What Age should my child start piano lessons?

​A very common question that parents ask is what age should my child start learning piano? 
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There is much discussion amongst teachers about this topic. Some like to start children very young – 3 or 4 years old. Others say 5 or 6 years old. And others say not before 7 or 8. Who is correct? Well, there is not one right answer. Everything comes back to the child. So, I’ll try and give a summary of what teachers say.

Age 3-4
Some teachers start teaching piano to children who are 3-4.
There is necessarily a lot of focus on musical appreciation, musical activities and musical games. These might include moving in time to the music, using hands and feet in time with the music, tapping the beat with a percussive instrument, singing, learning some basic pieces from memory. Students can learn finger numbers, piano alphabets and finding the keys.
These activities are often undertaken in a class group of 3-4 students. Parent involvement is a must in that they need to attend the class/lesson, and parents need to spend time at home going over what has been done in class.
Some main drawbacks of formal piano lessons at this age are: development of hand dexterity will limit what can be played comfortably; hand strength and co-ordination are not usually adequate; the length of attention span is often short, but this can vary a lot between children; inability to read and this can also vary between children.
Age 5-6
 A lot more teachers are happy to start teaching piano to children in this age range. 6 is often more preferred than 5. Musical activities can take up more of individual lesson time than formal learning because attention span can still be limited, and the size of the hand and hand dexterity can limit what can be played.
By this age students have usually developed a basic understanding of reading and counting. Some 5 years olds can learn to read music before learning to read words.
Students will still need a lot of parental involvement. It is very important for parents to attend lessons and to actively supervise practice at home.

Age 7-8
This is the preferred age for piano lessons to start for many teachers. Hands are bigger and dexterity is developing.
By this age, students are usually reading well, basic maths are understood, the difference between right and left is known, and homework tasks are usually managed well. Concentration ability has increased.
Ideally, parental involvement will still supervise practice at home, and make sure the student is practising what is required. Some students really benefit from this help at home. It is good if the parent sits in on the lesson at least once a term to know how to help the student.
 
Age 9-11
This is also a great age to start learning piano. These students generally progress quickly. The main drawback at this age is that habit patterns have not developed from a younger age. Having said that, a keen student will want to put time and effort in. 

What about those 3 year olds on YouTube who play very advanced pieces?
Yes, what about them? They look great and we are all amazed at what we see or hear. They are obviously very talented. They must practice for hours. They usually can’t read the music, so all that they are playing is learned from memory. When it comes time for them to learn to read music, they often find it very difficult because they are used to soaring when they play. To be honest, I would not want that for my child.

Summary
I prefer to start students when they are 7 or 8. I will consider teaching 5 or 6 year olds with conditions: The child should display a high level of interest; a parent would have to sit in on every lesson; and, commit to a high level of supervision at home during the week.

I have observed many talented children over the years who did not begin at 3 or 4 or 5. They started at 7 or 8 and progressed quite quickly until they ‘reached their level’. Of course, the higher the level that a child is able to play, the more hours are required to maintain that level. I don’t think it’s good for a 7 or 8 year old to be practicing for an hour a day unless it is within them to do so.

I know of a very talented child who started at 11, and 6 months later did a Grade 3 exam. That doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen. Just because a child has not started young does not mean all is lost. As they grow, their capacity to learn also grows, and they are able to make up for lost time. But even then, for them to continue to progress, more practice is required. That same 11 year old was doing Grade 7 by year 10 but did not have the required self-discipline or patience to practice for that level.

As a child grows in age and ability, the question then to be asked is how long should a teenager practice? If a student is sitting at the piano and fiddling, and working out songs that they like, and adding chords to the songs, it doesn’t feel like practice. They can often sit there for hours because they are engaged in what they are doing. But if the practice involves a higher level of classical piano, like Grade 6, 7 or 8, much more is required. A much more strategized practice routine is required together with a high level of self-discipline. In today’s digital world, students often have many other things on which they prefer to focus.

Many parents prefer to hold their children back from school, and send them when they have turned 6, rather than 5. Many of these arguments will also apply to learning piano. If a child is advanced in musical ability, it does not necessarily correlate to the ability to practice with the attention to detail to obtain the skills and technique required for a higher level of piano.

Perhaps as a student progresses, a balance can be sought by having a range of pieces on the go at any one time – a few easier pieces, an intermediate piece, and a more difficult one. It is good for sight reading to be learning new pieces constantly and it can also be good to be working on something challenging without being totally overwhelmed with everything being challenging.