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What instrument should my child learn?
By Janice | March 21, 2008
That is a question that is not asked often enough!
Often parents are pushed into choosing an instrument based on the child’s choice – rather than what is the right instrument for their age.
At our music school we were often asked if children could play the drums or guitar at an early age (say around 4 or 5 years of age).
At this age children simply don’t have the co-ordination developed or the physical characteristics required to play those instruments. Certainly they can have toy guitars and drums, and encouraging their enthusiasm for the instrument is the right thing to do, but…
You should definitley not consider private tuition in anything but these two instruments under the age of around ten years old…..
Those two instruments are the Piano and the Violin.
The piano and the Violin are the only two instruments that children have the physical size and ability to cope with at an early age. All the research I’ve read, every other music teacher I’ve talked to and my personal experiences as a music teacher back up this opinion.
If they do attempt an instrument that they don’t yet have the co-ordination or the physical strength for they’ll quickly get discouraged, as they wont be able to progress fast enough to enjoy playing.
The net effect of learning these instruments at an early age, and THEN going on to play drums, guitar, bagpipes or whatever the child wants to learn when they have the physical ability will result in a much greater musician in the end.
Now of course you can ignore this advice, and go and get private guitar or drum lessons – however if you are really interested in them playing long term then I suggest you find a specialist early learning piano course, such as found in a Yamaha Music School.. This is what our daughter will be doing when she turns four!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!Topics: General Advice, Young Children | 4 Comments »
December 14th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Just saying, I started learning flute when I was eight, and I’ve enjoyed it and become a very advanced player since.
May 5th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Maybe piano or violin at the age of 4 or 5, but , depending on the child, children can start to learn just about any instrument (including guitar and drums) by 7 years old.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:57 pm
I was informed that the child had to first learn the alphabet before being taught music lessons on the piano. Would 4 yrs old be a slight too young – even for the piano? Would a child this young be able to understand the letters to learn to play?? just asking.
October 2nd, 2011 at 10:32 am
I started learning the violin at 8 and the piano at 5. Now i play violin, viola and alto saxophone. I personally don’t think piano is good for really little kids. I got very frustrated with the piano as a 5 or 6 year old because I could only learn the treble clef part easily. I always found the bass part to difficult. Other people I know said the opposite (they got the bass not the treble). Piano takes too much coordination for a small child. Violin also isn’t easy, at first the sounds you can produce is similar to a cat screaming. I think you should wait until a child is older then see what they want. my mother wanted me to play piano at are 5 it took ten years for me to try again.