When’s A Good Time To Start Your Kids On Music Lessons?
The short and flippant answer to the question would be today. And, of course for some people that would be a very sensible answer. I mean, there are some parents that start playing classical music to their kids while their still in the womb. The hope being, that it will make them better musicians once their born, and start taking lessons in earnest. That seems a little hard core to me, but to each his own. I personally believe, that taking formal music lessons before the age of five is a bit too much. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t start introducing your kids to music at a very young age. Kids are intuitively responsive to music form the day the start hearing I believe. It can affect their mood, and get them dancing and moving around the room. Or rolling and crawling on the floor, depending on their age.
Once they turn at least five years of age, and have the physical control to start learning an instrument, then I think they should start. It depends on the instrument to some degree as well. Our kids had a piano instructor, that wouldn’t start teaching piano to children until they were at least seven years old. She thought that prior to that, their fingers simply weren’t big enough to play all the keys. Speaking of pianos, you may be wondering what brand to get for your kids. Well, it doesn’t have to be the best of the best, like James Bond’s brand of watches. We had just an old piano that my father bought years ago. I think he traded in his test De Ville Co-Axial replica on it when he was younger. Not a bad decision in hindsight, considering all the use we’ve gotten out of the piano. Friends of ours also bought just a regular Yamaha electric piano when their kids started playing.
Personally I’m glad to have had all the music lessons I did as a kid. And I never had to sell my Co-Axial copy for a pair of drumsticks to get started. Drumming was something that was a big part of my life for a lot of years, and I must admit to missing the days I spent playing for hours. The nice thing about musical ability, is that it never truly leaves you forever. You can always pick it up later, and do something with it. I still harbor ideas of building a soundproof drum room in the basement, getting a nice kit, and starting playing again. Once of these days, I likely will.
