What age should my child start piano lessons?

It use to be that the recommended age for a child to start piano lessons was around 5 or 6. It needed to be an age where they were able to sit, listen attentively, and look at a music book for half an hour. Well, thanks to Music for Young Children, those days are gone. Now a child can start to learn the piano at the tender age of 3. We call these little guys “Sunshines”. Sunshines get to meet some very nice critters who live on the piano/keyboard.  They meet Dino the Dinosaur who lives in the dinosaur den, and they meet Fireman Fred who lives near the Fire Hall. These little Sunshines are making music with their friends in their very first lesson.

No longer does your child need to be able to read left to right before starting piano lessons. Instead, Music for Young Children teaches them to read left to right, and helps them get ready for kindergarten. No longer does you child need to sit on a piano bench for a half-hour. Instead, Music for Young Children lets your child explore the wonderful world of learning music with creative movement, rhythm instruments and singing.

The Music for Young Children program is celebrating 30 years this year. MYC  is taught all over the world. You can find a teacher near you at www.myc.com.

How far did you go with your piano lessons?

Boy, times have changed! I don’t recall a lot of exciting times at my music lessons while I was growing up.  How about you? Did you take music lessons? Did you continue? Did you enjoy them?

A very high percentage of people are going to say they took music lessons for a few years and then quit. Why did you quit? The majority will say the process was difficult and boring. It continued to get more challenging and you didn’t have the motivation to keep at it.

Today children can learn music in a very different way. This CBC news video of a Music for Young Children class in Summerside, PEI, Canada, is a good example of how kids are learning today. http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/PEI/ID=1430244648

OK, so get this. This video is level 1 students as young as 3 and 4 years old learning music and piano. Each year these kids move up the ranks of the MYC curriculum and around age 8 and 9 they reach the top level and graduate with Grade 1 piano and Preliminary Rudiments! This is highly unusual unless you are a Music for Young Children student!  Visit www.myc.com for more information.

Your comments are welcome. Let me know what you think!  Susan