Music lessons for year R child?

[Cat98]

My ds is in reception and will be 5 in may. He is bright across the board but has been flagged as potentially gifted in maths. We have been advised that extra curricular music might be a good idea (he already does a couple of sports classes and loves these).

However, dh and I are not in the slightest way musical and don't know where to start! I'm hoping someone can advise - is he old enough to start an instrument? If so what instrument do you think might be suitable, and how do we go about finding a class/lessons for him? Or should we wait another year or so?
Thank you
Cat

[Beamur]

DD has been doing violin since she was 5. She's been a bit up and down with it, but enjoys it mostly, one lesson a week at school for about 20 minutes and one or two practices at home, we also have a piano, keyboard, guitars and bongos that she is allowed to play too (DP is quite musical) but no pressure to do anything more than noodle about. She wants to switch to piano next year. If your child likes playing, for fun or more seriously then age doesn't matter that much. Violin is quite hard, but the instrument is scaled down so good for smaller hands.

[hardboiled]

Cat98 I have pm you.

[maggiethecat]

Agree with the suggestions of getting involved in group singing classes that encourage aural development, rhythm training etc.

Don't agree with those who say 5 is too young to learn instrument - this is gross generalisation and for some children it is fine to start early.

We struggled to find piano teacher for our 5 year old dd2 - teachers trotted out excuse about small hands etc. There are lots of things that small hands can learn on the piano. One also said that it made no difference whether they start younger as they all catch up in the end! Didn't realise we were in a race, we wanted her to learn to play for enjoyment. Dd2 eventually got a teacher at 5 and she loves doing her technical exercises and playing little pieces.

Not sure what to say about the music and math association. Dd1 is very talented musically but is very average (and even struggles sometimes) with math. While dd2 appears to be ok musically (don't think she is quite as talented as her sister) but is very good at maths. Very different parts of the brain at work I suppose.

[SavoirFaire]

Where are you? If London, lots of options. Colourstrings excellent and starts at 18mo, but should be able to squeeze a child of your DCs age in, perhaps with a short wait for a space. I was oop north and had piano lessons from reception age and there were loads of teachers around who would do that (not sure it did me any good though!).

[TolliverGroat]

Kindermusik do an "exploring various instruments" course for this age which might be ideal if someone's running one near you.

[CrunchyFrog]

I am a private music teacher, recently started offering general music lessons to younger kids - Home Ed families are really keen. I do a very child led approach, for minimum of 2, max 4 kids. Might be worth contacting local music teachers to see if they offer similar?

[anitasmall]

My daughter is also 5 year old and good at maths. She is in year 1 now and she can blow the recorder. It took her only few month to got used to this music instrument. I practice with her on my own but she does a bit of Kodaly method (Suzuki method equivalent) at a language school. Reading music was also very easy for her (pure maths).

However she is still not ready for any other music instrument.

Anybody from Herts, Watford area?

[Cat98]

Thanks for the replies - very helpful. If I can't find a more generic class for now I think we will leave it a little while.

[Schmedz]

Your local music service may have some beginner instrumental/percussion or choir program's which are lots of fun and should not be too expensive. Best thing is to do lots of singing at home and expose to lots of different types of music. Depending on where you live there are often family orchestra concerts where the programmes are suited to younger children and sometimes they can meet members of the orchestra/try instruments. It might just tickle her fancy! Music should be fun and involving at her age, and don't be disappointed if the maths, which links really well to music theory, fails to link to the creative and expressive side of music...this is something else entirely.

[TotallyBS]

IMO your DS is too young to start a serious instrument.

In Year R we put DS into a Monkey Music-type afterschool club. They sang, played the tambourine, drums etc. In Year 1 we started him on the violin. He wanted to learn the piano but we were told that 7 was the best time to start since younger kids simply don't have the finger span.

[Cat98]

Oh I have found out that in year 2/3 violin lessons are offered to pupils at his school.

[Cat98]

Thanks for the responses. I have googled local classes but can't find anything for his age group. Individual lessons sound very expensive and I would only want to make the commitment if he would definitely get something out of it. A taster session or 2 would be great.
I have asked him and he wants to learn drums!!!

[noisytoys]

DD (age4) is gifted in maths (NC level 3c) we have been offered music as a suggestion to extend her but tbh she is so tired after school and she is still so little so we are waiting until we feel she is ready which will be a while yet

[NaturalBaby]

I've considered the suzuki violin lessons, but my ds's school is very musical so I might leave it for now and see how he gets on with the school music sessions. He's also 5 in may.

[blueberryboybait]

My DD is in reception, we are so very not musical,she plays the violin after school once a week and has done for about 6 months she loves it and is starting to sound quite tuneful! We struggled to find someone to teach an instrument at this age but found a ViolinBabies teacher in our area, she also plays the recorder at school.

[bigbadbarry]

We have quavers music here, which is great. Is very local though so if you are not near Chester you won't have it! But there must be similar courses around the country, gives a good (fun) grounding in basic musicianship which they can then take on to instruments when they are older.