Inside a beginner Carnatic vocal class
Sarali varisai, the shruti box and the tala on your thigh: what happens in the first months of vocal lessons.
Is it too late to learn music at 40?
What adult beginners worry about, what is genuinely harder and what is easier when you start later in life.
About a quarter of our students are adults, from college students to a retired engineer of 71 who began the violin last year. Almost all of them arrived with the same question: am I too old? The honest answer is no, though learning as an adult is different from learning as a child.
Some things are harder. Fingers may be stiffer at first, so the first weeks of guitar chords or violin positions feel slower. Adults are also more self-conscious, especially singing in front of others. And time is the real challenge: work, family and travel compete with practice.
Other things are easier. Adults understand theory quickly, ask good questions and notice their own mistakes. They practise because they want to, not because a parent insists. Many have listened to music for decades, so their ear for a raga or a chord change is often better than they think.
Our adult batches run on weekday evenings at 7 pm and on Saturday mornings, in groups of four to six adults, never mixed with children. There are no exams unless you want them, and you play at the quarterly concert only if you choose to, though most adults do by their second. Vasanthi, who joined our Carnatic vocal batch at 52, sang a short varnam at the June concert. Her advice to new adult students is to practise for 15 minutes before breakfast, before the day takes over.
