I am 70 years old, and I love music. I especially have fun making simple music on my Tipple flute, and I even sound passable on it. I am thinking of getting a wooden flute just to be able to say that I have owned one, and I want to continue to play for my own amusement.
I am also wondering if I should even bother? My fingers are stiff, and I will never be able to play fast tunes or keep up in a session. I sometimes feel that I shouldn’t even try to play since I can’t seem be able to express the music as well as the more musically adept. And yet, I want to get the wooden flute and play and have fun, even at my age, even if I can’t keep up in a session, even if my expression is less than perfect, or sometimes even good.
So, do I keep trying? What has been the experience of older players, especially those who have come to the art late in life? What have you found? As I posted in the title, I am looking for some encouragement…
I always hesitate to jump on the “do what pleases your heart” bandwagon because it seems so indulgent in an almost condescending pat-on-the-head way, especially surrounded as we are with the young, the ambitious, the veteran, and the limber. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what I’m telling you here. You would know how surprisingly short life really is - better to be happy while we have it. Fun is not a privilege to be reserved for youth alone. So I say claim it, sweep aside your doubts, and to hell with the begrudgers if it comes to that. Keep playing. And get that wood flute.
I’m 70. I play wooden flute. I started at 60. What the hey!
Also there is a lot more to playing Irish flute than playing in
sessions, as some teachers point out.
Also you can combine playing flute with playing whistle, the
latter being a lot more agile. Play the whistle in sessions
if you can’t keep up with the flute. And if you can’t
play either in sessions, bugger the sessions.
Mike Rafferty was playing brilliantly in his late 70s.
Some of the better fluters on this board are in their
mid-70s.
Hey Geezer! I read once where an old woman was interviewed. She was asked if she would have done anything different. She said she would have gotten a better mattress.
I’ll answer your other questions. I only learned how to play wind instruments because of heart surgery. Harmonicas are great for breathing exercises.
I play the music that is dear to me. So what I can’t play everything. I think both you and I play the flute better than 95% of the people out there. Besides, none of those people are showing up at our homes at all times of the day and night playing for us and even if they did, they wouldn’t play the music like we’d want the music played. Also, I’ve had a lot of breathing problems lately and I’ve had to rephrase songs to suit my breathing abilities. If you play a song with conviction, no one knows.
Is it not in your soul to make music? How are you going to stop?
Just a thought. Your Tipple, while an excellent flute, has rather large holes. Even with a middle joint, and the ability to offset these holes, the larger hole sizing can contribute to slowing you down as you seek a solid seal with your fingers. Try a small holed Rudall type of flute. This may give you greater ease in closing the holes, and so contribute to a little greater speed of execution.
This. You’ll never be a pro. So what? I’m not a very good singer either, but if they gave prizes for heart and soul, I’d be up there with the best of them. I suppose it would be most fair to ask my neighbors whether I should continue, but I can’t imagine living without it (I’m sure the neighbors can!).
If you enjoy it and it doesn’t get you down, why not? That doesn’t mean you should go out and book yourself Carnegie Hall just 'cause someone told you to keep it up, but a lot of us “do” music or whatever we do for ourselves anyway.
You might consider Bob’s advise and trade your Tipple for a wooden flute, but not just any wooden flute that you find on ebay, mind you. I think that you should get some money back on the trade, but other folks around this board don’t see it that way. Happy fluting, regardless of what you play. I played a keyed ebonite Ferris F flute today and had a good time. Smaller flutes are easier to finger and easier to blow in comparison to the standard low D flute.
I think that the only reason to do any past time is that it brings you joy.
There maybe many other benefits, but that is the reason.
I took up Irish music at 48.
And I’v no expectation of being good enough to play the local session, ever.
(Those folks are fantastic!)
But, that’s OK.
BTW, Have you looked at Casey Burns’ small hand egronomic Folk Flute?
You might want to hold on to that Tipple flute. If your whole body is getting all achy and if you spend a lot of time in hot tubs and swimming pools, you could play that flute while you’re relaxing.
