how old for piano lessons?

[lolaismyfavoriteandmybest]

dd is almost 3 and is showing an interest in playing the piano. She can already pick out nursery rhymes (with one finger) some she's learned from me, some from a piano book and she's translated them to her toy piano. today I heard her working out the tune for baa baa black sheep by singing it and trying to find the notes on the piano. she got quite close!

she has some issues with me showing her what to do (but only me) and I can't really play myself! so I was wondering about very very basic lessons. but I have no idea where to look! I don't even know what age its possible to start from.

The last thing I want to do is turn into a scary pushy parent! and I am aware that proposing piano lessons for a 3 year old may be on the wrong side of the line... but on the other hand if she does turn out to have a talent I would like to encourage it.

I'm sure dd isn't the only musician toddler out there so any tips on how to encourage her to build on her skills would be greatly appreciated

I though I was going to let this drop but I couldn't help googling the suzuki method. THanks for that. I hadn't heard of it before and its just what we need. I love the emphasis on learning by listening! dd is partially sighted and I think she will really struggle with sight reading. if she is going to learn she needs to develop her ear for music. The only problem is I think our nearest teacher is over half an hour away though (thats by car and I can't drive)

she has a recorder and (thankfully) shows very little interest, they are dreadful things. What she wants to play is her piano.(keyboard) she doesn't turn the demos and drum beats on like every other child who comes to the house. She just sits at it for long periods of time singing (not quite in key) to her self and mimicing what she is singing on the piano. she is learing slightly flat versions of most of the popular nursery rhymes and I suppose I just want to teach her to to play in key!!! I'm amazed by how close she is getting working it out all by herself though.

my worry is that she is learning mistakes and is only using her two index fingers. she won't let me show her either despite being desperate to get it right.

I asked her if she wanted to have help from a piano teacher and she said "yes but I want you to be my teacher mummy" which completely melted me. She still won't let me help her with her flat baa baa black sheep though...

I would go for one of the many pre-school music classes instead tbh, all about rhythm, sound etc. If they can't read yet and their hands are too small, surely there is a chance they could get frustrated and put off too early.

My eldest started at 8 (but would have started earlier if he wasn't already learning guitar from 7!) But all 3 do one of these classes and I think that has contributed the most to their musical ability. And they like to just mess about tinkling on the piano and instruments at home.

Why rush?

DS's piano teacher won't take children until they are 8. And he drops those that he feels aren't interested but are being forced by their parents.

my dd (7) is about to start and she had a meeting with the teacher to see if she was really interested - if you can get a good recommendation of a teacher, they should offer this, before signing up for months. personally, if your child is a muscial genius, i am sure the talent wont disappear if you leave it a couple of years

Crikey, my brain is not firing well today

Meant to say, my eldest boy started learning piano at 8, but had done pre-school music from a young age etc. Not that he started shaking tambourines and banging cowbells at 8: he would never have forgiven me for that

you could also try colourstrings classes or kodaly method - the y are from 3, not necessarily with an instrument.

FWIW I started piano at 3, but I was a pretty good reader, and it was too soon. Started again at 5, but in the interim learnt to read music. Just lost of exposure to lots of differing types of music is good- and if possible live performance- very thrilling for small children and helps them learn the connexion between music and performing.

should say she has done ministages, tumbletots and another local babies music class. (I needed to get out alot when I was a SAHM!) she has inherited the music recources from 2 retiring teachers and we have enough percussion instruments to kit out a small class of children.

she plays a scaled down toy piano at home and I'm not really trying to push her to play a full size instrument. I would just like to find a way of dealing with her frustration at not being able to play some of the tunes she wants to play perfectly. and I know from previous exchanges that the best way I can get her to make progress is to get someone else to show her what to do as ahe has issues taking directions from me. (will have to sort this out before she's a teenager!)

I'm trying not to be a pushy parent!! I'm just the underachiever of my group of friends so I sometimes need a sanity check that not pushing you not quite three year old into formal music lessons is infact quite normal and very OK

It took me a while to realise that there wasn't any problem about ds 'underachieving' compared to his playmates. I have one friend whose dc has done everything way ahead of when they are supposed to (apparently). I used to subconsciously compete but when ds started reception I widened my circle of friends and realised that ds was perfectly normal!

You can get a set that has a keyboard with coloured keys and a music book with colours instead of notes-it has all the nursery rhymes and even a 2 yr old can pick out tunes.We got ours in a garden centre and cant remember its name but worth a go.There was a Christmas Carol version as well.

Have you looked for anything like ''Music with Mummy'' in your area? www.musicwithmummy.co.uk/home.asp It wont be specific to piano, but it's supposed to be a lot of fun and it's aimed at pre-school children.

Dragonrider. looked at the link but it looks the same as we have been doing from 6 months up. ministages etc. there isn't really much to go on though so I could be wrong.

Mollie- sometimes its hard not to isn't it. especially as I'm the last of my school firends to have their first child so up until I had dd I thought not speaking more than a couple of words at 14mo was delayed and that two year olds could always read right and have an interest in astronomy

Pranma thats the kind of thing that started her off but she has stopped using the colours and special coloured book and can translate them to a miniture piano without the colours. she is also teaching herself songs that aren't in the book but she is learning mistakes and to just play with her index fingers which is why I'm itching to intervine... if it wasn't got the flat three blind mice I probably wouldn't have posted