When Is A Good Time To Start Music Lessons?

I’ll give you a hint – waiting until your child is old enough to attend private lessons by themselves (around 8-9 years old) is too late. So, when is a good time to start music lessons?  Is there an optimal age?

Yes! There is definitely an optimal age to start music lessons. In fact, recent studies support the idea that there is an optimal window for learning music, and it happens before age 7.  The results from a recent study show that your brain is permanently changed by learning to play a musical instrument, but only if you learn to play before you are 7 years old.  If you learn after that window is closed, you cannot gain the same beneficial connections in your brain.

While I was reading this article, I was surprised by what else it said.  It had an interesting take on music lessons in general.  The author described them as sometimes “dreaded”, and they also emphasized that the benefits are not determined by the quality of musical skills acquired, but from the basic act of learning the skill of playing music.  So, you can start lessons young and not have any musical advantage over those who start lessons later in life, but you will have an advantage in your brain development that helps you in many other areas of life, not just in music.  As I understood their point, and it’s a very good point, I also thought to myself, they have probably never heard of or experienced a Yamaha music class before.  I find that Yamaha Music Education System classes provide what is necessary for excellent brain development because they offer classes for children under 7 years old, but they go two steps further in also knowing how to teach the specific skills that create a good musician and they do it in an enjoyable way.

Yamaha music courses focus on not just the technicality of learning musical instrument, but the passion and beauty that is necessary for being a talented musician.  Great musicians have to learn to play expressively and beautifully.  They have to be able to hear intricate nuances and be able to interpret them and reproduce them on their own instrument.  They also can go very far in their musical endeavors if they have the ability to create music and improvise, which is why the Yamaha method incorporates composition techniques, creativity, and improvisational exercises within it’s music courses.

So, really, Yamaha gives you the best of both worlds.  Students both benefit from the early brain development and will receive high quality music training that will make them better musicians. Plus, Yamaha music classes are fun.

Why wait? We have classes for 2 and under, 3 year olds, PreK and Kinder age, and 1st and 2nd graders. Enroll now!