might be confronted with Bach one night and Wagner the next, along with Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy........need I go on, and do it without dropping a note and giving a flawless performance. I'd venture to say that's somewhat more difficult than your more ordinary degrees.

Happily for me, I took their (what could have been) patronising advice "We are sure your skills are more aligned with other disciplines, but it ain't going to be music here" Another thing to be factored in was that the college had an esteemed reputation and each year they had students queuing around the block hoping to get in, they were the creme'd'la'creme, well compared to me they were, and they didn't want me dragging the place down, and the experience did not one jot see me hanging up m plectrum and taking up another hobby such as whittling or whatever, no, anything but. I was saddened because had I been accepted, I was a person who had an all consuming passion for composition and was so excited at the possibility of me sitting alongside those with the skills I aspired to. Thankfully, with music, one doesn't have to do a formal qualification to gain acceptance or to flourish. I have always found it so inspiring to be in and around people so evidently superior to myself in terms of my chosen interest, and never on any one single occasion did I experience any 'snobbery' even the most accomplished professional were encouraging supportive and engaging and that to me is one of the most attractive aspects of music, it is so inclusive. In travelling the world I found that if one can sit in and knock out a tune - you're in. So the "Too old at 27" experience was simply a reminder that not everything goes our way, we'll get knock backs and as the Chinese say "Never trust anyone that's never fallen off their horse"

It was no big deal, it wasn't their loss, and mine neither, and by the way, I am talking about the 1990's here, things might have changed, who knows, who cares. If one enjoys what one does, then job done.

[OneWorld]

" and I've been doing this since I was 13" yes that's the point they were making, below 27 we have an incredible ability to absorb, beyond 27, you essentially do more of the same, yes you might well, do it better, of course you will, but, yes, there's always the exception to the rule, but generally, we don't do anything radially different.

We might do something radically new, out of our comfort zone, it on our own terms and excel. But to do it alongside a cohort of youngsters(<27), that's an arbitrary figure by the way, a generalism, but it isn't prescriptive, to do it and keep up with those youngsters, is for the majority of us, beyond our reach. That's life, once we become aware of our limitations, we are free to delve into what we can excel at.

I am of a certain age, ok, not in a Zimmer Frame, yet, but, I would love to do that jumping about, bouncing off walls, Parkour do they call it? but I don't think you'll be seeing me leaping across the roof tops with the agility of a cat on steroids any day soon - I'm past it. As it happens when I was a young lad and I did leap across roofs, on more than one occasion I went through the roof! and spent more time in A&E than I did leaping around.