Kids.Music: Bringing Out The Best of Children’s Musical Talent (1)

You realize that your child has developed a keen interest in music. The question is “When shall your child start music lessons?”

According to studies at the University of California, children who started music lessons at age 3 experience increase in brainpower. In fact, this is the age when the brain circuits for learning music mature. Further to this, many prolific musicians and composers started their music lessons at a very young age, some as young as 2 years old. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself, one of the most prolific composers of the Classical Era started playing the piano at age 4.

Many piano teachers have a different perspective though. They suggest that it will be better for the children to start music lessons at age 5 because by then, their hands are bigger and they are more capable in sitting still and concentrating on the lessons.

However, what’s more important is that your child enjoys music and playing musical instrument. Nothing beats the musical passion your child possesses when it comes to developing their music skills and getting the best out of the music lessons.

The next question that may come across your mind is “Which instrument to start with?” Many recommended the piano because piano skills are easier to grasp than those of guitar or violin. This is due to its less tricky finger movements.

You can also opt to send your child to early music programmes, which are easy to come by nowadays. These programmes focus on fostering a love of music, rhythm and self-expression, thus developing music appreciation in your child which can be very useful when your child picks up a musical instrument later on.

All in all, whether it is formal music lessons or music appreciation lessons, your child will benefit tremendously from the music exposure, which has been discussed in "Kids.Music:Let’s Have Fun While Growing Up".

Up next - how to get the best out of the music lessons? What are the best practices? The strategies will be revealed in our upcoming article “Kids.Music:Bringing Out The Best of Children’s Musical Talent (2)”.

Till then, enjoy the music and happy World Music Day (falls on 21 June 2013).