This is a guest post written by Aeyons violin teacher Ben Wragg.
How young is too young?
As a teacher who’s worked with a lot of young students, I often get asked by parents what is a good age to start. Carl Flesch surprisingly suggests not starting before the age of 8. The Russian approach seems to suggest more like 5 years old, and of course, Suzuki would suggest pretty much from birth!
In a way, they’re all right. Babies hear sound even in the womb. Of course, this would be heightened if the mother played for instance the cello as the baby is right next to the vibrations of the instrument.
Giving birth with music playing surely helps everyone involved? It’s been proven that Mozart in particular aids brain development in the young, so play your baby lots of Mozart!
But starting an instrument at around age 3, 5 or 8 all have quite different results in my experience. You’d think the younger the better as it gives a kind of head start but the biggest problem I’ve encountered is if the child doesn’t yet have the physical strength yet to really hold the bow and use the left hand. Behaviour you’d think would be the biggest problem but I’m afraid this can be a problem at any of these ages… On that note, ideally, encourage your child to learn lesson protocol before signing them up for violin lessons, it’ll save you a lot of time, money and sanity! In reality for some, one on one teaching might just be the thing that really sorts your child’s behaviour, if the teacher is willing to be that kind of teacher.
Flesch’s advice to start later works in the sense that children of this age can generally process information in a much more independent way. However, the drawback is that if you leave it too late, the muscles have already tightened somewhat and getting used to the physicality of the violin can in some cases be very painful and therefore off-putting.
So to conclude, it does depend on the child (and the parent!) but 3 can be too early in my opinion although thoroughly teaching some very young students I have noticed that even though development can be extremely slow at this age (only embark if you’re very patient!) at some point all the work you’ve done with the pupil which seems to have gone nowhere, suddenly clicks; like it was being stored up until the right time; a little like how a toddler hears words all the time and then eventually starts speaking one day! But like I say, the child, the teacher and the parent have to be patient… 5 is probably about right – the mind is still not nearly as independent as at 8 so a parent will need to assist the practice and attend lessons – but the muscles are still more supple. And 8 is perhaps a little late due to the muscles already being less supple by this point, plus it might be slightly demoralising comparing yourself to a 3-year-old beginner.
I must stress these are all generalisations and refer to my experience of teaching a variety of young children over the past 20 years or so. Of my 3 children who have learnt instruments (my 4th is only 15 months) they all had different experiences. Joseph started learning the violin aged 5, we weren’t consistent enough plus he learnt very slowly. Luke started cello at age 3, was pretty consistent and learnt steadily and Elara learnt the piano from age 6 and learnt quickly… there’s no pattern!
Once you start, have the aim of not stopping though! Help your child learn to persevere, to respect their teacher, to understand that you need discipline to learn no matter how much talent you possess. These qualities will surely help them in all walks of life. It’s of no coincidence I’m sure that the school kids who are the best musicians are often very strong all rounders also. But back to the main issue, FYI one of my most talented students who studied with me at The Purcell School, led their Symphony Orchestra and is currently studying at The Royal College of Music, London, started learning the violin aged 13!! This is unusually late and I wouldn’t advise it but it goes to show what’s possible. He’d be the first to admit though that he wishes he’d started earlier.
Similar to sport, music has to be studied from a young age to really achieve – the mind and body have to acquaint with each other! And the violin is probably an extreme example of this. I hope this at least clarifies some issues if not give any definitive answers.