What Age to Start Music Lessons

  I've been Teaching Guitar for over ten years now and for six of those year have owned / operated my own studio, The School of Music. Every day, we get calls from parents wanting to set up music lessons for their children. And a least once a week, the parent of a very young child will ask, "At what age do most kids start playing an intrument?". "Well...", we'll say, "......6 years old is a good starting point, but it really depends on the kid.....". Let me explain.

  The biggest issue I've noticed with teaching very young children (3-5 years old) an instrument like Guitar, is that most of them have a hard time focusing for more than a few minutes. Since most Music Lessons are 30-60 minutes long, it can be a real challenge for a 4 year old to sit still for a half hour and focus on their instrument. The same problem often continues when they get home and have to practice every night (which is really important).

  The other big stumbling block for teaching young kids an instrument, is communication. While the schools are teaching  kids to read and write at a younger age these days, many preschoolers cannot reasonably understand much of what needs to be taught in a music lesson. Things such as note/letter names and counting are crucial to understanding any musical instrument. So, if the child hasn't learned his or her ABC's yet, learning a G chord won't have a lot of significance.

  So, with that in mind,  it does really come down to each individual child. What I usually do at my studio, is try a single lesson so that the teacher and parents can evaluate how things look in terms of potential progress. If we think the child can sit still for 20-30 minutes and understand some of the basic concepts, than it's a safe bet that things can progress very nicely. If not, it's no big deal. There's nothing wrong with waiting a year and trying it again later on.

  In conclusion, Music Lessons for young children are wonderful (ok, yes I know I am biased). And while the idea of having one's 3 year old blazing through a Bach Invention on the Piano sounds thrilling to most parents, it's not very realistic. Actually, that's difficult teens and adults! I think a better, more optimal approach is to introduce children to an instrument around the age of 6 and really have the parents involved. There's nothing better than sitting in on the lesson and really finding out what your child needs to practice each night and how to do it. In many cases, you may learn just as much about music as your kid!

 Tune in next week for the next installment of Have Guitar Will Travel.