If you're reading this article, you must think you or someone you know is too old to learn to play a piano, keyboard or organ or any musical instrument for that matter.

So lets give you the quick answer, "no you are not too old". Now I think I should actually re-phrase the question, "Do I want to learn to play a musical instrument?" If you can ask yourself this question, whatever age you are, then you should be able to answer positively.

So let's assume you have reached retirement age and you are in your sixties. Let's also assume you have some saving and a pension and you need a hobby to fill up your time. You decide that you want to learn to play a keyboard instrument. The next step is, do you want to learn to play an arranger keyboard or electric organ.

If you want a new electric organ such as the Roland Atelier, its going to cost you anything up to twenty thousand pounds. Having said that, the organ market is all but dead in the UK, so there is a thriving second hand market, and plenty of bargains to be had. If you want an electric keyboard then you can buy one of these, brand new with the latest technology for between two and three thousand pounds. If you do go down the keyboard path then I would recommend you buy an arranger keyboard such as the Yamaha Tyros, Ketron SD5, Roland G70 or the Korg PA 800. Although there is some operational learning with these keyboards, they are designed so you can start playing the thing as soon as you take it out of the box.

Avoid workstation keyboards such as the Yamaha ES7 or the Roland Fantom. These are fantastic keyboards but the learning curve for these machines is very steep and if you are learning to play the keyboard, you don't want to be spending all your time learning how to operate the keyboard. Whatever instrument you choose I recommend, you find yourself a music teacher. If you buy a keyboard or organ from a music shop, they can certainly recommend a local teacher or like many music shops provide keyboard lessons on the premises.

Learning music is about what you personally want to get out of it. You might for instance want to learn to play one piece of music or a book of music or just to see how far you can go. There are no limits. You can learn at your own pace.

I have taught many older people that have said, "I wish I had learned to play when I was younger" and "children can learn a lot quicker" and "maybe I won't be able to learn at my age". Yes children will pick things up a little quicker because that's the nature of being a child, to learn new things everyday. Adults however, are probably better at applying themselves to one particular subject such as music.

Adults of any age, have less time to learn a musical instrument but still have the ability to learn. So if you are between five years old and a hundred and five years old and thinking whether to get yourself a Yamaha electone organ or an arranger keyboard. Then what are you waiting for, what have you got to lose. You won't regret it I promise you.

Over the past ten years or so, electric organ sales have slumped to all time low. Yet the arranger keyboard market continues to flourish, especially with keyboards such as the Yamaha Tyros, Korg PA-1X and the Roland G70. In my opinion, the organ is much more playable as a live instrument, and using bass pedals, you can play the organ without any drum machine or automatic chords and get a fantastic sound.

The keyboard on the other hand would sound thin, definitely lacking without auto chord/bass. Of course, arranger keyboards are considerably cheaper than new organs and take up less room. This has created a new generation of keyboard players, some of which could never afford the hefty cost of an organ.

So is this the end for the electric organ. So how do organ manufacturers address this problem? Well they were and still are designed to be a piece of furniture. Great big lumps of wood, which appeal to the older generation, which is why they have the reputation of being an older person's musical instrument. This need to be changed so they appeal to all generations. The next major change has to be the hefty cost. A top of the range electric arranger keyboard such as the Roland G70 would cost between two to three thousands pounds. The top of the range Roland Atelier organ will cost you in the region of twenty thousand pounds new.

This change may have already started with new models from Yamaha with the Yamaha D-Deck organ and the top of the range Yamaha Electone Stagea. Both are portable and very modern looking. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information on these models unless you read Japanese. Yamaha have decided there is no organ market in the UK, Europe or the USA. So if you want one of these models you will have to import it yourself.

At the time of writing this, even these new modern looking organs are now out of date. As far as I am aware the Yamaha Stagea electone organ and Yamaha D-Deck organ do not have the "Super Articulation" that is available on the Yamaha Tyros 2 arranger keyboard. There are also a lot of brand new features on the latest crop of arranger keyboards, which include Roland G70, Korg PA 800 and the Ketron Audya, the latter, still a prototype.

So if you want an electric organ set up. You might be better of buying two arranger keyboards and a pedal board. It would be considerably cheaper than importing the Yamaha Stagea and you would be assured of the latest sounds and technological advancements.