TAKING NOTES ADULTS GETTING IN TUNE WITH MUSICAL LONGINGS.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

TARZANA - One day, 25 years after his daughter left her Spanish guitar in the closet, David Springer picked it up and started to strum.

The 73-year-old hasn't stopped playing since.

``I'd always wanted to play an instrument and never had the time,'' said the semiretired Tarzana printing broker, who began taking weekly guitar lessons about 18 months ago. ``It was just sitting there, staring at me.''

San Fernando Valley area music teachers and music store officials say Springer isn't unusual. Music lessons aren't just for kids anymore. Increasing numbers of grown-ups, from young adults to senior citizens, are signing up for music lessons.

``They're taking lessons now because they have the money to do it, and they never took (lessons) as a child, usually. Or if they did, it's been a long time, and they didn't keep up with it,'' said Jeanne Fredrickson, who teaches piano in Woodland Hills.

In Springer's case, he didn't even know how to read music when he went looking for a music teacher, settling on Frank Accardo in Chatsworth.

Arthritis and some surgery on his right hand limits Springer's abilities, but not the pleasure he gets from playing, he said, as he picked through ``Meet Me in St. Louis.''

``Learning music is like learning another language. It keeps your mind alert, keeps your mind active ... It's a challenge. I'm sorry I didn't start this challenge 25 years ago.''

Accardo, who teaches guitar lessons at area community colleges as well as from his home, said most of the community college students are adults.

``A lot of them learned to strum a few chords or do a few rock licks in college and then they come back because they never learned to read music.

``I had a student who wanted to learn how to play so when he went camping, he could grab the guitar and play songs around the campfire,'' Accardo said.

For aspiring saxophonist John Dunn, it was a leadership course he took that asked him to ``Open your calendar and show me when 'someday' is.''

The 35-year-old computer programmer said he'd always thought the sax was cool, but it was the leadership course that prompted him to start taking saxophone lessons at the Baxter Northup Music Company in Sherman Oaks and get one more thing off his ``someday'' list.

The music school at Baxter Northup sees a number of adult professionals taking lessons just for fun, including a brain surgeon and a seafood company executive, music teachers there said.

Women are picking up the guitar in increasing numbers, perhaps because of artists such as Sheryl Crow and Jewel, said Sean Snyder, a manager at the Canoga Park Sam Ash store.

Adult customers as a group tend to buy guitars and drums, Snyder said, with customers equally divided between electrical and acoustic guitar: ``Everybody wants to be a rock star.''

Senior citizens like the portable keyboards, which, at $199, are affordable, Snyder said. Playing guitar takes a lot of hand dexterity and is more difficult than ``a keyboard laid out in front of you; it doesn't take a whole lot of physical effort.''

Accardo teaches guitar in half-hour and one-hour blocks, which cost $15 for a half-hour, $25 for an hour if the client purchases eight lessons at once. Adults prefer the hourlong sessions, and sometimes come every other week, rather than weekly. Unlike young children, adults generally can stay focused enough to practice without a weekly lesson. But that doesn't always mean they do.

``Adults have better excuses,'' Accardo said. ``I know what they're going through: they have the demands of work and families and all the things we have to do, taking care of our house, our kids, our dog. But when they do practice, they're serious about it. They tend to organize themselves better. I don't get excuses so much as them just admitting 'I didn't have much time this week.'''

Fredrickson, the piano teacher, recommends that people practice at least 30 minutes a day if they want to make progress. She charges $30 for a 45- minute lesson, and $40 for an hour.

``You have to budget your time; it has to be that you really want it. The progress is really made at home and not at the lesson. How much you give it is how much you get back.''

Like many hobbies, the cost of playing a musical instrument can be tailored to fit just about any pocketbook.

``The guitar is really an accessible instrument,'' Accardo said. ``Guitars are actually cheaper now than they've ever been, due to offshore manufacturing and computer manufacturing.''

A beginner could buy a decent classical guitar for as little as $100, and spend $150 to $350 for an electric guitar, Accardo said.

A piano can be more expensive. Howard Sontag, general manager for Dennis Hagerty's Keyboard Concepts in Van Nuys, said the store sold four Bosendorfer pianos - Vienna-made pianos that can average $80,000 - last week.

``I've been in this 30 years, and people starting out with grand pianos is more common now.''

But even people with more modest means can tickle the ivories in their own home.

``You can literally name a price and there's something in that price range,'' Sontag said. ``Pianos can be rented with the idea that if the client likes it, after a while they can make the commitment to buy one.''

People can rent a piano for $25 to $50 month, and buy used uprights for less than $1,000, he said.

What they get for their money is more than just a musical instrument. It could be a piece of a long-denied dream.

``We see people who have never had an instrument before, they come in and get the instrument they've always wanted, and they're just beaming because they've got this thing they've waited their whole life to get,'' Snyder said. ``There's more out there than just your job and your television.''

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(1 -- 2 -- color) Frank Accardo, left, gives instruction to aspiring guitar player David Springer, 73, during a recent lesson. Music stores and teachers say they're seeing more adults signing up for lessons.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer