I was on the cross county team in HS. I got tired of getting Cs. The only students that got As were on a team. 
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Life.
Boats kill period exclamation point.!
3 men in a supped up air boat took it out for a spin on a windy day on an Oklahoma lake Guthrie it flipped over and drowned them all strapped into their seats. Very sad
Hobby fail Guitar
Bought a Fender Telecaster, Blond white pickup guard, maple neck, and OG bridge threaded threw the back in the winter of 1990 I was 20.
The Fender was amazing was learning the opening to Zepplin “ Tangerine”, and Pink Floyd “ Sorrow“ was really trying to learn Pink Floyd “wish you were here” around that time. Early 1991 the 1st gulf war broke out. I joined the Navy gave the Guitar to friends that were in a band and never picked it up again.
All that to get to this I arrived in San Diego Naval Station 1992 and saw my 1st Tom Kuhn silver bullet at a jack rabbit slims type burger restaurant in the Hillcrest art district of San Diego… the hunt was on to find a yo-yo.
So I gave up on one hobby to start a new life and that new life gave me another hobby, it was a good exchange.
I still envy and respect those that can speak the language of music.
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You are still living. It ain’t over till the big haired lady sings…
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It is never too late. I started playing guitar again in my 60s. I’m now 72. It is good for the soul.
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I think one of the best thing when start to play guitar is to have a teacher, it gives you really a “purpose” and goals, even if the goal is just fun I think it’s good to have a “structured” fun, like in yoyoing before do big tricks, you need the basics.
Sometimes “beginners” try to eat too much than what they can chew and when they see they are not able to play what they want properly it comes frustration and then they leave and it’s a shame, another advice if you want to restart one day is to do not use apps or video lesson youtubers teachers, they do not see your technique, your level, how you use your hands and similar, is important to have someone that look at you (real life or zoom, skype doesn’t matter).
If you want to learn electric guitar and mainly play the music you like, you can use tabs and skip all the theory which is honestly boring and long, if you want to play classical guitar theory become seriously important, when you have a score in front of you, you will be able to read it straight away (more or less) even if you never heard the song.
What I can say is that except rare cases (I seen only one tone deaf person in my life), everyone has a musical ear and can speak music, it just need some practice 
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I was never good at sports of any kind but did do cross country in HS. This line (“not trying to be the best at exercising”) cracked me up thinking about all that:
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About 62 years ago, my favorite Uncle Rudy decided to go traveling all over Mexico for 18 months. He was a long time classical acoustic guitar player. For some reason, he felt I would be the next guitar monster in the family line. Every place he went to during his trip, he would see guitars.
Finally he decided to buy one and bring it back for me. I ended up putting it in the corner of the bedroom I shared with my older brother. It sat in the corner for months.
One day I came home and I heard the guitar being played rather poorly. And there’s my brother with a chord chart pinned to the wall feeling out various chords.
What’s the big idea I asked. My Dad said Shut up. That thing has been collecting dust since your Uncle brought it. Let your brother put a few miles on it.
My brother has been playing for 62 years, now. He’s one of those Studio guitarists that pretty much remains unknown. But he is one Badd Man.
…. He gave that old guitar back to me years ago.
He also gifted me his first Fender Jaguar guitar he played while winning multiple Battle of the Bands Contests decades ago. They are both sitting in the garage at the old house.
The only thing I can play is the radio.
Obviously I will never know if I would have been any good. But because I was given the opportunity and did nothing…. I consider that an epic fail, sadly.
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Very true. But! Good teachers are very hard to come by in the Houston area. I have tried four in the area. None of them are structured. They all just said to start playing something, anything. I can do that without an instructor.
I found one that looks good and is very structured but he stopped doing face to face lessons during COVID, only virtual. Maybe I’ll give him a shot one day.
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I have done also virtual lessons for 2 years during Covid with my usual teacher and doesn’t change a lot compared than real life.
I think lot of teachers are a bit “improvised” or they do not care enough.
In the classical music world (my world) is a bit easier as we have programs divided by pieces and technique as well, a sort of trick ladder like the YYE one, so there are many pieces already categorized for the level you are, this make it a bit more easier than electric guitar but I am pretty sure in electric guitar exist something similar (I am very sure it exist for jazz).
Learn an instrument is very annoying and frustrating at the beginning, I can tell that and I am living it again as I am learning pianoforte now but if someone is strong enough to pass this phase than it become unbelievably beautiful and rewarding, also an instrument can be learnt at any age, never heard lie bigger than “i am too old to learn this”, seen so many people also in their late 80s picking up an instrument and having fun.
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Only reason I never got in to it.
I’d love to play…I freaking LOVE the lore and the look of the game. But I am NOT going to paint all of those suckers.
The only hobby you’ll ever truly fail at is any hobby you prevent yourself from even attempting to start because of this.
