Is it ever too late to start playing? Can I still get really good?

You don’t have to start playing guitar at a young age to become a good player. Of course, it doesn’t hurt. But I’ve seen people start at age 20, and in just a year or two get right into it. It seems that adults can generally focus better and longer, and they generally improve faster in terms of coordination. Adults also tend to have a much better sense of rhythm and timing. Maybe you haven’t been playing guitar, but you’ve been listening to a lot of music. It all gets in there.

And does it really matter whether you are the next Joe Satriani, anyway? Certainly you can get good enough to play reasonably well fairly quickly. The technique required is actually quite low in many instances. I’ll bet you can probably find music that you like at a variety of levels of difficulty. So don’t worry about how technically proficient you’re going to get. That's not really the important issue anyway. The question really is, "Do you want to learn how to play the guitar?" Think about what is right in front of you. What is the next step? And follow your inspiration.

Bottom Line:

No, it’s never too late. How can it ever be too late to start doing something in life that you enjoy? Maybe it’s too late not to start!