Musical instrument for five year old

[Loobylou3]

Hi
What instrument would be good for a five (nearly 6) year old to start playing? Any ideas /experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks

morethanpotatoprints, no doubt your dd is the best, the argument was about who is the second best

ReallyTired I never argued about 5 yo video girl abilities, didn't I? She is certainly good for her age . And we do not know about her practicing habits, it could be her stamina or as a matter of fact her parents' stamina!

And btw, chore or not, I would say 99% of children will come to the point where they need to be pushed to carry on. If you read some world famous musician biographies you may find out they are no exception.

Potato,

That's why the yen year gap between grade 8 and diplomais not unusual. In my case I just never bothered taking it but covered lots of repertoire at that level after grade eight. I can sight-read the music technically, it's the expression etc. that needs planning. My rehearsal copies have scribbles with stuff like "waffly"; "warm, wide vibrato"; "intense" written all over. Licentiate level and above is where I go "rats I can't play tenths" and would have to really work at it. I have some Repertoire at that level, mainly Baroque though.

What a relief to read your comments, ladies :). I worried about emotional side of dd's performance, her teacher said I had to make make allowance for her age, but I was not convinced...

I think the attitude that I had with my dd, to allow her to wait because she had chosen an instrument is an easy or difficult one to have depending on your circumstances. In my dd's school there are a few children who are already being pushed ready for music scholarships and have grade 2 in two instruments, if I had wished to try and keep up than my attitude wouldn't have worked, fortunately I have no desire to push dd in that way.

Surely the cost of lessons would be more than the scholarship as most private schools a "scholarship" only knocks 5 to 10% of the fees. Especially as many children trying for music scholarships have two instruments to at least grade 5 and play in orchestras/ ensembles.

Ferguson Wed 25-Mar-15 23:23:39
Well, what does HE/SHE think they might like to play?

Have they asked to play something, or is it just you thinking they OUGHT to?

I think that this is the nub of it.

Loobylou3 go back to the very first reply to you opening post. If it is something you think they ought to do then this is another academic exercise. You will be the driving force.

If this is to give your DC an interest then let your DC try out different instruments. If there is a county music service see what they offer in terms of early years sessions and groups.

Great advice from my DBiL was to have plenty of musical instruments around. We took this advice and as DCs showed interest we acquired different instruments.

Both my DDs went to the county music service Saturday school. This allowed them to try out different instruments, join a choir, perform and then later assist.

My DS(16) was never interested in such formality however he will pick up different instruments and play things that he learns on the internet. Currently he is playing the penny whistle and the descant recorder!

DD showed an interest in music when she was 5 so we took her to a violin teacher. She's been playing for 2 years now and is nearly at the end of the 2nd Suzuki book. DS wanted to learn the recorder so I've been teaching him as well as how to read music. They have to want to doit though otherwise every practice will be a fight.

Agree with Gnome.

Don't sweat it too much, though. It is better to make a pragmatic choice at this stage based on what's available at a reasonable price and at reasonable times. Your child might not take to it anyway, and even if the instrument turns out not to be the "right" one, they can change later.

Obviously they have to want to play the instrument but do most 5 year olds really have the experience and maturity to select the right instrument? - we let DD experiment and choose for herself but she ended up dropping that instrument 3 years ago (and has barely touched it since) and has since taken up three others, one of which (guitar) is definitely "her instrument". Having already played an instrument makes it much easier to learn another later and in my experience it doesn't particularly seem to matter which one.

Julie, hope you don't mind me hijacking the thread briefly, but I am intrigued by your mention of specialising in Little ones and teaching a two year old the piano. Have you developed your own method, or use a pre-existin one?

I am like you - do a lot of piano teaching, even though my first instrument is something different. I have used Dogs and Birds method a little bit, and quite like it, but wasn't blown away. maybe it's laziness on my part, but teaching youngsters always ends up feeling like a lot of work for very little progress, and if you just start them aged 7+ they do just as well.

