How do I know if my child is ready to start piano lessons?

Formal lessons can begin at around age 4 or 5 if the child is ready. If you can answer yes to these questions, your child is probably ready.

• Can your child count from 1-10 and recognize the written numbers?

• Can your child recite the alphabet and recognize the written letters A-G?

• Is your child beginning to differentiate right from left? Up from down?

• Is your child able to focus on one activity and/or sit still for 10 minutes at a time?

• Is your child expressing musicality (humming, singing, dancing, tapping rhythms)?

 

 

What are the benefits to starting lessons at a young age:

• Young children tend to persist at tasks until they get them right.
• Children who start young are more easily guided into routines for practice. Parents have more influence at this age than later.
• Dedication to study is more likely.
• Early in study a great deal of time must be spent on technical and conceptual skill development. Younger beginners tend to be more patient with this long process.
• Children who start young may be more likely to retain a lifelong love of music. They may decide to change instruments at some point, but they nonetheless retain an interest in playing music.
• Young beginners may benefit in their math skills. Studies have shown that preschoolers who take music lessons have increased spatial reasoning skills when they enter school.
• Children who start before age 5 are much more likely to develop perfect pitch. This is the ability to give an exact letter name to any note they hear, and to sing a pitch without an instrument as a reference.