You're never too old to start making music

More and more older people, like 50-year-old Carola Misgeld, are starting to take up musical instruments. Photo: Robert Guenther/dpa

Conventional wisdom has it that the older you get, the more difficult it is to learn a new skill. So why would anyone over 50 start learning a musical instrument, one of the most complex and demanding cognitive challenges known to humankind?

There are plenty of reasons, according to Marcus Loeffler, a cello and double bass teacher in Germany. “In my experience, more and more people aged 50 and up are starting to play an instrument, or a new instrument, ” he says.