Even the best “star” performers whom you might compare yourself to are probably going to spend most (i.e. > 50%) of the time they spend with their instrument playing for … themselves. Learning new music, working out arrangements, attacking technical issues, or just playing for pleasure and conditioning. Any performance you see is just the tip of an iceberg, with hundreds of hours of solitary (or at least non-public) work beneath it. It never ends.
So no matter how good or bad you think you are or could ever be, or how old you are … Simply by trying, by appreciating your own “personal best” triumphs and not giving up on the rough parts, you’re still sharing most of the actual core experience of being a musician with every other musician in the world - whether a star, amateur, or something in between.
And to me, just participating in this amazing, shared, almost spiritual human experience that it our ability to play music is a reward and an affirmation in itself. The rest is gravy.
Hi, only 5% or so of the musicians are “good” or “the best” or whatever and make CD’s. 95% play music to enjoy themselves and carry on the tradition of trad music. You CAN play at sessions and are going to, just a matter of the kind of session you go to and a matter of time. I know some of the “grey” players who are great in their interpretation of the tunes. Everybody has the chance to play sessions. I have seen and heard a geezer at the session in Brogan’s-Ennis who only knew one tune on the box, played it faultless, everybody followed him into the tune and he was chuffed to bits. If you want a piece of advice given to me from Michael Tubridy the first fluteplayer of the Chieftains? You are now 70 so when you will be 90 you will have 20 year of experience as a fluteplayer . So try to look out for a flute that suits you and go for it Good luck and happy fluting !
Hi: I’m an older player. I started out with similar kinds of concerns that you have expressed in your post. Now, I recognize that each persons situation is a little bit different and unique; that having been said, I’m going to ‘go there’ and recommend that you get a flute, well suited to you and your needs, interests and desires and just have fun. About a year ago, I had Casey Burns make a Boxwood Rudall Carte copy for me and it is a really, really nice flute. In fact, just about two months ago, I asked Casey to retro-fit my flute with an additional 5 keys, making it a 6 keyed flute (it came with one key originally). One of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. I also found a flute teacher, which by the way, isn’t an easy task in the area in which I live. She is a young lady, so very talented and just a wonderful teacher and person, a true professional. I’ve been taking from her for about a year now, and even if I do say so myself, I’m doing fairly well.
I also play the Great Highland Bagpipes and I’m a member of a pipe band. Like you, I love music, I also love to learn and grow and keep the mind supple–it’s important. Do not, what ever you do, give into the thinking that you’re too old to learn or to have certain interests or have some fun. Believe it or not, there may be a small contingent out there who actually think/ believe that learning and playing the pipes ought to be the domaine of the young–well p— on em, I say. I’ve proved them wrong to. Bottom line, knock your lights out and have a ball.
Don’t spend a lot of time on the net. It’s better to play music than to talk about it. It is much more rewarding to play music than to engage in idle chit-chat. Come here, ask your question, make your point, and leave. It’s about playing the flute, not talking about it.
Play slowly and beautifully and never feel that you don’t play fast enough. There will always be people who play faster than you can, but that speed doesn’t make them better musicians. They will just be faster than you. Play pretty and find other people to play with who also want to play pretty.
I am older than you are. I have been playing music nearly my whole life. I wish I had started sooner.
David and I have a lot in common, but here he mentions a topic about which I feel differently. I believe that there is a lot of value in the “idle chit-chat” of online social networks, like the pub forum at C & F. The forums, in my opinion, are not just about getting your questions asked or opinions given. They are social discourse at its best and its worse, sometimes boring, sometimes informative, but usually entertaining. Yes, actually playing our instruments is important but so is the time we spend communicating with others about music. My father didn’t have the internet, and he became grumpy in his old age. Other than through his reading he didn’t have any interactive contact with other like-minded individuals. I think that he would have been happier in his old age (He lived to be 90) if he would have had an online community of “friends”.
Good luck and happy fluting !