Learning music is fun. I’ve seen people of all ages take up a new instrument. A frequent question that comes up is does age matter. On one hand you’re never too old to learn something new, but what about the younger ones? What is a good age to take up music?
I applaud parents for encouraging their children to learn to play a new instrument. I love getting referrals, and parents will ask me if I’ll take on their child as a student. My first question is, how old are they?
Music instructors differ on what is an appropriate age to start taking music lessons. You have to factor in the instrument difficulty and learning curve; and how much free time do the students and parents have available.
I took piano lessons at age five. I don’t remember much, except the emphasis my teacher, and parents, put on practice. At that age I wasn’t going to practice on my own. My parents obviously supported me, but made sure I practiced.
The reason I put so much importance on practice is because that is the time during the week where a student will encounter their instrument the most. Music is a powerful emotion and practice time is when a student really bonds with their instrument and the music they are learning.
If students only play their instrument during their lesson, they can get easily discouraged because of the lack of time they play their instrument. It will also take longer to learn how to play which is also frustrating.
With that said, what is a good age for a child to begin taking music lessons? If the child and parent both have the available free time, then around the age of seven.
The younger the student is, the more involved the parent needs to be in actively participating with the student's daily practice time, and not just ask, “hey did you practice?” I also encourage parents of younger students around that age to be as much part of the weekly music lesson as possible so they know exactly whats going on.
It is possible for a child to learn as young as five, but then we run into attention span issues. It takes great dedication by the parent to be actively involved during the lesson and practice time with younger students.
I have to brag on my niece, Brooklyn. She’s been aching to learn to play the piano and ukulele (not to mention she loves to sing). She’s five going on six, almost at that ripe age of learning. As soon as she turns seven then it’s game on. If you’re child is slowly approaching the seven or eight age mark, they may be ready to starting learning music.