‘You still can!’: Music teacher champions adult students learning violin | Life - GazetteNET

It’s a common maxim that children gain considerable benefits from studying music by Steve Pfarrer, Daily Hampshire Gazette.
 

Violin teacher Lynn Newdome, right, leads students, from left, Jin Sun Park of Enfield, Connecticut, Ben Levy of Gill and Mandy Cohen of Hadley in a 17th century baroque piece, “Fantasia: Three Parts Upon a Ground,” by Henry Purcell, during an evening lesson at her Florence studio.
Photo: Kevin Gutting

Studies have shown that it stimulates the brain in many areas, leading to greater reasoning power, as one example, and that kids can develop discipline and good learning habits useful in other walks of life. Consider as well the dexterity and strength children can develop in their fingers from playing a musical instrument — and, of course, a love of music itself.

But is there any reason you can’t do that as an adult as well? Not at all, says Lynn Newdome, who teaches violin to a number of adult students.

“Whenever I hear someone say, ‘Oh, I wish I’d studied violin or some other instrument when I was younger,’ I say ‘You still can! Learning doesn’t stop when you’re an adult,’ ” says Newdome, a veteran violin performer and instructor who lives in Florence. “It’s a complete fallacy that only children can learn music.”

Newdome was making just that point during a recent evening at her home studio, where three of her adult students — Mandy Cohen, Ben Levy and Jin Sun Park — joined her for a combined lesson and performance...

Never too late
Newdome says the conventional wisdom is that children and teens make for better music students because, in a general sense, they’re more malleable: their brains are still developing and in theory can absorb more. Young students can also more easily be taught good habits, the thinking goes — proper posture and positioning of the hands and fingers for playing piano, for example — that become a critical foundation for progressing on an instrument.

But Newdome says adult students have other factors in their favor. For one, there’s an intellectual capacity for grasping abstract concepts that are beyond most children, such as applying music theory to their practicing rather that just doing repetitive exercises. Adults have also developed an appreciation and understanding for a range of music — knowing a lot “by ear” — that gives them a base for learning more, she says...

Never too late:
My musical life story

Newdome says one of her inspirations for teaching older students is the 1979 book “Never Too Late,” a memoir by the late educator and writer John Holt about how he learned to play cello beginning at age 40. In the book, Holt describes the challenges he faced studying music as an adult but also the joy he had in the process, and he makes the argument that “It is never too late” to learn something new, including music — even if you’re never going to be some kind of standout.

“That’s true,” says Newdome. “Age is no barrier to learning music.”
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Source: GazetteNET