Matt, the thing is, all things being equal, the child will learn faster than the adult.
Hey, Drums_n_surf. You are certainly entitled to your own beliefs and opinions. However...as I explained in my previous post...the premise that you are stating does not coincide with my real world experience as a teacher.
The kids you were teaching wernt kids who showed an interest in drums and wanted lessons, from what I can gather, they were just regular kids with no or little musical interest. Chances are, the only practice they got was the 1 hour (or however long the lesson was) you taught them.
No, this is incorrect. Legobeast asked me about this, and before I got a chance to log in and answer, you sort of answered on my behalf. However, the info you stated does not accurately reflect my teaching practice and my students. The interest level with my young students covered a broad range. Some of them were very interested, and some were not interested at all. Most of them were somewhere in between. Same goes for the adults. Some are passionate about drumming, but some are doing it only because they feel guilty for never learning an instrument (this is actually a common phenomenon, and it leads to students who cancel a lot and never practice). Just like with the kids, most of the adults are somewhere in the middle realm with their interest level.
Since 1996, I have taught about 500 students. I only put my foot down about teaching kids around 2005. So...I have seen an enormous number of students, covering an enormous range of ages and interest levels. Therefore, when I wrote my previous post, I was considering all things to be equal. My adults who practice regularly tend to progress much, much faster than my children who practice regularly. My adults who never practice between lessons tend to progress much faster than my children who never practice.
In that case, the child is only practicing 40 hours a year. contrast that with an hour a day perhaps for your adult students. They would spend the equivalent amount if practice in just over a month. Not only quantity, but the quality of the practice is also important, and if they are not as keen on the drums, it won't be as effective.
As I said, I've seen the full spectrum. However, in general, the kids probably practice a bit more than the adults. Most adults take up drums as a hobby for some relief from their busy adult lives. They usually have a spouse and a full-time job. For most adults, the lesson is their only drumming time. Kids, on the other hand, will often have a parent who insists that they practice a little each day. Again, it varies from student to student. But...if I had to generalize...I would say that the norm would be for the kids to get a little more practice time than the adults, not the other way around.
I have learnt a few instruments and I found that my progress depended more on how much I practiced and how much I wanted to practice,
Absolutely. This holds true for adults and children alike. The more passionate the student is, and the more they practice, the more progress they make.
but there is an advantage if you start younger
Yes, of course...but not because children pick up drumming faster than adults. I simply do not believe this to be the case. There is an advantage to starting young because it allows more years overall to learn the instrument. For example...let's imagine that you have 2 drummers, both age 20. One of them started drumming at 5 years old, and the other started at age 16. From my experience, with adequate practice, both of these drummers would make very good progress from age 16 to age 20. BUT...one of them would be starting from scratch, and the other would be starting with 11 years of drumming already behind them. All other things being equal, the one who started earlier would have a big advantage if the 2 of them went head to head at an audition. Still, this doesn't mean that the one who started earlier was making faster progress at age 7 than at age 18! I've never seen that happen.
I actually have a student right now who is a pretty good example of what I'm saying. He started drumming lessons almost 7 years ago, when he was 8 years old. He is now almost 15. In the past 2 years, he has made more progress than in the first 5 years combined! No, it's not because he is practicing more now. He has been practicing a lot since day one. Between this and a high level of natural ability, he is currently what most people would consider a drum "prodigy" or "phenom." But I can tell you...it has mostly come from hard work, and this work has brought about much faster progress now that he has gotten a bit older. I assume, based on what I've seen, that he will progress even faster over the next few years.
I don't know the explanation for what I'm telling you. I would guess that it's because of greater cognitive skills and greater motor control in adults compared to children. But I don't really know. Like I said before, I'm just reporting what I've seen first hand over many years and many thousands of lessons.