This is a question I hear a lot. "My child is X years old, is that too young to start?"
Or, "S/he doesn't like kids I guess" (because a teacher has refused a student due to age).
Though most teachers (myself included) have some sort of a basic policy about students' ages, that doesn't mean there's any kind of a hard-and-fast rule that everyone agrees on. The fact is that all kids develop differently and at different rates - physically, intellectually, and emotionally.
Here are some of the questions that may go into deciding whether a child is "too young" to start lessons:
PHYSICAL:
How's their hand-eye coordination? Are their fine motor skills adequate for the chosen instrument?
Are their hands big enough? Will their feet reach the pedals on a piano? Can their arm reach all seven positions on a trombone slide?
Do they have the muscle strength needed for a bowed string instrument like violin or cello?
How about the lung capacity for a wind instrument?
And if it's a brass instrument (for which some pressure on the lips is needed to make a proper seal with the mouthpiece), have all of their permanent teeth finished coming in? (And maybe also consider whether they're slated for braces soon - ouch!)
INTELLECTUAL:
What's their attention span like? Can they stay focused one one thing for the full length of a lesson?
Where are their abstract thinking skills at? Some aspects of music require math - for instance, the ability to think about lengths of time, and halves and quarters of lengths of time.
What's their reading level? Can I write down reminders about things we went over, or a practice plan for the week, and know that the student will understand it? Or will instructions have to go through a parent or other adult (who would then need to be present for each lesson in order to understand them)?
How's their memory - short term and long term? Learning an instrument depends on making regular incremental progress from week to week; if every lesson is like starting all over again, learning is stalled right out of the gate.
EMOTIONAL:
How are they at doing quiet things - sitting and working with their hands and mind, like reading or crafts - for any length of time?
How do they deal with the experience of trying and failing? With confusion or embarrassment? With being the focus of the undivided attention of an unrelated adult for 30 minutes straight?
And perhaps most importantly - do they want to learn the instrument? Does it motivate them? (Not all kids who like to twiddle on the piano are actually interested in learning to play "real" songs on it!)
These are just some of the things that go into deciding whether it's the right time to start a child on music lessons. I'm sure other teachers could add more... and I'm sure I'll think of something that I forgot as soon as I hit the "Publish" button. ;) But it's a good start at explaining how this decision process works.
If you're thinking about music lessons for your child, that's great! It can be a wonderful growing experience - and there's research out there that shows many benefits for kids who study music. Let's just make sure it's going to be a good experience rather than a frustrating one for everyone involved - including the child!
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Never Too Late: On Being A Grown-Up Beginner
One of my favorite books about teaching and learning music wasn't written by a music teacher or even by a professional musician, but by a passionate amateur musician. It's Never Too Late by educator John Holt.
You may remember Holt as a pioneer of the home-schooling movement, or for his groundbreaking books How Children Fail and How Children Learn. And one of the most interesting things about him is that he himself kept learning, and questioning the limits of learning, throughout his life.
In the early 1960's, at the ripe old age of forty, Holt did something that forty-ish folks really didn't do in those days: he decided to take up an instrument as an adult beginner. After first trying the flute, he eventually settled on the cello, which he continued playing with great love - if not, as he readily admitted, with great skill - until his death in the early eighties.
Holt's viewpoint was that learning is a process that should be intrinsically motivated, by desire and interest (not extrinsically, by rewards or test scores) and that assumptions about what we can or cannot do often get in the way. In Never Too Late, he memorably wrote:
"It is not our proper business as teachers... to make decisions and judgments about what people are or are not 'capable' of doing. It is our proper business, above all in music, to try to find ways to help people do what they want to do."
In my experience, most people who want to play an instrument really aren't looking to someday perform at Carnegie Hall. They want to play for their own enjoyment, or to stretch themselves with a new challenge, or to be able to participate in amateur music-making with family and friends.Where is there even room for a "can't" in there?
But most of those people never dare to actually try. I've lost track of how many adults I've met over the years who have told me wistfully about the guitar that's been sitting in their closet for decades, that they really do aim to learn to play "someday," or about how they always wished they'd learned the piano when they were young. "Why not now?" I ask, and they shake their heads in embarrassment, offering the disclaimer that they're obviously too old to learn now.
I'm reminded of one of the twiddles in the sidebars of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, which goes something like this:
"But do you know how old I'll be by the time I actually get to be any good at it?"
To which the answer is:
"Sure. Just as old as you'll be if you don't."
Life goes on, one way or another. You can either have a life with more music in it, with more learning and laughing and testing your boundaries, or you can have a life that doesn't include those things. Take your pick.
You may never get to Carnegie Hall, even if (as the old joke goes) you practice, practice, practice! But the music is no less sweet for that.
How good can you get, as an adult beginner? I don't know - and neither will you, unless you try.
Or, in the words of John Holt:
"Of course there are limits. But they are much further out than we think."
You may remember Holt as a pioneer of the home-schooling movement, or for his groundbreaking books How Children Fail and How Children Learn. And one of the most interesting things about him is that he himself kept learning, and questioning the limits of learning, throughout his life.
In the early 1960's, at the ripe old age of forty, Holt did something that forty-ish folks really didn't do in those days: he decided to take up an instrument as an adult beginner. After first trying the flute, he eventually settled on the cello, which he continued playing with great love - if not, as he readily admitted, with great skill - until his death in the early eighties.
Holt's viewpoint was that learning is a process that should be intrinsically motivated, by desire and interest (not extrinsically, by rewards or test scores) and that assumptions about what we can or cannot do often get in the way. In Never Too Late, he memorably wrote:
"It is not our proper business as teachers... to make decisions and judgments about what people are or are not 'capable' of doing. It is our proper business, above all in music, to try to find ways to help people do what they want to do."
In my experience, most people who want to play an instrument really aren't looking to someday perform at Carnegie Hall. They want to play for their own enjoyment, or to stretch themselves with a new challenge, or to be able to participate in amateur music-making with family and friends.Where is there even room for a "can't" in there?
But most of those people never dare to actually try. I've lost track of how many adults I've met over the years who have told me wistfully about the guitar that's been sitting in their closet for decades, that they really do aim to learn to play "someday," or about how they always wished they'd learned the piano when they were young. "Why not now?" I ask, and they shake their heads in embarrassment, offering the disclaimer that they're obviously too old to learn now.
I'm reminded of one of the twiddles in the sidebars of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, which goes something like this:
"But do you know how old I'll be by the time I actually get to be any good at it?"
To which the answer is:
"Sure. Just as old as you'll be if you don't."
Life goes on, one way or another. You can either have a life with more music in it, with more learning and laughing and testing your boundaries, or you can have a life that doesn't include those things. Take your pick.
You may never get to Carnegie Hall, even if (as the old joke goes) you practice, practice, practice! But the music is no less sweet for that.
How good can you get, as an adult beginner? I don't know - and neither will you, unless you try.
Or, in the words of John Holt:
"Of course there are limits. But they are much further out than we think."
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