Flute, guitar or piano?

If she wants to play in groups I’d say not the piano (if you’ve got a keyboard she can always teach herself the basics if she’s musically inclined anyway, which is what I did).

I echo others about if she enjoyed pbuzz point her towards brass. Trombone is probably the most versatile as she can then access bands and orchestras, but any brass is sociable.

When my DD was in primary she was set on learning the "golden harp" after seeing and hearing one played on Young Musician of the year. I knew it was entirely out of our budget, so I found a few youtube videos introducing various orchestral instruments and we had a look at those. From that she shortlisted the clarinet. At the same time her school had a variety of student musicians from the local high school visiting to perform in assembly and that cemented her decision. What is lovely is as a high school student, she now performs at local primaries and we've seen A LOT of clarinetists coming through to her school who were inspired by her playing.

Probably doesn't help you much! But remember whatever she starts with isn't necessarily the only thing she'll play. DD has played other woodwind instruments and also plays the bass guitar in a band. I avoided piano lessons because of her dyslexia, but she has always enjoyed playing around on it and has since taken a few lessons at school.

Piano will give her the best understanding of things like harmony and both the treble and bass clef and would be the instrument she could go and have a nice play on when she's an adult but the flute could be more social as she could join groups and orchestras

This is exactly what happened to dd. She has rocketed her way through percussion because she can play piano - this transfers directly onto xylophone, glockenspiel, marimba etc; she can also read music and keep time well.

In our local county bands and orchestras, percussionists were selected from children who were learning piano, because they had learnt to read music. I have no idea if this is common.

If she has access to a local music service, then honestly an orchestral instrument opens so many doors. DS plays a string instrument, and worked his way through all of the groups and orchestras, and now plays in the local youth orchestra, county youth and school groups. It's become a huge part of his social life, he's been on two European Tours etc.

He actually plays piano too, which is useful from.a musical point of view. But his orchestral instrument is by far his favourite.

DD started piano at age 6, but really wanted to be part of some kind of social ensemble playing like her guitarist brother. She took up percussion and now plays in our local brass band, 2 bands at school and a local wind and!

DS started ukulele age 7, moved onto guitar 18 months later, now 16, working for G6. Plays in a local "guitar orchestra" , rock band, folk band and has taught himself bass and piano.

Guitar can be very social and very versatile. Piano is excellent for understanding music theory and basic musicianship, but less oppurtunity for social playing.

Did she enjoy the pbuzz lessons at school and is there a brass teacher? The flute is a very popular instrument and if she loves the sound it makes she should definitely go for that. Learning a brass instrument opens different doors; trombones are played in orchestras, jazz bands, brass bands and concert bands and trumpets are similar (albeit not in brass bands - they have cornets instead). If you are in a brass band area you may well find your DD could be taught a brass instrument very cheaply through a beginners band, often with an instrument provided on loan. In my experience, there seems to be a particular shortage of girls playing trombone so I'd encourage anyone who enjoyed the pbuzz to take up the trombone.

DD(17) started the flute in year 4, passing G8 last year with zero practice last year. She was G8 standard, when she played G5-level pieces for GCSE music. She needed to pass G5 Theory (done as an afterschool club for 2 terms) to sit the subject. Being able to play the piano or guitar would have helped her with composition, but she managed to get a "9" without.

A flute is very portable (if walking to school). The sound doesn't travel too far and can sound okay after a couple of months. A student flute is about £300 (think we used a Yamaha 211 up to grade 6). We bought one secondhand from the firm that services her teacher's flute.

Professional pianist here.

Piano & guitar are "harmony instruments", and piano has even more polyphonic possibilities (capable of playing many lines of music at the same time). This provides a level of "self-sufficiency", no need for accompanists - you can enjoy practising and playing the music as is. It also offers a practical understanding of music theory. Piano is probably best for this, as all the notes are laid out in front of you visually. Guitar is a beautifully sensitive instrument - just your finger/nail and the string... I find it enchanting.

