People pick up the guitar for many reasons. Some want to unwind after work by playing songs they love, while others picture themselves performing one day, maybe in a small venue or just for friends at home. In a place like New York, where music spills out of subway stations and rehearsal rooms, the ...

A quiet, insistent question lingers with many people for years: “Did I miss my chance to learn to sing?” Perhaps music seemed far away in childhood. Perhaps the school choirs were for other people, or perhaps life just took a different turn. And then, as the years of adulthood pass, a so...