6-Week Sessions : six 30-minute lessons over 8-weeks  |  Private Lesson:  20 Euros  |  6-Week Group Class:  60 Euros  |  Family Discounts Made with Xara Somewhere along the way, we all start thinking about what we woulda, coulda, shoulda done in life and frequently people regret either quitting music lessons or not taking them in the first place. While you don't get "do-overs" in most of life, here is where you can get a second chance. Playing a musical instrument is one of the great joys of life.   It can open up doors in ways that no other interaction with people can. For example, I have played music with people I would never have met under any other circumstances, and I am grateful for that, particularly since I married one of these people. Also there is a special kind of sharing between musicians and audience members that doesn't happen all the time, but --- when it does --- it is precious and beautiful. There is a sense of oneness that language cannot adequately describe. It's really NOT TOO LATE to learn a musical instrument as an adult. I have known people in middle age or older who have picked up musical instruments for the first time and gotten good enough that they could enjoy playing music with other people.  Not many of them have been invited to perform at The National Concert Hall or the OLYMPIA THEATRE, but I don't think that was their goal when they began music lessons. They just wanted to play an instrument. One of the reasons that children don't seem to struggle with music the way adults do is not just because their little brains are made out of plastic and are able to adapt to anything, but it is because kids are really tolerant.  When they pick up the violin and they make an awful scratchy sound, they think to themselves:  "I'm playing the violin!! Cool!!"  Whereas adults would tend to think:  "I'm making a terrible sound - I'll never get this." So, if you are going to take up a musical instrument, realize that your brain is making a lot of new connections between its neurons and that new connection process takes time. Even when you are making a lousy sound on your instrument, your brain is learning:  the same way you learned how to talk when you were a baby. Playing an instrument is a complex activity and if you are learning to read music on top of learning to play an instrument, you have just increased the complexity!  Just be patient, very patient with yourself. If you are motivated to learn to play music, your brain will be working on it even while you are ASLEEP! All you have to do is pick up your instrument and play it SOME every day. Many adults become frustrated about the learning curve in music. There is no such thing as a smooth upward curve because of something called "regression toward the norm." We have an average in the way we play and some days we play at that average, some days we play better than average, and some days we play worse than average. Over time, the average rises, but it does so in an idiosyncratic way. In fact, from observing hundreds of music learners in my time as a teacher, as well as myself as a learner, I believe that things get a little worse before they get better because your brain tends to take quantum leaps in its learning process.  You may find that ALL OF A SUDDEN you can do something you couldn't. I experienced this in learning guitar recently --- all of a sudden, I could do something easily that I had been struggling with before.  It wasn't like someone explained anything to me; it's just that the neurons in my brain starting "shaking hands" with each other in a new way and now I can play better than I could.  This was not a conscious process on my part, but it did come about because I play backup guitar a lot, so my brain got lots of opportunities to put things together. Adults are used to being in control, and learning music places you in a position of not being able to control things because much of learning music takes place in parts of your brain that do not respond to your conscious desires. At the same time, the process of playing music, because it is not just a conscious phenomenon, is deeply satisfying because it uses more of your brain than most other human activities. If you can be patient with yourself, you can develop a new skill and a new way of relating to other people. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS WE TEACH:  Guitar, Piano, Piano Accordions, Keyboards, Synthesisers, Drums, Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, Lead Guitar, Violin, Viola, Mandolin, Spanish Guitar, Banjo, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, French Horn, Cornet, Tin Whistle, Vocals, Voice Training, Harmonica, in addition to MUSIC THEORY and PA TRAINING.      Come and join us! Noel :  087 653 5363 Birinder :  086 865 2965 Station Road, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim Next to :  O’Dowds Fireplaces Email :  OasisCarrick@gmail.com www.OasisCarrick.com Visit us on FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com Rev. Noel Mills Music For Pleasure