photo credit: edenpictures
When I started piano lessons, I was ancient compared to so many other kids. I was 10, soon to be 11. My mom actually planned to enroll me in lessons earlier, but thankfully, she decided to wait until a slot opened up with an excellent teacher instead of starting me with just anyone. I’m so grateful my teacher was positive and inspiring. She made me want to continue learning the piano and helped shape me into the positive, inspiring teacher I am today.
We hear stories all the time of extremely young children music prodigies. Check out this YouTube video I came across. While I can’t agree with the title, “Amazing: Four Year Old Boy Plays Better than Most Professionals!” (with hands and fingers that small, you just don’t have the technical capacity that a professional does), I am certainly very impressed!
We are often asked, “At what age is my child old enough to begin lessons?” I’m going to share my thoughts on starting piano lessons in particular since I strongly suggest beginning your musical foundation with piano lessons. See this blog post if you are considering learning another instrument first.
While there can always be exceptions, we haven’t given a full 30 minute lesson to any student younger than age four. We’ve worked with many students younger than that who have thrived taking a 15 minute lesson or just borrowing a few minutes from their older sibling’s lesson time. I personally LOVE teaching the extremely young students and being the one to give them their first exposure to music lessons.
In my opinion, your young child is ready for piano lessons if the following is true:
- They express an interest in music.
This is absolutely key. If your son or daughter already loves music and feels excited to learn, they will do great in piano lessons. If they are not showing interest just yet, don’t worry. There’s plenty of time for them to begin lessons later down the road after their interest in music has been heightened.
- They can count to 5 and know their alphabet A-G and can recognize the written version of those numbers and letters
To play the piano, you must be able to read the fingerings, or the number that tells you which finger to play. If you can count to 5 and recognize the numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, you’re good to go.
Also, the musical notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. If a young child can say at least this portion of their alphabet and recognize these letters, that’s all they really need.
A number of music teachers believe that children should know how to read in order to take lessons. Although, that doesn’t hurt, I’ve worked with so many young students who can’t yet read, and do beautifully in their lessons.
- They have enough patience to sit through a lesson and listen to their teacher
If your child has a long enough attention span to do this, they will do very well in a lesson. If you can’t get them to sit still for more than a few minutes, they are probably too young to start just yet.
Many young children are intrigued watching their older siblings take lessons and practice. Rather than giving them their own lesson, we’ll start by giving them just a few minutes (often 1-2 minutes) of their older sibling’s lesson time. If things go well, we’ll increase that time to 5 minutes. Eventually they be ready for a 15 minute lesson and at some point a 30 minute lesson.
If you are unsure whether it’s the right time for your child to begin their piano lessons, don’t hesitate to contact us, and we’ll gladly share our professional opinion.
Now I want to hear from you! Did you start your young child on piano lessons? What did you look for to know that they were ready for lessons? Leave a comment below and share your feedback. “Like us” on Facebook, and subscribe to the newsletter for more great resources to help you make the most of your music lessons with us. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you soon!
Sincerely,
Cassie
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Cassie,
Again a valuable blogpost! I too marveled at and enjoyed the video of Richard Hoffmann. Just out of curiosity: what is your opinion on all the extra movement in his upper body? I am always anxious to use the greater muscles while playing, as too often they are misused and take over the initiative from the fingers.
As for your topic of today: recently I started giving lessons to a four-year old, she has turned five about a month ago. It is really a joy to see her grow, playing “older songs” from memory ever so easier, even when we have not looked at them in the lesson. You are absolutely right in your criteria, I especially agree with your last remark about the patience to sit through a lesson. What is funny though, is the experience I had with this little girl and her parents. Both of them have not had the opportunity to take pianolessons, so they “tag along” in the lessons. As a result of this, we increased the lesson time from twenty to thirty minutes, and spend the last ten or five minutes on instruction for her parents. Both mother and father really appreciate this, but it wears on their daughter’s patience. Even so, she always comes and leaves smiling. It does help when we distract her a little when I am talking to or instructing the parents.
Cassie,
I’d love to hear from you as well. I started at age 13 on an organ and it certainly did me no harm at all. Now I did not have the weighted 88 keys you so love but less and “non-weighted” and, as I say, it did me no harm. I learned to read music quite well indeed. I played for years and years on any instrument I could find, piano, organ, keyboard, etc.