Music and guitar: if it feels too late to start

Music has a problem school subjects do not: a great many people are certain their moment has passed. «Nobody sent me as a child», «I have no ear», «too late now». It is almost always untrue, and there is almost always somebody's old bad experience behind it.

About «having no ear»

An ear is not a gift you either have or lack. It is a skill of telling sounds apart, and it develops in nearly everyone. The people it genuinely will not come to are very few, and you are probably not one of them: if you can tell a familiar song from an unfamiliar one, you have an ear.

A good teacher will check this in the first lesson and tell you honestly rather than wave it away.

Why guitar and ukulele

Because they get you to a real song fastest. Three chords and you can already play something you like rather than exercises. For an adult with little time and plenty of doubt, that settles it: a visible result holds better than any encouragement.

The ukulele is easier still: fewer strings, a lighter touch, and fingers that do not hurt the way they do on a guitar in the first weeks.

If it is for a child

The real question is not «how do we teach them» but «how do we not put them off». Children rarely give up music because it is hard; they give up because it is dull and because they are not playing what they want to play.

Ask the teacher whether the child will play things they like, and how soon. «Two years of scales first» is an honest answer — but consider whether the two of you will last.

Can music be taught online

Yes, and it works better than people expect. The teacher sees your hands, hears the sound and corrects the same things they would correct sitting beside you. What a screen cannot do is adjust your posture by hand or play along with you in time: the small delay in the connection gets in the way.

So online suits learning to play, and suits playing together rather less.

How to read the reviews here

The reviews are thank-yous, and their use is in the detail. «Two months in, he played for his wife on their anniversary» and «my daughter got into music school» mean different teachers and different goals.

See who is teaching: guitar and ukulele, music, solfeggio.