Musical toddler - what next?

[Indecision2020]

Hello, I’ve name changed for this as some details quite identifying.

DS is 27 months old and extremely musical. This isn’t surprising as DH is a classical musician (performer) and I used to be, so DS has been exposed to lots of music at home since birth (from DH practising and rehearsing several hours every day, to lots of singing and dancing with DS). I can set out some of the stuff he can do if anyone is interested.

Obviously DH and I are really well placed to help him develop in some ways, but we both started our instruments aged 9/10 and came from non-musical families who weren’t well off. We were picked up by chance through free school lessons, so have no experience of early music making. By contrast we are in a position to recognise DS’s interest and get lessons for him at a much earlier stage and don’t have a clue what to do (if anything). He’s obviously much too young to learn an instrument now. I don’t want to push him in any way at all, and would hate him to feel pressure or be put off something that has given DH and I so much joy.

Does anyone have any experience/advice? Or could recommend good teachers/groups for encouraging musicianship for preschoolers?

It's worth having more of a look at Kodaly too- lots of places offer this from babyhood/walking stage. It does involve some bashing of instruments at that age but also learning rhythm notation and do-re-mi etc, which have made it fairly simple to graduate onto instruments because they already have vocabulary that mean music teachers can commicate concepts to them at a really young age.

1 of mine went to Kodaly lessons from 3 months, another from birth (with older DC), and am in the process of signing the third up for a walking+ class in my new local area. If you're remotely urban there will probably be something available near you; he's most certainly not too young!

In my experience noteventhebestdrummer is absolutely spot on about personality, whether or not you go down the Suzuki route. Even the very best teachers wont be the best teacher for every child, so be prepared to adjust plans if neccessary. Your som sounds lovely

OP - personally, (2 muso's -pre March- here too)I would at this stage just play loads of different styles of music around the house, and encourage pulse and pitch. Our DC learnt to read music very easily and quickly, very naturally, so I would't worry about developing that yet.

I would encourage making tunes up, and writing songs with him, and improvising. Then he will decide what type of music he enjoys best, and learn an appropriate instrument.

I wouldn't bother with music groups - you can do all that at home for free!

I think a naturally musical child with learn an instrument very quickly, so there's no need to start an instrument too early. But a love of music - never too young!
Good luck.