The Older you get , is it harder to learn ?

Leisceoir

You don’t stop learning because you grow old. You grow old when you stop learning. 

Lestratcaster

I think attitude and the way you receive information is more important. As a guitar tutor people would assume I teach alot of younger children and they're easy to tutor but they're not sometimes. Whereas the adult ones can be alot more responsive and better. I do find I have to adjust the intensity to certain individuals though so maybe shorter lesson lengths or if its a song we only do a small section instead of the whole thing.

CaseOfAce

For me the the HOW of learning guitar (or bass) has gotten easier over time. I find having a goal in mind makes me progress - I'll learn a song down stone cold with my vocals and guitar to the point where I could perform it from memory 
OR
 work on a section of a book (I'm currently working my way thru Stuart Clayton's Slap Bass Workouts Book which is getting me nicely thru a grim January). The latter finds me on the sofa every evening mastering the mechanics of it whilst Netflixing - it gets the finger memory working for me. 

The WHY is harder - the sheer joy of making music should be enough and at times it is - but now that I'm no longer in a band picking up a guitar seems a bit ... pointless .. at times?

So for me.. there's got to be a bit of a goal or a challenge involved to motivate me.

majax

I wish I had been more committed when I was younger, I'm sure I'd be a better player now. 20/20 hindsight, eh?

That said, I'm much more motivated to actually learn stuff now that I'm much, much older and I tend to actually get on and do it, rather than making excuses.

HAL9000

As I get older I find learning new techniques is more difficult, but learning things by ear, constructing solos, etc, has become easier as I now have more experience to draw on.

Basher

I've been trying to learn a bit of piano over the last few months and I'm finding it savagely difficult to remember stuff.

I am having a few lessons but have found that, even with daily practice, it takes weeks, if not months, for anything to stick.

If I have only a week between lessons, it's basically pointless as I can barely make any progress in that time. This is despite me having more time than ever to actually practice (recently retired). I realise that it's a big ask to do something so unfamiliar but I'd have thought having a bit of theory under my belt from guitar would have helped more than it has. It's made me realise how poor my knowledge of chords and stuff like the circle of fifths was in the first place.

I'm (mostly) enjoying the challenge but honestly think my brain is in terminal decline (not that it was ever a particularly spectacular specimen in the first place). 

dcg

FWIW, here's my recent experience...
I am very old (retired for 4 years, plus I worked way past the usual retirement age), but for the past 2 years I've been enrolled in a weekly jazz workshop at Morley College, London.  I finally decided that after listening to jazz all my life I should learn how to play it; I am a non-reader, and was apprehensive about joining a class of readers, some of whom were already good jazz players.  My tutor at Morley (Paul Westwood, a renowned session and touring bass player) has totally fired me up with a mixture of super constructive criticism and encouragement.  I now play in a quintet of other jazz novitiates, and we're gigging.  Has it been hard?  Very.  Were there times when I thought I couldn't make it?  Frequently.  Have I had to practice like never before?  You bet.  Has it been worth it?  Totally; this has been the best decision I ever made musically.  I was a reasonably OK player before, but somewhat stuck in an Americana/country/r'n'b rut.   So my take on this is that it's never too late if your mindset is good.  Best of all, I sound like me when playing jazz and although the (in)consistency of my playing still irks, I'm optimistic about both my music and that of my band.

Catthan

I'm 41 with a full time job and 2 small kids. I still carve min 30mins/ day to play and 1.5hr/ day on weekends.

4 things that changed as I got older.. 
a. I'm more aware of my learning style and issues with it.
Finger dexterity, muscle memory, good pitch and ability to transcribe and nail challenging lines was never and still not is an issue. I can also read a bit so any audible or written material is game. 
What I realised has always been the issue is getting new info built into a sustainable vocabulary.
say I worked out a lick, next step is how do I get in and out of it, how do I make it musical, move it around etc.. I lose interest once I overcome the technical and harmony difficulties. 
So now I'm more aware of this being the challenging area to address and progress

b. I'm more interested in composing my own music and chasing tones and melodies than 'practice' from a book or play on backing tracks etc.

c. I'm more tempted to just melt in front of the TV or allow to fall asleep at 8pm as I read a bedtime story to my kid.. 

d. I have less access (time & location) to a peer environment I can immerse into music. e.g. music college, jam night, band. 

Some of it is progress, some of it is just life. if I find a system to address that one difficulty, I'd end up in a much more rewarding place being able to play more interesting to me music. currently defined as choppy modern blues/jazz/ fusion a la Henderson, Mancusso, Scofield etc.

guitarjack66

joeW said:

Know exactly what you are going to work on in each session and try for 2 15-20 min sessions per day as often as you can.  Amazing what short periods of total focus can achieve.

I agree totally with this. I'm 59 and practice for about 40 minutes 5 times a week,well I just play rather than practice but anything that gets me to pick up the guitar works.

Hootsmon

whadda he say?

CharlieShaw

I often wonder if muscle memory is slower as you get older. I suspect it is. And can it fade the way other memory can?

GuyBoden

Learning new songs every week helps, I hope. 

icu81b4

<Name drop> Tommy Emmanuel said to me to learn one song at once, don’t move on until you can play it perfectly. 

He’s getting on a bit. 

GuyBoden

Playing songs is what music is all about, not playing scales.