When Should a Child Begin Piano Lessons?

There are several schools of thought regarding the proper age for achild to begin piano lessons. While opinions usually vary based on the particular teacher you ask, as the parent, you need to decide which age your child is ready to begin lessons and which teaching style is most appropriate. The method you choose can be more important than the age of your child, so do your research and choose wisely. Two key methods for teaching a child to play the piano are listed below:

Learning to Play by Patterns
Several rote methods – the most famous being the Suzuki system – teach children to play the piano by patterns, listening experiences, memorization and even color associations. These methods specifically target preschool-age child, although they can also be used to jump-start an older student’s experience in conjunction with the traditional notation system. The specifics of this method will be reviewed in future articles through the Learning Center for our Piano Software Review, including references to articles on our Learn Piano Online site.

Learning to Play by Reading Notation
Learning to read notation is the traditional method for learning piano that is most familiar to us. It consists of learning to read notes and other instructions designated by specific symbols on musical staff.

As a former piano teacher, I mainly used a traditional teaching method intermixed with various techniques from pattern systems for my lower-level students. I required my students to be in at least first grade in grammar school, or to be able to read at that grade level if they were homeschooled. I found that students learned more quickly and with more success if they had mastered a few non-musical skills before embarking on a course of piano lessons.

If you're wondering why, it's because reading musical notation requires several learning skills that need to be in place before a child can have a successful experience. The child must be able to recognize and differentiate between many types of symbols, including horizontal and vertical notation, and memorize the different types of symbols and their meaning, including being able to make decisions regarding their use based on spatial patterns. Students must also be able to visually assign numbers to their fingers and know how to use them to play particular notes, all while understanding that these notes have also been assigned letters from the musical alphabet. To a preschool-age child, these tasks would be daunting at best and traumatizing at worst.

Using traditional teaching methods for the study of piano, students who have basic reading skills and some simple mathematical knowledge are more mature, giving them better emotional tools to handle the stresses involved in developing a new, intricate skill that takes many years to master. Life can be stressful enough for children starting school, especially when we pile on our insistence that they learn to read and write. Waiting a couple of years after introduction to formal schooling and all that it encompasses, including educational, social and organizational skills, usually leads to more-successful musical endeavors than starting music lessons too early when children have seemingly large tasks to master at that time as well.

Most importantly, do your research as a parent. Talk to music stores, specialists and several teachers. This will help you decide what age and which methods are best for teaching your child to play the piano, and it will enhance your own musical experience too.

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