is 40 too old you ask? hmmm.. check this out:... there was always a piano in my house, so as a child, I often doodled out tunes by ear on it, could read just a tad. At age 11 i was given a clarinet and classical lessons. I got hooked on jazz at 14 and at 16 swapped the clarinet for sax, and jazz lessons. I got only good enough to play a couple of weddings and to sit in at some jams, but decided that I preferred to get serious about learning to be a jazz pianist at age 21. but i was then told by so many people that it was too late..that you have to start very early, and have put in hours and hours, and on top of that have exhibited signs of being a prodigy, so I never tried, just kept sporadically doodling on the piano for fun, sang, and I put away the sax and never blew a note on it again for 14 years..until i was 35. then I had the strange notion to seriously go back to sax..too old to do that? i would never have tried to get serious on piano at 35(what i really wanted) because I was only a doodler and was intimidated by the experts..but I was dumb enough to think that because i had studied reeds seriously in my teens i could perhaps become a good jazz sax player even though i had not touched a horn for 14 years. what a moron! but by the time i was 45 I became, to everyone's surprise, including me, a competent jazz sax and bass clarinet player. too old to do more? by the time i was 55 i had become an excellent player. too old to do more now? by the time i was 65 i was world-class(one of the many who never translated that into fame/fortune--so far!LOL)) Now the keys story..At age 58 I saw that work was disappearing for groups, and with the advent of arranger keyboards, felt maybe they would give me a shot to be a solo/duo act. so i shed for about a year, then went out and started working...someone who never did anything but doodle on keys all his life. Now i'm 68 and I'm a competent keyboardist..and if it follows the sax suit, when I'm 78 I'll be excellent and by the time i'm 88 world-class LOL. Mind you, Mr. ancient 40 yr old, this was all accomplished by someone who was too stupid to know it couldn't be done..who is not a musical prodigy, who is lazy and undisciplined and has never put in long hours at anything except playing..certainly not doing book exercises or taking formal lessons or working very hard at it..just by the process of staying immersed in it and loving what i was doing..getting encouragement and discouragement but never allowing those to puff me up or bring me down..(although i was close to throwing in the towel so many times along the way)..so do you still think it might be too late..at 40..as i thought at 21?

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Miami Mo