[alfiedotwtf]

FIFY: music you literally cannot play because you don't have as much time to practice compared to you were younger.

The wires you speak of come from time, practice, effort and habit - i.e the original meaning of the term kung fu.

[ntlk]

This is it. There are periods in life when the time for practice is more likely to be freely available. As an adult there are other responsibilities to be negotiated.

I’ve made life choices that now result in having uninterrupted blocks of time for learning to play an instrument in my thirties. I’m surprised at how quickly some things become completely effortless when you have time to practice every day.

[ido]

Be that as it may, children have a higher degree of neuroplasticity than adults. You would have probably learned even faster as a child.

[alfiedotwtf]

On the flip side, you're also less likely to be serious wanting to play an instrument, especially classical piano.

I started classical piano in primary school all the way up until I turned 17. I thought I played ok... but I started lessons again about 6 months ago (I'm turning 40 this weekend) and now that I actually want to play rather than be forced to play from tiger parents, I can honestly say that I'm learning 100 times faster than when I was a kid.

Also, now that I'm actually practicing multiple times a week rather than 30 minutes before my lesson (like when I did when I was a kid), my sight reading is blowing my mind. I could only wish to read like I do today than when I did in my teens.

[alfiedotwtf]

Exactly. I now have an alarm that goes off every day after dinner, where I force myself (no matter how dead tired I am) to sit at the piano and play at least an hour.

But like going to the gym, the hard part is getting there. Once I'm playing, I look down at my watch and it's been over 2 hours!

[ntlk]

I’m exactly the same. Sometimes I think, ok, just ten minutes, and before I know it I made a ton of progress and spent an hour enjoying the process.