Notes on picking up an instrument as an adult, mostly written for the case of an analytical 40-year-old who has never played anything and wants to learn 2–3 songs without becoming a concert performer.
- Picking a First Instrument as an Adult — the comparison: ukulele vs piano vs guitar vs others, with the “fast 50%, slow 100%” framing.
- Starting Piano at 40 — neuroplasticity at 40, the hand-independence problem, the desk-piano exercise, weighted vs unweighted key trade-off.
- Ukulele Buyer Notes — concert vs soprano size, the tuner question, the string-stretching phase.
See also Activity ROI for Longevity for where playing an instrument fits in the longevity stack.