What age can kids start to learn the flute?

[marialuisa]

DD is desperate to learn to play the flute. Does anyone know what age children normally start lessons?

DD2 started at 7, with a flute with a curved head (like this ) so she didn't have to stretch or droop too much. HTH

I know this one

It not the age that is important it the size of her hands and arms.

I know because my DD started learning at 7 and stopped at 8.5 She found holding it for length of time made her arms ache. Teacher said she would get used to it

Second DD wants to learn she is much bigger than first DD at 7 so I assumed she would be fine, new (excellent) music teacher says DD2 is a touch too small. I was shocked but would rather take the good advice and wait a bit rather than DD fining it too hard and giving up.

Talk to whoever you are thinking of taking lessons with they should be happy to check her size before and lessons are booked.

HTH

Good point bbm, DD2 was a very tall child!

I started at 10 personally, but could probably have done it at 8 or 9. You probably need to be less careful with the flute than other wind instruments, but the major fear with playing wind/brass instruments too early is that they can lead to mis-alignment/formation of the teeth and jaw.

Thank you-it seems she will have to wait then! School offers "tasters" of various instruments in Y2 but flute wasn't on the list, now I know why.

I started at 8, had no problems.

She may well be already doing this, but recorder is really good as an introduction to most woodwind instruments as the way the notes are formed (i.e. fingerings) are pretty similar. Then when she switches onto flute or another instrument in a few years time, she will already know the basics of fingering and reading music, and will just have the embouchure to cope with.

Ds1 started when he started Year 5 (he was just 9 years old then). He hasn't had any difficulties with it.

Our school offers flute from yr3, so aged about 8 onwards. Smaller children sometimes have the curved headjoint.

I agree with the comment about recorders, that is a wonderful introduction to woodwind and indeed instruments in general.

I insisted my children stuck to recorders for quite some time before getting a more expensive instrument - to test their aptitude and commitment before we started really forking out.

The result was that by the time no.1 started flute at age 12 and no. 2 sax at age 10, they could play recorder really really well and read music fluently. So when they started their woodwind instruments, they just made amazing progress because they had the basics already there.