I personally don't take anyone under the age of seven. Is that a reasonable age to begin learning piano? I'd be interested to hear of good and bad experiences if you've taught children who were younger than seven.

Thanks,

Hammer Action

People on here know by now that I often teach young children and really enjoy it. I always say to parents that the only way to find out if the child is 'ready' for lessons is to let them have a few lessons as a trial period. At the moment I'm teaching a 5 year old boy who is doing very well, is able to concentrate for 30 mins and seems absolutely fine with 'proper' lessons. With others of that age, the lesson has to be made up of different kinds of activities and so is more of a musical awareness lesson than a piano lesson. But as long as the child is happy and gets enjoyment from the lessons, then I'm quite happy to teach them!

Well, I started playing the piano on my 4th birthday and it was the best thing I ever begged my parents to let me do!

I think it completely depends on the child, as every one develops differently depending on school and home environment, parental attitudes, other activities going on, exposure to a different experiences from an early age, cognitive development, spacial awareness, reading level ... all sorts of things!

My youngest student at the moment is 5 and he is very capable, enthusiastic and is very bright - which are all important things. Last year, I started with two 6 year old students, both almost exactly the same age and both started in the same September; it is extremely interesting for me to see how they cope with new concepts and their progress is vastly different. They could almost be used as a case study! (in a good way - I'm very interesting in psychology and how a child's upbringing and early experiences affect and form their attitudes and development)

So I don't have a 'cut off' age for starting - I say that I'll chat to the parent and meet the child (without charge) and assess whether I feel that they would benefit from lessons. In fact, I believe that all children can benefit from music lessons, but I explain that music lessons and piano lessons are 2 different things.

Personally I think that if you put a limit at 7, you could be missing out on some very enthusiastic and rewarding children who are 5 or 6 years old.

Same here. I really don't think there is any one age that is right - it varies with each individual child. 7 seems to be a good age for quite a number of children - but equally there are others who are capable of starting earlier.

I've had a good few 6 year olds who've made a good start and have gone on to make good progress.
I've also started 8 year olds who've not really been ready for one-to-one lessons.

Like Cadence I don't have a cut-off point - I will usually 'interview' and assess before deciding.

I used to have an age limit of about 7 for piano students (mainly after teaching one young boy who wasn't really ready to learn, which put me off). But a few years ago school asked me to teach some year ones (ages 5 to 6 I think) and I've found it really enjoyable. I don't know if it helps that I teach them as part of the school day so they're in a learning state of mind and not too tired.

I'd agree it depends on the individual child. I also think it helps to keep lessons shorter than for older students. At school I give the younger ones 20 minutes which seems about right for concentration etc...


Me too although I was five

With others of that age, the lesson has to be made up of different kinds of activities and so is more of a musical awareness lesson than a piano lesson. But as long as the child is happy and gets enjoyment from the lessons, then I'm quite happy to teach them!
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I totally agree! I teach 3 four year old boys at the moment, as well as 5, 6 and 7 year olds. All have mixed lessons involving some piano playing, some aural work, drums, glockenspiel, clapping, singing, and so on. All great fun, but total time at the piano probably doesn't exceed 5 out of a 30 minute lesson.

I started when I was 3 1/2 on 15 minutes a lesson.

I've also started young children, age 4 or 5, very often on 15 minutes a lesson, moving up to 20 minutes soon after, depending on the individual child's ability to concentrate. I start with piano as about 5 minutes and other activities taking about 5 minutes each. I've noticed that there's a natural progression to cutting out the other activities in favour of more time at the piano and am guided by the pupil.

I'm not sure that there is really much to be gained in terms of overall progress in the average early starter, as compared with some-one who begins at the age of 8, or 9 but I think younger starters often benefit because they learn to read music more naturally, maybe because they are learning to read (books) at the same time. Certainly it has put me at a disadvantage in teaching because I feel I have always been able to read music - I don't remember not doing it - so I have almost had to learn why people find it hard.

I think it all depends on the child and on the kind of age group the teacher feels happy teaching. I agree in particular with Hannah74 about varying activities.

I'm quite lucky in that the association I work for enrolls young children for a nursery class which gives me a chance to work with them for a year on songs, percussion, etc and allows me to see how they develop. But there is no hard and fast age rule and I have five and six year olds in the nursery class and others of the same age in piano or recorder lessons.

Children who participate in musical activities from a young age seem - at least in my experience - to stick with music. I have had some who after a year in the nursery class have given up, but not many.

Several parents of the nursery class are already asking about what their children should do next year. Some have expressed a wish to start piano, some want to do recorder and some want another year of general activities. It will all depend on the timetable and the new inscriptions in September. But I will certainly take children for piano from the age of five - though as other posters have said, you do need to vary the activities.

I'm going to plug the Lina Ng books for these very young beginners. Mine like them, including the theory books. some of the tunes are too long for small children but at that age you can take things in two or four bar phrases. They don't have to rush through the book.

The only disadvatage of teaching these very young ones is the amount of time you really need to spend finding or inventing "personalised" teaching materials for them. You really do have to have a clear idea of what you are going to do each lesson - and they need lots of repetition.