It’s never too late: what science says about music and the brain at any age

This article is for anyone who once played the piano and somewhere along the way stopped. For anyone who carries that “I wish I hadn’t stopped” and wonders whether it’s still worth starting again. The answer is yes. And I’m not the only one saying so.

“I wish I hadn’t stopped…”

It’s a phrase I hear very often. People aged 30, 40, 50, 60 who played piano as children, as teenagers, as young adults, and somewhere between responsibilities, work and family, let it go. Not because they hated it. Because life went in another direction.

And now they sit in front of me, or send me an email, and say: “I’d like to start again, but it’s probably too late.” Or: “I’m 45, 55, what’s the point?” Or, most commonly: “I’m embarrassed to start from the beginning.”

This article was written for exactly these people. And I’ll tell you two things: what science says, and what I see every day in practice.

What science says: the brain never “closes”

For many years we believed the brain stops changing after a certain age. Modern neuroscience has shown the opposite. The brain keeps its neuroplasticity at every age: the ability to make new connections, to learn, to change.

And music is one of the most powerful ways to activate that ability.

The study that changed the picture

Jennifer Bugos, a professor of music education at the University of South Florida, studied the effect of individual piano lessons on adults aged 60 to 85. After just six months, the participants showed significant improvement in memory, verbal fluency, processing speed and planning ability compared with a control group that had no lessons. And this in people who had never played an instrument in their lives.

Another study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, followed adults aged 60–85 who took piano lessons for 4 months. The results: significant improvement in executive function and attention, as well as improvements in quality of life and mood.

The musician’s brain: a natural “shield” against aging

A study at Kyoto University followed 53 older adults, with an average age of 73, who learned a musical instrument for four months. The results point to better brain health and less age-related cognitive decline, even when someone starts late in life. As Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen of the University of Copenhagen put it in his comments on the research, it’s never too late to start.

Johns Hopkins Medicine, one of the leading medical institutions in the world, notes that when 13 older adults took piano lessons, their attention, memory and problem-solving improved, along with their mood and quality of life.

And if you played piano as a child?

Here the news is even better. Music training seems to have a beneficial effect at whatever age you start. But for those who played piano earlier in life, the brain “remembers.” What you once learned never leaves completely; it just waits. And when you start again, you find it faster than you’d imagine.

Why adults stop, and why that isn’t the end

In an earlier piece of mine, “It’s never too late,” I wrote about something I’ve seen for thirty years of teaching: many children stopped music not because they lacked talent, but because music became a burden instead of a joy. The “musts” came in (you must practice, you must do scales, you must reach a certain exam level) and the magic left.

Those people are now 30, 40, 50, 60 years old. And they carry something inside them that doesn’t fade: a love of music. The need to express themselves. The longing to play again.

The difference now? You’re an adult. You know why you’re doing it. You’re not playing for exams, for the teacher, for your parents. You’re playing for yourself. And that’s the most powerful motivation there is.

The advantage of maturity

There’s a misconception I want to unpack. Many people believe adults learn more slowly than children. That’s partly true, but it ignores something important: adults bring things to the lesson that children don’t have.

They bring emotional depth: they’ve lived, they’ve been happy, they’ve been hurt, and it shows in how they shape a melody. They bring discipline and organization: they know how to work systematically. They bring self-knowledge: they understand what they want to express. And they bring an appreciation for the process: they’re not in a hurry to “finish,” they enjoy the journey.

In jazz especially, and in the Barry Harris method I teach, these are exactly the qualities that make a musician sound alive. Not just technically polished. Alive.

Why online lessons change things

I’ve noticed something in recent years: adult students, and especially those returning to music, prefer online lessons. And they’re absolutely right.

An online lesson removes all the obstacles that make people put things off. You don’t need to travel. You don’t need to find time in a schedule full of responsibilities. You can have your lesson from home, on your own time, at a pace that suits you. And, very importantly, there’s none of the awkwardness of “I have to go to a music school where everyone else is 15.”

The psychological comfort of learning in your own space is huge. And in music, psychological comfort isn’t a luxury; it’s a precondition for playing well.

What you need to start again

If you’re reading this and recognize yourself, if you once played piano and stopped, here’s what you need to start again:

• A piano or a keyboard. You don’t need a grand piano. A good digital piano is perfectly enough to get started.
• 30 minutes a day. Not hours. Thirty consistent minutes work wonders; both science and experience say so.
• Patience with yourself. It takes a little time to find your rhythm again. But you do find it.
• A teacher who understands where you are now, and where you want to go.

Music is expression, and the need to express yourself has no age

In that piece I wrote about something I deeply believe: music isn’t technique. It’s expression. And the need to express yourself (to say something, to communicate, to feel) is just as strong at 55 as at 15. Maybe stronger, because now you have more to say.

Miles Davis once asked us to imagine the very first musician, who didn’t play for an audience or for a record, but only out of the need to express something through music. That need never grows old.

And jazz, the art I’ve devoted my life to teaching, may be the most human form of that expression. Because it has no “right” or “wrong” answer. It has your answer. And that, my friend, you always have.

One step forward

All it takes is a decision. Everything else comes after, one step at a time. Get in touch with me here.

Because, as I wrote back then and will close with now: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Maybe you’ve already taken that step, by reading these lines. Just keep going.