When To Begin Music Lessons? Now

Parents frequently ask Music Junction teachers about the ideal age to begin music education. Given the investment in time and resources, we understand why this is a common question.

We offer voice and piano lessons to children as young as 4 years old but, after reading this article, we favor PBS’s response: music education should happen from the time children are born.

This doesn’t mean that a newborn who still has clenched fists should be pressing the keys of the piano. Nor does it mean a baby should study vocal ranges when his or her main form of communication is crying. Singing songs to your baby as you sway from side-to-side is a form of music education. Clapping your hands and stomping your feet to the rhythm is another. Sometimes, we do these activities so naturally it doesn’t feel like a lesson but your child is already learning from you.

Immersed in a culture of song and movement, your child will have a smoother, and positive, transition to formal music lessons. We tell our clients that children should not go past the age of 6 without music training based on our years of experience teaching young musicians.

The PBS article agrees with us but offers a wider gap of 6 to 9 years old.

“There is a growing (and convincing) body of research that indicates a ‘window of opportunity’ from birth to age nine for developing a musical sensibility within children,” the article states. “During this time, the mental structures and mechanisms associated with processing and understanding music are in the prime stages of development, making it of utmost importance to expose children in this age range to music.”

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Music Junction offers private one-on-one music lessons with talented and caring music teachers at our music school in Burbank, CA. Study your choice of piano, voice, guitar, ukulele, violin, drums, woodwinds, strings. Virtual lessons are also available.