Do you use Kodaly method? I try to incorporate elements into my fairly conventional lesson plans, but haven't used it as a pure methodology as I am just using bit s and pieces that I have picked up. Am not trained in it.

OP - the person who mentioned a lot of practical things - like cost and portability of instrument talked a lot of sense, IMO.

Oh god yes, portability.

We have to plan how close to park, depending on the need for any or all of tuba, euphonium, bass guitar and keyboard.

I know - my DS got offered a stringed instrument and wanted the cello. I persuaded him the violin would suit him better (he is quite small physically, but also has a good ear for tuning, so I think I was justified. But my main thinking was he could carry it himself, on foot, to school, rather than needing a lift. )

I do a few minutes per day of piano and recorder with my 5 year old who will be 6 in the summer. Recorder happened because he does it at school and I play and he asked to try piano but we didn't want to commit to formal lessons yet as he may have the opportunity to do strings next year in music centre. I teach music so although am not a first study pianist I can do the basics with him and colleagues advise me. He has done Kodaly classes since he was tiny however and it has been great. He can already read and sound out most rhythms and can think of intervals on solfa which helps him play by ear. His sense of pulse is also really solid and he sings well. Whether he would have had this anyway without the Kodaly training I don't know but I hope it will help him progress faster on his instruments when he does start formal lessons. I think it has given him a musical start but without hothousing technically on an instrument which works for us as his motor skills are not super advanced. I believe Suzuki early childhood classes do similar though they start instruments younger often.

Wellthatsit, I pmed you my statistics on teaching the little ones, I hope it is ok (just did not want to write it here in case my friends are reading ))

Wellthatsit

I use Wunderkeys (one-to-one) and am considering taking a closer look at the Kiddykeys programme (small groups). They are both what I would consider 'pre-piano', so the children are learning really basic things - high/low, loud/quiet etc. rather than learning to play tunes. While this might seem like they aren't learning very much, they really grasp the concepts and the Wunderkeys programme also works hard at developing early numeracy and literacy skills - e.g. counting the correct number of notes, reading from left to right, recognising patterns.

After Wunderkeys, I use the Alfred's programme called "Music for Little Mozarts" which is geared at really young children from 4-6 (roughly - for me it works out at reception/year one to year one/year two depending on the child). Again, progress is slow but I focus a lot in these early stages on technique, hand shape, legato playing etc. Because the tunes are easy, the children aren't just memorising them but develop good sightreading skills and good playing habits. There are also general musicianship aspects to the course.

I've noticed that a 7yo who has been through the Mozarts programme will have better general musicianship and sightreading skills, and play more musically, than a 7yo who started at 6 and did the other courses I was using and has 'caught up'. This may be because the more naturally inclined child started younger, but I think it's because starting younger and moving more slowly has enabled them to really focus on the basics.

The Wunderkeys is just the cost of books, with free teacher registration and printable resources that you can laminate. MFLM is quite expensive but it's worth getting the CDs, flashcards, toys etc. because they round out the learning experience (I initially only used the books but thought better of it!).

For Kodaly relating to MFLM... you can always clap, read the notes, read the finger numbers, sing the song if you want (letter names, solfege, words), before trying to play. I have some students who do more of these than others.

I'm also a registered Stringbabies teacher, but my youngest there is 6yo and in year 1.

Thanks, Julie. That's really interesting, especially what you say about the development of skills like sightreading (always a tricky one) among those who start young. I will check out those books.

Yes re clapping, finger numbers and singing etc - all things I do.

Wellthatsit,

I think it has to do with having played lots of really simple tunes. At any rate, the ones who started with MFLM can usually more or less sight-read the hardest thing they have ever played, because the slope is so gentle. Those who start later are usually not able to sightread as well for the same given level of piano-playing ability, if you see what I mean.

I find it weird because I always had excellent sightreading, probably because my general literacy was so good, so I struggle with teaching sightreading. I can also transpose at sight without much difficulty, unless it's into a really stupid key, but I have to imagine the key signature etc. because I don't think intervallically (violinist, ergo 'perfect' pitch).