I can always hear the difference between students who have learnt on an electric/acoustic piano. The piano is an organic instrument, much more than just pushing a button, even with weighted keys, dynamic levels, electric pedal etc. There are so many ways to strike the keys, handling and taking joy in the sound, that an electric instrument just can't reproduce. Even a poor quality upright instrument would be better. You can find them often very cheaply, or for free, on local marketplaces. Someone is always moving house and won't have space etc. You can also find small uprights which will fit into small spaces, if that is a concern.

Flute will give her more opportunities to play in bands and orchestras, which is a real joy. With singing, she already has the opportunity to participate in choirs.

Why don't you take some trial lessons on each instrument? Maybe attend some concerts so she can hear the possibilities of the instruments?

I am going to say NOT piano. I learned piano and felt it was a shame I could never play in an orchestra or group - of course you can accompany others but you have to be quite good for that and I never was, but you can be quite a low level at other instruments and still be part of a group or orchestra. I encouraged DS to do a different instrument - he chose flute at the same age as your DD, and now aged 17 just did his first paid gig as part of a band/mini orchestra, loves his music, composes, is doing music A Level and has taken up piano as a second instrument of his own accord.

Piano to go with her singing. So versatile and sounds great at whatever level she gets to.

the orchestra - perhaps she will sing with it in a choir etc? Or switch to something like percussion to join in? Flute can be very popular so hard to get into orchestras if that is your main reason

Piano would be better really if only for learning sheet music in both treble and bass clefs, which you don't with other instruments. It is also a good instrument for fiddling about and composing.

I wish I'd had a better teacher (we moved house when I was 13 and had trouble finding a teacher in the new town), and that I'd persevered with it, to be honest.

Hi,
I am a professional flute, piano, recorder & singing teacher based north of Newbury. I would advise piano or flute. The flute is enjoyable to learn and uses only the treble clef notation, which she will use when sight-singing. The piano uses the treble and bass clef but is nice to learn with the added bonus of learning to read notation at the same time as learning to play the piano.
If she is interested in lessons please let me know.. see my website. Misspmusicteacher.comor email on : [email protected]
Best wishes
AP.

Depends on her preference and musical ambitions.

If she is likely to take Music at GCSE then being able to play the piano helps massively when it comes to composition.

If she is interested in being in orchestras then flute is a good choice.

DD (Y11) is mainly a singer, but plays the piano and both electric and acoustic guitars plus uke.

Guitar is very hard on the fingers for the first year or so, you need to practice a lot to get past that. DD stopped playing it after the first year due to that and switched to piano. Then took it up again nearly 2 years ago and it's definitely her preferred instrument now.

Piano tricky because you have to follow two lines of music.

All sound reasonable in the beginner stages.

Maybe try some out and see what she likes best?

Piano is great to learn to read music and get the hang of scales etc because it is easy to translate notes on the page to keys. But it is less good for the orchestra.

My dd did piano for 4 years (grade 4) and then dropped it in favour of saxophone, but the piano gave a great grounding in music generally.

Please let her try them all out and go with the one she prefers.

Piano provides an excellent musical foundation as you can see every note and how it relates to every other note, laid out right before you, so really handy for musical understanding and theory. And you need to learn 2 clefs too.

I am a singing teacher so of course can play piano OK but desperately wish I’d been allowed to learn at your daughter’s age (wasn’t allowed to copy my piano-playing sister! 🙄). Grade 2 is fab for a 9 year old, well done her! I have a few 9 year old singing students who also do piano, it’s a great pairing.

Well, if you already have a piano, in many ways that's the easy option!

And if she then wants to move on to other instruments, learning the staves and theory for piano will stand her in good stead for whatever else takes her fancy.

We're having similar conversations at the moment. As others have said, flute is a good option if your DD would like to join an orchestra. We were also thinking about portability, as DD will have a bit of a walk to secondary school when she starts, so I suggested maybe not something massive. Partly for selfish reasons, but I don't really want to end up being a cello taxi!