Is it too late?

[Doghouse Riley]

The only consideration I'd suggest to the practicality of starting playing the guitar at any age, is the flexibility of the fingers of your left hand.

The younger you start the easier it will be for your fingers to "settle down" i.e. adapt, so you will eventually be able to master some of the more difficult chords over three or possibly occasionally four frets.
Anyone with "fat short fingers" will have difficulty at whatever age they start. Those with longer, thinner fingers will have a definite advantage. I don't think you can make a hard and fast rule in these circumstances.

[anna]

Hey, thank you for the comment.

Interesting, i didn't know that (about the fingers).

I'm practicing everyday a good amount of hours.

According to your comment, I'm lucky, since I have long fingers :-)

When I was 5 I had piano lessons for about a month (my mom's friend taught me a little bit for free, it was a blast!) and I remember she used to tell me -- "you got a pianist hand" basically because of that!

[le_ste]

one thing very important is ear training. work a lot of exercices, then try to learn song by ears. .It will be a very important thing when you will play with others.

[tornado]

Originally Posted by jazz oud

C'mon, Tornado! That's a little misleading. I agree that it's not too late for the OP, but Wes didn't start playing music when he was 20. He'd been playing tenor guitar since he was twelve at least, and he came from a very musical family, surrounded by brothers and other family members playing music and singing his whole life.

You're right, though . . . steady practice and a good teacher can work wonders at any age.

My bad. The sentence in the wikipedia article was so long I stopped reading before the "tenor guitar at age twelve" part. I didn't know that prior either, I always had Wes presented to me as not having started playing until 20...

[Scott Rosen]

Originally Posted by Doghouse Riley

Anyone with "fat short fingers" will have difficulty at whatever age they start. Those with longer, thinner fingers will have a definite advantage. I don't think you can make a hard and fast rule in these circumstances.

No offense, but you made a hard and fast rule . . . .

My personal experience with relatively short and thick fingers is that it's been no impediment whatsoever. I've had successful students with short fat fingers. Then there's Django . . . .

Any monkey can learn the mechanics of playing the guitar. That just takes time and practice. The key to sounding good is to develop your ear. Don't confuse "hearing" music with "listening" to music. You should strive to learn to actually listen to the music, that is to understand what you hear and relate it to your instrument. That kind of listening can be a humbling experience. But it's the way you will grow and get better.

[edrowland]

Originally Posted by Doghouse Riley

The only consideration I'd suggest to the practicality of starting playing the guitar at any age, is the flexibility of the fingers of your left hand.

The younger you start the easier it will be for your fingers to "settle down" i.e. adapt, so you will eventually be able to master some of the more difficult chords over three or possibly occasionally four frets.

Not sure I'd really buy that either. Ironically, jazz chords are probably easier than stock guitar chords, for short stubby fingers, because rootless chords are the rule rather than the exception. Out of the standard set of rootless jazz chords, there are a couple that are notoriously difficult; but both have easy workarounds. The overwhelming majority of jazz chords could be played on three frets or less, with two or three fingers if you cheat enough. (See Django, as a previous poster pointed out).

The process of "settling down" principally involves learning that accuracy and a light touch are what it's all about, and that strength has nothing to do with it. Neither long fingers or short fingers have an advantage there.

[bargeon]

Anna,
It sounds like you're on your way. You have a bit of music in your background (a little goes a long way). You're motovated. You enjoy the music. Practice is fun. You've got the hands of a player.

Heck, all you need is to find some folks to sit in with and you're practically where you want to be.

And you have the rest of your life to continue learning.

Go! Our best wishes for a life time of music.

[wedmedyk]

The theory is that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery on your intrument.

So. 3-5 hours a day everyday? Assuming you dont have unfixable rhythmic problems. Youll be rather talented in about 4 years.

You can only go up from here. Dont be negative about your age, you could still get very good. It just depends on how much time you put in.

So in the end, you decide how get you get.