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Honestly the biggest limiting factor for me in hobbies is just the amount of prep/cleanup time involved. I have a crippling scatterbrain so being able to pick up a yoyo and start/stop throwing it in under 5 seconds is a huge benefit. Tried to get into painting miniature figures for a tabletop game some of my friends play (Warhammer 40k) but when I got the itch to do it, you’d have to get everything out, prep things, wait for paint to dry, clean up when you’re done or spill… etc.
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I tried really hard, but it seemed never ending haha
On and off with Bluegrass banjo. Not a fail, but once I started keyboard/piano, I progressed remarkably faster than I ever did on banjo. It led me to believe I am a keyboard player, not a banjo player.
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Hi Steve, if I can please try to help answer your question, I think it is because the nature of piano itself that seems “more natural”.
About piano people say that it is the easiest instrument to start play and the most difficult to master, the learning curve compared instrument like guitar is pretty different, while with piano you can start to see results quite quickly (but than it becomes incredibly complicated) guitar for example takes much more time to start to play but then the curve stay quite chill and progressive (banjo is a string instrument so it is in the same category pretty much), think just about to make your callouses grow on your fingers.
This is cause the nature of the instrument itself, piano is a “horizontal” instrument where the octaves repeats themselves all the time, so basically if you learn one octave you learn all of them and then just need to have a bit of hand coordination that you acquire with practice, this make quite easier also to sight read a piece, in guitar the notes are all over the place (there is a meaning behind and it is easy to recognise with experience but it need much more practice).
Technique wise, the piano need you to “push a button” and then with time you realise how strong or soft do it for each fingers (to create dynamics and phrasing), with guitar if you do fingerstyle you literally need to learn a correct technique and hand position to pluck right from the beginning and it is not a natural movement like “push a button”, I cannot even imagine with banjo that they use that sort of spatula.
Other than that, the sitting position, in piano you are sit down in front of the keyboard with the back straight and the instrument in front of you, with guitar (at least in classical), you need a footstool, the guitar in both legs inclined around 45 degrees, straight back and a specific position of both arms to play properly, so imagine that right from the start guitar is quite “boring” as all those aspect need to be taken care off even before play.
I noticed that hand coordination is a bit easier in guitar (but maybe is because I play guitar from ages and I do not even remember the start), with piano I had to rework a bit of my knowledge (other than properly learn to read bass clef) to adapt myself to the new instrument mostly to create some musical phrases and sound as I passed from “pluck” to “push”.
A thing that I found harder in piano is use my peripheral vision to play, (but I think this is still my lack of experience in piano compared than guitar), in guitar you do not even look at your plucking/pick hand, it just go and you just look at the left hand that play the chords, while in piano you have to kind of “look at both hands”, as I am used to look at the left hand for guitar I had to rework my brain to learn to take care also about the right hand (which usually play the melodies at least in beginner/intermediate pieces) and let the left hand go with muscle memory, is a strange/weird feeling but work and then with time I start to learn how to move my eyes thinking about the parts I am playing.
Said that I think any instrument just need care and dedication to be played well and mostly to be able to take out a good sound of it (usually with dynamics and phrasing which sometimes are techniques put back in favour of speed and dexterity).
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Thank you Albertino for the thoughtful reply. Right now I play classical, blues/jazz, country, and am studying chord progressions and substitutions. On banjo all I ever seemed to concern myself with was speeding up RH patterns, Yuch
It got frustrating and boring, more about techhnique than actual creativity. I am happy to sit and create at a keyboard, there is nothing more I expect from it.
Dynamics are very important as you said. When I got better, I certainly pay more attention to the dynamic markings. My level is the Clementi sonatinas, Diabelli, Kuhlau… the stuff kkids play @ 3-4th year :).
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Happy to talk about music when I get the chance
I did couple of jazz pieces with the piano is not my favourite genre but some standards are very beautiful.
About the technique try to do not get too much into it or too obsessed or you risk to develop focal dystonia (which I get with guitar) and be careful about your hands and body.
Nice to hear that you doing also theory, it get usually skipped while I think it is quite useful to create your own music or just to understand quickly the music you want to learn/memorise.
My teacher (before with guitar and from some time piano), always stressed me up about dynamics as them make the music alive and not robotic, so yes extra care on that and about your level do not worry we all started from something and then build up skills, there is anything bad about that also there is beauty also in simple sonatinas, the Clementi Sonatina in C major, op. 36 no. 1 is a very good example of simple music that sound great and make the person that play it a real pro!
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A year later and I still suck at begleri. I haven’t given up though.
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Right now I’m failing at disc golf. Just threw two of my favorite discs in the lake yesterday. Probably lost about 6 in there total now.
But it’s just fun to get out on the course and enjoy the weather. It’s what I like about it.
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