Well I turn 60 this year and I've been lucky to still be out playing every week. What i want to know if there are any of you out there older than me. Do we all start to lose our playing skill over time? I don't want to be out there in the future embarasing myself. Sometimes i see some of these former stars on tv and think they should have hung it up. I hope i have a few more years and then hope to still play and progress musically at home.

To a certain extent, there's always a certain amount of drop-off in dexterity and stamina as we age, or find less time to practice, etc., but the main thing, and it's something those TV stars miss, is to have the wisdom to adapt what you play to those new realities. They find themselves stuck HAVING to do what they did in their youth and prime, because that's what the people expect to hear.

We, fortunately, usually have less audience expectations Plus, just like probably many of us here, I found myself spending the first twenty years learning how to play, and now I find the next twenty years learning how to NOT play (at least, so much ). You can do the tastiest of things with half the technique you used to use, once you have the wisdom to recognize what IS tasty...

If it's any consolation, I'm only in my late thirties and I look at pieces I played fluently when I was a teenager and think "How the hell...?".

I feel I'm better now than when I was younger.
I'm still learning something every day. It's when you stop learning you start going backward.
Now I'm smart enough not to lift B3s, Leslies and heavy pa systems. It's a good thing, because I couldn't anyway!
DonM

Old age is a bitch...everything's heavier...it's a little harder to get "in the groove". You compensate by working harder and smarter. The motorcycles get smaller and the lawn mowers get bgger. And, Like Don says, ya gotta KEEP LEARNING!


I'm older than you and not even close to slowing down.

Be well,


Russ


[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 08-03-2009).]

Yeah then there is me
What I play best now days is YOUR MUSIC
OLD BEBOP

Whether we realize it or not, we have been changing and adapting to physical and mental changes all our lives ... the problem with getting older is that we obviously can't do what we did and how we did it 20, 30, 40 years ago ...
Just accept the changes, and adapt to them ...
I don't want to get 'old', but I want to continue to get 'older' ...

still rockin' at 68 ...
t.

YEAH Tony,
I'm still rockin at 78 but it is in the rocking chair.
You know why they put arms on the rocking chairs.
To hold your keyboard while you play it
Bebop

Bebop...now THAT is funny. I don't care who you are. LOL

Eddie

Your repetoire should change and grow with you.

A 60-70 Y.O. man shouldn't be trying to play and sing songs made popular by nineteen year olds.


--Mac

Sorry, --mac. Can't agree with you there. Keeping young between the ears and at the fingertips tends to keep the rest of you young. Fresh ideas are the province of youth. Embrace them, it helps keep us relics fresh, too.

I'll be 69 in October, and while I didn't ever think it would happen, there are times when the timing just isn't as good as it was a couple years ago. I think I'm the only person that notices this, but because it is happening I make a concerted effort to compensate for my lack of competence. Of course, there are lots of other things that go during the aging process. My wife says my mind was the second thing to go--I can't remember what the first was.

Cheers,

Gary

Something tells me I ought to contribute to this thread, being at the 'Sunset Strip' year and I have to tell you folks, I realised that my fingers were not in line with the tune in my head when I was still a slip of a lad.(at 50).
So I held back a little on my desire for perfection in music playing and started to enjoy what I was hearing from myself, not caring too much about the slips and slides.
They were me. and nothing was going to change that.
But, wait a minute.
What's that I hear about 'nidi'? or was it 'midi'?
You mean I can actually sound better than I am with some new-fangled gadget?
Ok, I'm going to have a pennorth of that.
And then came all the tips and tricks and buttons for this and buttons for that.
This is really living, man.
I can't wait to get older (in numbers).
I wonder what is coming and is going to make me sound even better than I am and what is more important-make me enjoy my toys.
That's waht really comes with age...more and better toys.... well we have always loved our toys since we were just a wee tiddler, haven't we?

------------------
Eddie from Rotherham
Skype:eddiefromrotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

PSR9000

[This message has been edited by eddiefromrotherham (edited 08-03-2009).]

Thanks guys, 60 is the first birthday to bother me. There is nothing i like better than being able to play good music.

Keep going Montana.. You ask if anyone is playing older than you.. Well, I am and I'm still at it at 84. Two gigs this week coming up. Quite enough and I bless the day that keyboards were invented.

Regards,

Trevor

As you become older you loose in some areas while you increase in other areas. There are two important areas to watch -- one is your drive. Aging does have an effect on all parts of our bodies from out taste buds to our go, go, go, go drive. In my twenties I could play with no problem two four jobs in the same day - that includes packing , carrying and setting up. (Five piece band) Could not do that in my latter 60’s, an now in my latter 70’s it is no longer an option.

For you that our worried about losing some of your playing ability, I think it would be more important to watch the size of your audience. If they leave you then it’s time for the NH jobs. If they leave you it’s time to get a rocking just like Bebop has and be happy.

John C.