As with piano, it is easier if you start younger.
Well, there's not a hope for me there, then, since I did not start to study music at all until I was almost 12 years of age and I've never had a hope in Hell's chance of making it as a pianist (not that I ever expected to, mind)...
Wo ist Thalbergspräche? Does one need to be familiar with such obscure and esoteric terms as "bollox" to begin to understand it, by chance?
Speaing of bollox, incidentally, during the rehearsals for the recording of my string quintet, the cellist was at one point struggling (or so he claimed) to perfect a particular passage in it when practising and his quite unnecessary frustration finally got the better of him and he exclaimed "bollox" whereupon, without a second's hesitation, the viola player asked "is that a technical term?"
I shall never forget that as long as I live...
Best,
Alistair