As a girl, J.L. Hampton begged for piano lessons, but her mother refused. Even after she inherited a piano from her mother-in-law seven years ago, she held back, not wanting to upstage her son, who was taking lessons. But her son Wade, now 15, quit piano last year, and she slid into his time slot. "It's like always talking about going on a diet," says Hampton, 48, who manages the Manhattan office of an executive recruiting firm. "One day, you finally do it and feel good about it."

There's no one reason that perfectly sensible, professionally accomplished adults submit themselves to the humbling experience of learning an instrument. What does seem clear is that if you take the plunge, you'll have plenty of adult company. The Music Teachers National Assn., a trade group, reports that 25- to 55-year-olds are the fastest-growing group of new students.

For some adult students, music lessons provide a creative outlet and a way to put aside, for just a few hours a week, day-to-day worries. "It's not always easy trying to play a new piece, but there's something very therapeutic about it," says Rebecca Ostrovsky, 51, who is studying the piano when she's not managing her husband's radiology offices in Manhattan. For others, it's "unfinished business from their childhood," says Joseph Kerr, a piano teacher who counts four mothers of current or former pupils, including Hampton and Ostrovsky, among his 19 students. Besides being fun and relaxing, learning an instrument can enhance mental acuity and reduce anxiety, some research suggests. One study of adult keyboard students even showed increased levels of human growth hormone in the bloodstream. Many age-related conditions, from wrinkling to osteoporosis, are linked to its decline.

Not surprisingly, the music industry is publicizing the virtues of music-making for adults. Among the more successful efforts of the International Music Products Assn. is its sponsorship of the New Horizons Band program, begun a dozen years ago by Roy Ernst, former director of the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. The idea was to take adults--both rank beginners and those who had played as children--supply them with instruments, give them instruction, and get them playing. There are now 61 such groups nationwide.

If you're thinking of finding your inner musician, be ready for frustration. In the beginning, you're more apt to make frightful noises than beautiful music. "Kids compare themselves to the kid next door, and adults compare themselves to Murray Perahia and Artur Rubenstein," says Matthew Harre, a piano teacher in Washington and founder of the Adult Music Student Forum, an organization of students and teachers. You'll be better off if you expect to make plenty of mistakes.

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