Timeline: Getting your student started with music lessons,
instruments
The Arizona Republic
Kindergarten
At this age, reading music is daunting, so the Suzuki
method trains the kindergarten set by ear. Your child can
take Suzuki forms of piano, violin, viola or cello.
Grades 1-3
Singing in school starts to sharpen the ear. Parents who
suspect children have musical gifts should start them on
piano or a bowed string instrument. (Violins, violas and
cellos come in tiny sizes for the smallest players.)
Grades 4-6
This is the age that gives birth to wind players and percussionists.
And it’s not too late to start on a string instrument —
but don’t wait any longer. Join the school band or orchestra
program.
Grades 7-8
This is prime time for school musicians. The basics are
out of the way, and the idea of playing right notes is supplanted
by the idea of making music. It’s not too late to start
a wind or percussion instrument.
Grades 9-12
By this time, most anyone who will make music their life,
or at least a part of their life, has been studying and
playing for a while. Even so, there are exceptions who discover
at age 15 a knack for the sousaphone or the glockenspiel.
If you are the parent of a serious wind player or percussionist,
consider adding piano lessons — the piano brings a fuller
understanding of music to any performing musician. Also,
this is the time when young singers, their voices finally
beyond the squeak of childhood, find their way.
