As with most aspects of child rearing, everyone has their opinion on this point, and there are various different approaches. However, I believe it is often (never say always!) better to wait until the child is at least 7 before contemplating an instrument.Here are my reasons:
- Fine motor skills: - Little children often have not developed the fine motor skills necessary to manipulate their instruments. In some cases, they are just physically too small to hold or play them properly. We know a little boy who has a saxophone that looks bigger than he is. He has to rest it on the case to play it. It doesn't look very comfy. I heard about another four year-old girl who desperately wanted to learn the recorder, but quickly became very frustrated because her little fingers wouldn't cooperate.
- The discipline of practice: - To stay with the lessons and practices over the long term requires a certain level of maturity.
- Musicianship: - Younger children are not likely to have the musicianship skills that can really help when learning an instrument. Unless they have good pitch, for example, they may not realise when they hit a wrong note.
Once they learn to keep the beat and sing in tune, other musical concepts are introduced. After years of Do Re Mi classes, 7 year-olds are able to sight-read simple tunes on the stave. By this time they are ready to sail easily into learning an instrument. Because they are so familiar with musical notation and other musical concepts, they can concentrate more on learning how to operate the instrument they choose.
The first instruments we introduce to children in classes are percussion instruments, both tuned and un-tuned. These are satisfying for little children because they are able capable of playing them well.
Image: 'Vintage Postcard ~ Girl Playing Harp'
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