What age should a child start piano lessons?

Quite often, I get the question, “What is the right age to start piano lessons?” The real answer is that it depends on the child, but I have two questions to help you determine if your child is ready to start regular piano lessons.

First of all, is your child reading? While there are, of course, exceptions, I have found that the ability to read is a strong factor in determining the success of the young student. It isn’t just that the student will have the ability to glean the information from the lesson books. Learning to read is one of the biggest hurdles in the life of most young children. It is my opinion that the work and effort that goes into learning to read and the resulting success and pride of accomplishing this goal sets a child up for success in other areas of life. 

Secondly, can your child sit (relatively) still for a half hour at a time? While it is unreasonable to expect a small child to stay 100% focused for a half hour, they should be able to stay engaged for the majority of a half hour lesson. If your child is only going to get a productive ten minutes out of the lesson, you have to ask yourself if it is really worth the money? Now, you might ask, “Why don’t piano teachers offer 15 minute lessons for the younger students?” There might be someone out there doing that, but from what I’ve seen, 30 minute lessons are the norm. And while no one becomes a piano teacher to get rich, we still have to make a living. 15 minute lessons would create gaps in our schedule that would be difficult to fill. If money isn’t an issue, I’m sure most piano teachers would be fine with you paying for a 30 minute lesson with the understanding that you might only get 10-15 minutes of instruction in. Otherwise, there are music programs designed for younger children, such as Kindermusik, which combines movement and games with musical instruction tailored to children as young as infants.

When we think about a young child starting piano lessons, (think around ages 5-6) I think one of the primary goals should be to foster a love of music. If you take your typical child and start them at age 5, and another child starting at age 7, they will be roughly in the same place by age 8 in terms of knowledge and ability. So the most important thing we can do is make piano lessons fun and engaging with a positive environment. Fostering a love of music at a young age will set your child on a lifelong path of enrichment even if they never pursue music professionally.