When Should My Child Start Private Lessons?

It's never too early for a child to begin learning the fundamentals of music (i.e. structure, dynamics, articulation and notation) and how to articulate musical thoughts; however, these basic skills are used, expanded and polished during one-on-one instruction rather than simply acquired. Spending hundreds of dollars on private lessons for your three, four or five year old to walk away with only basic musical skills he could or should be learning in kindergarten is a poor investment in my opinion unless you've spoken with a teacher who agrees your child demonstrates exceptional skill or ability.

Human growth and development tells us the cognitive skills necessary to process musical ideas effectively are not in place until a child is about 7 years old. This means that before then, your child is learning things primarily by rote and repetition, which is good for acquiring basic keyboard skills and learning to recognize music notation. Comparably, private voice lessons shouldn't be pursued until a child is at least eleven years old because of physiological developments that need to take place for vocal technique to work properly in a human voice that young. Again there are always excpetions, but they are very rare.

As an alternative to private lessons for your toddler, I highly recommend Kindermusik^®, Music Together^®, the Suzuki Method and preschool music classes. These programs give children an exploratory experience with music that capitalizes on their tactile orientation and thirst for variety.