Is music really harder to learn with age?

When I was 13, my brother was 16 and my father was in his early fifties, we all decided to try to learn the guitar at the same time. It became obvious that my brother and I were learning the scales and basic songs much fast then our older father. We all just assumed that it was because of the old pseudoscientific saying that the older you are, the harder it is to learn music and language. We were always told that it is easier to learn when we are younger. Is this actually true? Why was playing the guitar much easier for my brother and I?

            Some obvious issues that middle aged people have over children is that their fingers get stiff when playing the guitar, and therefore can not practice for extended periods of time. Having stiff fingers also makes it harder for adults to keep up the pace of faster tempos. I would notice that my father would switch between chords significantly slower then my brother and I. Also, after your mid- twenties, memory tends to decline, making learning and retaining music harder for adults.

            Adults also have their life experiences working against them when they are trying to learn new skills. It is harder for them to learn new techniques, simply because it is learning something they were not used to doing their entire lives. Also, adults tend to get frustrated with the amount of repetition required to learn a new instrument or language. Children are not a bothered by repetition for unknown reasons. Gary Marcus compared children watching the exact same television show for five days in a row without loosing entertainment value to practice the same chords and scales on a musical instrument. Adults tend to get bored and frustrated with practice’s tedious nature, while children do not.

            Gary Marcus suggests that children do not necessarily learn faster and easier than adults do. He claims that children just simply have a better practice technique then adults and that is why they seem to learn faster. Children are excited by the novelty of a new instrument, while adults have already heard basic chords and melodies many times and are less fascinated by them. Also, at a young age, children tend to have pressure from their parents to learn a musical instrument. Having that parental pressure may drive a child to learn faster, while adults tend to pick up instruments for pleasure and do not feel such a pressure. Adults have work and other obligations while children have more time to dedicate to practice.

            Even though children do not necessarily learn faster and easier then adults, there are still benefits to learning to play a musical instrument as a child. Learning music early on will strengthen your range of auditory skills, and your brain is able to pick out essential elements in sound like pitch and complex sounds.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/education/in-middle-age-reviving-dreams-of-playing-music.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/early-music-lessons-have-longtime-benefits/