Jamming with the mamas and papas
Memo to Jack Black: Those kids in the hit movie School of Rock aren't the only wannabe rockers. Grown-ups are catching the groove, too.
Across the country, adults are performing in school auditoriums while the kids listen and applaud. According to a 2003 Gallup Poll, 42 percent of people who play an instrument are between the ages of 35 and 50--up from 35 percent in 1985.
"So much adult music-making is going on that nobody really has a grasp of how extensive it is," says Roy Ernst, an emeritus professor of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. It's a boom that ranges from 20-somethings taking private lessons to 80-year-old amateurs giving public performances.
In 1991, Ernst came up with the wild idea of putting together an all-amateur community band of adults 50 and over. No auditions and no experience--not even the ability to read music--were necessary, and no one was cut. About 30 people showed up for that first meeting, in Rochester. Now Ernst oversees a network of 102 such New Horizons Bands (www.newhorizonsband.com), with about 5,000 musicians, across the United States and Canada.
From frightful to fun. "We started on Page 1 of the elementary method book for beginners, and we sounded terrible," says J. B. "Van" Vander Ark, who started the Santa Barbara Prime Time Band, a New Horizons group, nine years ago. "But we had so much fun right from the beginning, we could laugh at our mistakes." The band soon grew to 55 people, including Vander Ark's wife, Lorraine, who played the clarinet for the first time at the age of 60.
Band members pay $25 each per month to cover the costs of music and rehearsal space. They also pay for their own instruments and any private lessons they choose to take. But their performances are free and open to the public--and they usually draw a full house of their families and friends to a school auditorium.
From coast to coast, these bands are starting to sound like a hit. In Wilmington, Del., 85-year-old Martha Newlon picked up a trumpet for the first time four years ago when she joined a New Horizons band. She enjoyed it so much, she even convinced her friend Mig Lake, 79--a child of the Depression whose family couldn't afford music lessons--to take up the cello. "You realize your limitations" when you start older, admits Lake. But the sense of accomplishment makes the struggle worthwhile, she says.
For adults looking to rock and roll rather than play more-formal music, there is the Weekend Warriors program (www.nam m.com/weekendwarriors/), founded by Joe Lamond, president and CEO of the International Music Products Association. Music stores play match- maker in the Warriors program: Wannabe rockers tell the store which instrument they play, their skill level, music preference (Beatles, bluegrass, or bebop, among others), and availability for practicing. The store provides rehearsal space for two hours a week for four weeks. The fifth week is showtime.
Weekend Warrior James Lemelin, 53, of Sacramento, Calif., was a professional guitarist who "got so burnt out playing clubs five or six nights a week for 15 years that I packed up my guitar and stopped," he says. He switched careers to information technology. Then earlier this year, his boss asked him to join his Weekend Warrior band; Lemelin reluctantly agreed. Now he's hooked. "This brought back to me how much I loved music, the playing, the whole environment, all the personalities and quirkiness of the musicians."
Take lessons? For those who are still a bit too shy to play with (or in front of) others, music lessons offer another option for honing skills. Ghenady Meirson, founder of www.privatelessons.com, an Internet business that matches music teachers and students, recommends finding a teacher who understands you're an adult. You're even less likely than your kids to be inspired by scoldings of "You're not practicing!" Look for someone who talks to you upfront about the best way to help you attain your musical goals and is willing to coach you through your frustrations with a new instrument.
Those who don't know which instrument to play should follow their instincts, says Ernst. Seek the one whose sound you love. Otherwise, try an instrument your local New Horizons Band might need.
Pianos remain the instrument of choice for the majority of new adult students, says Matthew Harre, a Washington, D.C., piano instructor, who has many adult students. Learning to play piano "was definitely on my list of things to do before I die," says Kathy Alsegaf of Dunn Loring, Va., who is in her early 40s. She and her husband, Hadi, share an early-morning lesson each week with Harre. Stacy Zook of Washington, D.C., came to Harre 3 1/2 years ago, seeking solace in music after the death of her 2-year-old daughter. "Her picture is on my piano, and I would practice every day, and it would be a holy time," says Zook, whose two other daughters enjoy listening to her play Bach.
Potential health benefits can even help keep the metronome ticking. Playing a musical instrument may decrease the risk of dementia, according to a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Nice bonus that it is, though, making music is not about health. It's about--well--making music. Bring on the instruments, and the adults will rock.
This story appears in the March 22, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.