How do I know if my child is ready for structured musical instruction?
This is such a fundamental and frequently asked question that we have dedicated a special page to the answer:
There is no short easy answer. Every child and every beginning musician is DIFFERENT. We have had three and a half year olds do wonderfully in their lessons - exhibiting good attention, comprehension, and fine motor skills. While we have had much older children have challenges with motor skills, attentiveness, and comprehension. In our experience, there is only one way to determine whether a child is "ready" or can "handle" structured music lessons - we give it a shot. There is no better way to discover the readiness or the ability of any child to have a progressive, enjoyable experience in their initial musical instruction.
Open and Free-flowing communication with parents is crucial. The start of music instruction is an EXPLORATION. Every child excels at different things and at different rates- sports, music, art, dance, martial arts. Not every child excels at music over other activities. Discovering what a child connects well with and even excels in is a process of experimentation. Our instructors are committed to helping parents discover areas that their child may excel and connect with - even if it means that music may not be the most successful activity for a child. Our focus is discovering what is possible for the child and partnering with the parent in that process of discovery.
Sometimes it may be better to wait a while. To that end, we at the Laurel School of Music make sure that the initial musical instruction experience given to every young musician is positive, enjoyable and even fun. No child should feel that they have come up short or have failed if they have initial difficulty in processing and executing the musical learning process. It is of utmost importance to us that if it appears that a musician perhaps should wait until a future time to resume instruction, that they do so WITHOUT the feeling of having failed. Noone fails - everyone has their own schedule for accepting and successfully processing musical instruction.
Our style of instruction makes the start of lessons as successful as possible. Our instructors focus on the rhythm and personality of the young child, rather than a classic musical agenda. We know that every child learns at a different rate and accepts information in different ways. Our MOST IMPORTANT task is to understand the child and make sure WE ADJUST to what seems the best way to present instruction to each INDIVIDUAL child. All instructors at Laurel School of Music continually learn from our students and from each other in collecting a grand variety of instructional approaches. We believe each instructor must learn to adjust to the many varieties of student personalities, abilities, and learning proceeses, rather than force the many individual students to all conform to one specific instructional style.
We always look for an alternative. Just because a student may have difficulty in processing and comprehending the theory and motor skillsof a certain instrument, it does not mean that the young musician is a musical failure.
The BEST example of this philosophy is the following actual situation:
There was a young beginning musician who started with drum lessons (the student's sister was taking piano lessons). The beginning musician struggled in the initial drum lessons - hearing the beat and executing a drum stroke in rhythm to the beat was extremely challenging. After 2 months, the instructor had an open consultation with the student's parents. The instructor suggested that the next lesson would be an "instrument exploration lesson", where the young musician would have the opportunity to explore other instruments - piano, trumpet, strings.
It was decided that the young musician would spend a month "trying" piano instruction. Wonderfully and interestingly enough, the young beginner musician excelled at piano. The obvious lesson is that if a young beginning musican is extremely challenged in one specific musical instrument, it DOES NOT MEAN FAILURE in the entire world of music. We at the School encourage the exploration of the many instruments in the wide and wonderful world of music.
There is no short easy answer. Every child and every beginning musician is DIFFERENT. We have had three and a half year olds do wonderfully in their lessons - exhibiting good attention, comprehension, and fine motor skills. While we have had much older children have challenges with motor skills, attentiveness, and comprehension. In our experience, there is only one way to determine whether a child is "ready" or can "handle" structured music lessons - we give it a shot. There is no better way to discover the readiness or the ability of any child to have a progressive, enjoyable experience in their initial musical instruction.
Open and Free-flowing communication with parents is crucial. The start of music instruction is an EXPLORATION. Every child excels at different things and at different rates- sports, music, art, dance, martial arts. Not every child excels at music over other activities. Discovering what a child connects well with and even excels in is a process of experimentation. Our instructors are committed to helping parents discover areas that their child may excel and connect with - even if it means that music may not be the most successful activity for a child. Our focus is discovering what is possible for the child and partnering with the parent in that process of discovery.
Sometimes it may be better to wait a while. To that end, we at the Laurel School of Music make sure that the initial musical instruction experience given to every young musician is positive, enjoyable and even fun. No child should feel that they have come up short or have failed if they have initial difficulty in processing and executing the musical learning process. It is of utmost importance to us that if it appears that a musician perhaps should wait until a future time to resume instruction, that they do so WITHOUT the feeling of having failed. Noone fails - everyone has their own schedule for accepting and successfully processing musical instruction.
Our style of instruction makes the start of lessons as successful as possible. Our instructors focus on the rhythm and personality of the young child, rather than a classic musical agenda. We know that every child learns at a different rate and accepts information in different ways. Our MOST IMPORTANT task is to understand the child and make sure WE ADJUST to what seems the best way to present instruction to each INDIVIDUAL child. All instructors at Laurel School of Music continually learn from our students and from each other in collecting a grand variety of instructional approaches. We believe each instructor must learn to adjust to the many varieties of student personalities, abilities, and learning proceeses, rather than force the many individual students to all conform to one specific instructional style.
We always look for an alternative. Just because a student may have difficulty in processing and comprehending the theory and motor skillsof a certain instrument, it does not mean that the young musician is a musical failure.
The BEST example of this philosophy is the following actual situation:
There was a young beginning musician who started with drum lessons (the student's sister was taking piano lessons). The beginning musician struggled in the initial drum lessons - hearing the beat and executing a drum stroke in rhythm to the beat was extremely challenging. After 2 months, the instructor had an open consultation with the student's parents. The instructor suggested that the next lesson would be an "instrument exploration lesson", where the young musician would have the opportunity to explore other instruments - piano, trumpet, strings.
It was decided that the young musician would spend a month "trying" piano instruction. Wonderfully and interestingly enough, the young beginner musician excelled at piano. The obvious lesson is that if a young beginning musican is extremely challenged in one specific musical instrument, it DOES NOT MEAN FAILURE in the entire world of music. We at the School encourage the exploration of the many instruments in the wide and wonderful world of music.