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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

what age to start piano if DC is keen?

32 replies

happilyLostCareer · 03/06/2017 04:09

I'm not yet at the stage of finding DS a teacher as he is only 7 months old, and who knows, in a few years he may well prefer lego to music (though at the moment he is very keen on music and recognizes tunes — probably much like most babies).

Anyway.

Was talking to 2 friends about music lessons. Friend 1 has 3 kids, the 6yo started recorder this year, the others are 5 and 3 and more interested but apparently too young. Friend 1 played cello to semiprofessional level before kids. She thinks go with the child, some 3 yo kids are going to be ready for lessons, some 8 yo kids might still be too young — but she also says the sooner they start, the easier it is to learn everything.

Friend 2 has 2 kids. Has never played an instrument and doesn't like classical music, but is a developmental psychologist and thinks kids should learn music from age 6, no earlier. Her 7yo DD learns flute but isn't interested -possibly because she never hears classical music. Her 4yo DD would probably have the attention span, determination and interest to be learning now, but mum says she absolutely shouldn't start until 6.

Meanwhile I grew up in a demographic where kids started piano, singing and very basic theory at 3 or 4, second & third instruments at 5 or 6. Anything later was seen as too late for anything other than just doing it for fun (nothing wrong with fun, but don't expect to catch up with your peers or be a musician).

I suspect going with the individual child is sensible, looking at attention span, perseverance, interest, dexterity etc. But is any age just really way too young?

OP posts:
Wafflenose · 05/06/2017 22:50

I have read the book twice (20 years apart) and there's a lot of good stuff in it. I do find, though, that a lot of the personality stuff is based around sweeping generalisations/ stereotypes about the role of the instrument in a symphony orchestra. The author makes some very good points about things like the size of the child, energy, stamina and other physical characteristics.

GrassWillBeGreener · 05/06/2017 23:01

You would definitely enjoy reading around the Suzuki method. It was never intended as a way to produce professional musicians, more to develop a "beautiful heart" in a child via the medium of music. Music should always be fun and enjoyable, never a "practice chore".

So - how soon to start a child "learning" music - you are doing it already by having music around you and it being some part of your lives.

Don't assume that piano will be the right instrument to start with, though it may be. If you find you have Suzuki trained teachers in range, ask to come and observe lessons (when the time is right for you and your child). If you like what you see then take it further.

If you decide on starting lessons "early" say 6 or under, I think it is very important to have a teacher who has experience and understanding of how to teach younger children and work with their parents. Not all great teachers are great with this age group.

Back to your first question. My youngest would have been "having a go" on our piano by the time he could reach it. We didn't start him on lessons until we "had to", perhaps around age 6, as I showed him a few things occasionally and left him to it. Learned violin from 4, joined the church children's choir age 5 1/2 (his choice, and preferred having access to printed music over learning by ear); started chorister training age 7.

He's now nearly 12 and approaching grade 8 potentially on violin and piano. He might well end up a musician; but I could also see him as an engineer.

GrassWillBeGreener · 05/06/2017 23:05

Oh I had a look at that book once and found it most amusing ... I would never have got started following their advice! I followed my younger sister in learning the violin despite being tone deaf (very severe glue ear and speech delay). We'd had early Kodaly training which served me in good stead while my hearing slowly caught up!

BackforGood · 05/06/2017 23:26

With piano, you have 2 hands doing two different things, and your eyes are looking at 2 different lines of music at the same time. Those reasons make it sensible to wait until at least 7 and a fairly confident reader at the time they start.
A recorder is a good place to start if you have a burning desire to start your child playing an instrument younger, as you are only following one line of music, so begin to learn about things like where the notes go, the different lengths of notes, rests, bars, etc., but you get a pretty recognisable tune quite early on without needing particularly strong fingers or having your adult teeth through or any of the other things that you have to wait for, for some instruments.

Mistigri · 06/06/2017 20:40

I think there's a lot to be said for starting on recorder. My DD did recorder lessons for a few years, got to about grade 5 standard, got bored of it and stopped - then chose her own instruments (guitar then sax then piano). Having played recorder was beneficial when starting guitar (and obviously even more so for sax) - and likewise, having played guitar was very helpful when starting piano.

Cadenza1818 · 11/06/2017 22:13

As a teacher I personally prefer them at 7. Generally they learn in 6months what a 5yr old will take 18month to master. But depends on child. I have a 4yr old who's fab!

happilyLostCareer · 12/06/2017 23:16

Thanks everyone for all the advice, definitely taking it on board.

Just one q though:

Surely one of the main points of doing music (alongside loving music) is the brain development aspect of doing different things with each hand, reading different lines simultaneously, and learning different clefs. Yes? This is why I & many people I know were started on the piano as soon as we could sit still long enough. Is it now not thought to be a good idea to do that (all the people saying start on the recorder), or is it just that you're probably going to have a happily-tootling child on a recorder a bit sooner than on a piano, assuming they don't get put off? I wouldn't have thought that slow early progress was a problem at all as long as the kid is having fun and developing - ideally it's not a race to see who can get to the Hammerklavier sonata first, even though many parents seem to think it is...

My only concern about piano was that you teach the kid equal temperament and A=440 Hz which possibly suggests that I started too early Grin

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