Introducing my blog on learning to be a classical music performer as an adult. I have been interested in music for as long as I can remember and I was fortunate to have some music education at secondary school, leading to an ‘O’ Level exam and Grade 5 music theory. However, I didn’t put any real effort into music study after that as my profession was science and engineering and took most of my available time. However, at age 50, retirement from my science role began to appear on the horizon and I decided it was time to invest in something different.

Just over ten years on, I have worked on three instruments, taken formal exams to diploma level and completed a postgraduate degree. It has had its ups and downs! Also my journey is not over yet, in some ways it feels like it is still beginning. However, here on 1 January 2025, I’m motivated to share some of my story and stimulate a discussion on how it goes, when learning something new as a mature adult. Almost every day we see something in the press about the benefits of brain activity through study, especially in the later years of life. It has many benefits as I hope I can testify through articles in this blog.

I hope you will enjoy these posts as they develop and perhaps contribute to the discussion. I will also be collating what I think is useful information on other pages of this site.