Is Your Four Year Old Ready to Play The Piano?

Your four year old is singing along with Sesame Street, they know their A, B, C's, and they make up their own song on their "Playskool" keyboard. They show all the potential to being a budding genius, it's only natural you want them to start piano lessons. You begin to imagine them playing a concerto at 5 and writing songs at 6 and people flocking to see your little phenom, but let me take a minute and explain why your toddler, may NOT be ready for piano.

Learning the piano is much more than intellectual--memorizing notes and keys, it is also physical--dexterity and strength of the hands. The first few years of life, children tend to keep their hands in a fist and opening and spreading their hands apart comes about the age of 4. Your child may be able to recite the alphabet, but they may not be able to write it. They might be able to throw a ball, but they may not be able to catch it. To play piano you must be able to do two things and that's just in the beginning.

Consider the attention span and memorization ability of your average 3.5 year old. Sure they know where their favorite glass is and they remember you told them you would take them to McDonald's on Saturday, but how many times to you have to tell them to pick up their toys.  This same kind of thing happens with the piano at a young age.  A toddler can remember and recite the keys, but not where the key is located. Some can even read and remember a note on a page, but again have trouble locating the key on the piano. This is a hard concept that adults have trouble mastering.

Many parents think that playing the piano is like reading a book. It is much more like learning to type. You read the information on the paper, translate it to a key on the typewriter and type it. Many adults can relate to this parody now, because of computers. There is a lot of going on with your brain and your coordination to make everything work. Now imagine your 4 your old child learning to type?

Besides memorization and dexterity, there are a lot of concepts on the piano that toddlers can not comprehend, such as up and down the piano, left and right. Most have the inability to recognize patterns, such as two black keys, then three black keys. For an example, you can show them a picture of a square and they know what it is, and can tell you what it is every time you show them the picture but asking them to show you a square object in your house is a whole different matter.

Between 5 and 10 years of age, children's understanding of the need to use strategic effort in order to learn becomes increasingly sophisticated and their ability to talk about and reflect on learning continues to grow. A child at the age of 7 will learn twice as fast as a 3 -5 year old, mostly in part to the ability to retain information. If you insist on your 5 year old learning the piano, please know that the progress will be extremely slow and it will take them two years to learn what a 7 year old would learn in the first year. Also, know that you will need to learn the piano, too, so that you can tutor them at home and repeat what the piano teacher taught them that week. Otherwise, everything will be forgotten and the piano teacher will have to start from the beginning all over again. A child can leave the lesson thoroughly, understanding and playing a song and then if that lessons is not reinforced at home, they will come to the lesson the following week and not be able to locate middle C.

All in all saving your money towards future piano lessons or enrolling your child in a Kindermusik class is a wise financial choice. Although I do not teach Kindermusik or am I affiliated with them, for a toddler, Kindermusik, or a program like it, is a better choice to give them a solid background in music and prepare them for an instrument.

Mary Jo, a Kindermusik Teacher says, “ In a program such as Kindermusik, the basic concepts of music are learned and felt; high and low, long and short, and by the time they are older, notes and durations. The children come into contact with lots of different instruments and styles of music, and learn about steady beats and the rhythms of the world. And they do it in a social setting with the parents. Piano playing can be a very solitary undertaking. None of the time spent in the Pre-specific-instrument classes is wasted. All if it is brought to the lessons, when a child begins wanting a specific instrument to learn. I was surprised when I began teaching a 5 and 6 year old piano, that the concept of higher sound and note and lower sounds and notes were really a challenge for them to understand, even using Music Tree. Right and left can be new too, and of course, reaching the keys. They tend to stand in front of the piano to go up and down the keyboard.”

There is always exceptions to the rules and if after reading this you still feel that your child is an exception and is ready for piano,  find a  piano teacher that will make sure your child is not becoming frustrated. As soon as frustration sets in, then their desire to learn will always be clouded with this early experience.

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