Advantages To Starting Guitar Lessons Young And Why This Is So

Playing Technique
#1

We’ve al heard that children learn music and other skills much better than adults. You only need to look at a family of immigrants and notice how much quicker and better the children pick up English than the parents do. In music, again, kids pick up music much better and faster than adults do,

Does anyone know exactly why this is - related specifically to learning guitar? I’ve heard there is a theory about something called “the plastic brain” or maybe that should be “a brain like a sponge” because the brains of children soak up information like a sponge moreso than plastic which isn’t known for soaking things up.

When you listen to the legends who started early whether its Stevie Ray Vaughan or Yngwie Malmsteen, the thing that leaps right out at you is how at ease they seem with the instrument - almost as if the guitar is just another appendage of their body! When those guys were “on” they didn’t seem capable of playing a wrong note.

So why is it that the brains of children are so much better at learning things such as guitar than adults are? Have any of you here studied this subject?

Is there any research data to suggest that an adult can learn guitar just as well starting at 25 years old as if he’d started at 8 or 10 years old but will just have to work harder or longer to learn to get just as good on the guitar? Or are there things the guy starting out at 25 years old will never learn as well on guitar as he would have if he’d started at 8 or 10 years old and specifically, no matter how hard or how long he practices and which things are these specifically?

#2

‘Plasticity’ refers to the ability to be molded or shaped, as opposed to ‘elasticity’ which means it will return to it’s previous shape.

Learning stuff literally changes the shape and structure of your brain, and children’s brains are easier to change than those of adults.

This is just vocabulary, though. I’m no expert in understanding the ability to learn music at different ages.

As to your premise that starting as a kid gives an advantage, I don’t doubt it’s true, but I have met enough badasses that started playing guitar as adults that I don’t see starting later as an insurmountable hurdle. Depends on your goals, maybe.

1 Like
#4

As far as I’ve read, kids have more connections in the brain vs an adult.
So rather than faster or better connections, its a brain with massive connections that get pruned away as you age.

So the stuff you learn as a kid sticks because, the connections you dont use get detached or pruned away.

That leaves you with a mind molded to your environment, vs grown in your environment.

Like carving out a 3d statue from marble, vs constructing one from marble or any material. Same concept. A large mass being chipped away to get a statue, vs building it bit by bit.

Plasticity should be the same in all ages, It’s just harder to build vs take away, at any age.