In what world are you living in that you can't afford an instrument to play? You can get used acoustic guitars practically for free secondhand. You can practice singing for free, youtube has lots of great tutorials.

Any kind of musical ability is a skill that differentiates you from the guy who doesn't have any. It widens your perspective, it allows you to talk about music more deeply (for example theory) with others, it creates joy to your life and you will gain bigger respect for the skills of other musicians.

This all doesn't have anything to do with money and it doesn't have to. Not 100% of your time is needed to make money at all times.

> In what world are you living in that you can't afford an instrument to play? You can get used acoustic guitars practically for free secondhand. You can practice singing for free, youtube has lots of great tutorials.

I’m older than YouTube and my parents didn’t have a lot of money.

Never seen free guitars in any charity shops otherwise I’d have picked one up.

Also singing isn’t playing an instrument. Which was specifically what the OP was discussing and thus specifically what I’m reply about.

> Any kind of musical ability is a skill that differentiates you from the guy who doesn't have any. It widens your perspective, it allows you to talk about music more deeply (for example theory) with others, it creates joy to your life and you will gain bigger respect for the skills of other musicians.

I agree. But that wasn’t the point being discussed.

Also the same can also be said for sports. Or knitting. Or in fact any skill.

I love music, it’s my biggest passion outside of computers. But it seems daft to argue music is uniquely different to any other hobby. For example, my wife actually hates music and it wasn’t my interest in it that she found attractive (ironically to this thread, it was actually my work ethic, because she saw someone stable who wanted kids too).

> This all doesn't have anything to do with money and it doesn't have to. Not 100% of your time is needed to make money at all times.

Unfortunately that’s exactly how some families do have to live.

Not all of us are fortunate enough to have the free time to enjoy a hobby. Some people literally work most of their waking hours just to pay rent and buy food. Life can be really hard for some people.