72: What is the Best Age for a Child to Start Private Instrument Music Lessons in your Homeschool?

When is the right time to start music lessons for your child? 🤔
In this helpful episode of the Music in Our Homeschool podcast, veteran music educator and homeschooling mom of 8, Gena Mayo, walks you through the best starting age for six of the most popular beginner instruments: piano, violin, guitar, drums, recorder, and ukulele.

Discover why readiness—not just age—matters most when choosing the right time to begin lessons. Gena shares key developmental signs to look for, practical advice for choosing the right instrument, and her top curriculum recommendations like KinderBach, Recorder Time with Mr. Jerry, and Guitar Time with Ben. Whether you have a budding toddler musician or a teen ready to dive deep, you’ll gain clarity and confidence to make the best decision for your homeschooler.

🎵 Instruments covered:

• Piano: Ideal starting age & physical readiness
• Violin: How 3-year-olds can thrive with the Suzuki method
• Guitar: Why 10 is the sweet spot—and what to try first
• Drums: How to start rhythm early—even at age 3!
• Recorder: Breath control, fine motor skills & music reading
• Ukulele: The perfect stepping stone to guitar

Whether your child is musically curious or already asking for lessons, this episode is filled with encouragement and practical tips. Remember, it’s never too early—or too late—to foster a love of music at home.

📩 Have questions about what course is best for your child? Email Gena at Gena@MusicinOurHomeschool.com.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a fellow homeschool mom!

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/best-age-private-music-lessons/

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Transcript

E72 What is the Best Age for a Child to Start Private Instrument Music Lessons?

Gena: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. This is Gena Mayo, and today we're going to be talking about what age is best for your child to start a particular instrument. Last week in our podcast episode, we talked about some of the frequently asked questions and how Music in Our Homeschool does not provide, and nor do I personally teach private music lessons. However, if you are interested in having your child start studying privately, then this episode is for you.

If you are a homeschooler looking for ways to easily and affordably include a quality music education in your homeschool, you've come to the right place. This is the music in our homeschool podcast. I'm Gina Mayo, homeschooling mom of eight, a music teacher for over 30 years.

What's the best age for your child to start learning a musical instrument? This is such an important question because starting [00:01:00] too early or even too late, can affect your child's confidence, enjoyment, and long-term success. So today I'm going to walk you through six of the most popular starter instruments for kids: piano, violin, guitar, drums, recorder, and ukulele. And for each one, I'll share the ideal starting age, what skills your child will need, and some tips to help you get going confidently, even if you aren't musically gifted yourself.

Before we jump into the instruments, let's take a quick look at what we really mean when we say the "right age". It's really not a magic number; it's more about readiness. Some kids are ready at three. Others need to be older. So look for signs like: they can focus for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. They're enjoying music or imitating songs. They're following [00:02:00] instructions. They are developing hand coordination and fine motor skills. And some private teachers want them to be able to read first. And most importantly, are they actually excited to try to learn to play an instrument?

Now let's break it down by instrument. Piano. The best starting age is around seven years old. Piano is a fantastic first instrument, but starting too early can be frustrating, because you want to use a full size keyboard like the one you see behind me, and the keys are a certain size and distance apart. And if a child's hand is too small, they can't really play as well. So I think personally, age seven is a great age. But check with a piano teacher that you have in your area, and if they teach a child who is younger and your child is ready, then go for it.

Why [00:03:00] do I say age seven? Because around this age, most kids have the fine motor skills and finger strength for hand independence because you do have to play each hand independently. They can begin to read music and understand concepts like rhythm and note values. Their attention spans are longer and that makes structured lessons more effective.

You'll want to begin with simple songs, and I encourage you to take my beginning music theory for elementary course alongside private lessons that you're doing on your own to build a great foundation.

If your child is younger than seven, then I would encourage you to start with KinderBach, because Karri created that program for kids ages 2-7 as a piano preparatory program.

Violin is the next instrument. And I'm sure you've seen some of those really tiny kids playing those really tiny violins. So violin is unique. It's one of [00:04:00] the few instruments where very young children can get started successfully, and that's because those instruments come in various sizes. You can go from a 16th size, which is that little tiny one all the way to the full sized violin. And as they keep growing bigger and their arms are getting longer, their fingers are getting longer, then they go up to the next size in violin.

Ages three to five works really great if they're using the Suzuki method because they do not need to know how to read in order to play with that method. It's a method that uses your ear and you're listening to the music and imitating it on your instrument.

The Suzuki method focuses on listening, repetition, and imitation, which makes it perfect for preschoolers. And the Suzuki method is very parent involved. So be prepared to learn alongside them.

The next instrument is guitar. I would say the [00:05:00] best starting age for guitar is age 10. It can be a physically demanding instrument because of the strength needed with the child's hand to hold down the strings.

They do have smaller guitars so you can get a smaller guitar, but I would still say age 10 is great because kids need strong fingers and longer hands to hold those chords and press the strings cleanly. Earlier than that kids can often get frustrated or discouraged.

If your child is interested in playing the guitar, but they're younger than 10, then I would encourage you to start with ukulele. Ukulele is great because it is a smaller instrument. It doesn't require as much strength, but it's very similar in method of how you will eventually be playing the guitar. So, I would say ukulele is great for eight year olds, but you might even be able to play it if you're younger. [00:06:00] Most kids have enough finger coordination and hand strength by age eight, and it is less demanding than the guitar because it has four nylon strings and a much smaller body than the guitar does.

A bonus is that it's easy to play simple songs early, and that keeps kids motivated and excited. And of course they'll be learning some of the same things with rhythms and keeping a steady beat.

Drums, probably the best age to start a drum set is age 10, but I would encourage you to start drumming techniques as early as age three with rhythm sticks or bucket drumming or hand drums. Learning steady beat at that young age is very important for musical success. Drums are amazing for developing rhythm and energy, but formal drum lessons for kids are probably best around age 10 because [00:07:00] kids can coordinate their hands and feet better because yes, the drumset requires kids to use their feet for the bass drum. And kids can focus on technique and timing better with a teacher if they're age 10 or up.

But like I said, don't wait to start learning how to play rhythms. My Beginning Music Theory for Elementary course does include some bucket drumming techniques for kids to start learning.

And the final instrument we'll talk about today is recorder. The best starting age for recorder, according to Mr. Jerry, who has taught recorder to countless elementary kids, is age eight. It's a wonderful beginning wind instrument, which could lead into playing the clarinet, the oboe, or the saxophone later on, but it requires careful finger coordination and breath control.

Why age eight. Most kids have the hand size and fine motor skills to [00:08:00] cover the holes cleanly by this age. They can blow gently and consistently, which leads to no squeaking, and they're also developmentally ready to read music. So definitely look into Recorder Time with Mr. Jerry if you're interested in learning the recorder.

How do you know if your child is truly ready? Well, make sure your child is able to sit still for at least 15 minutes, that they show consistent interest in music. They're able to follow two to three step instructions. They can move their fingers independently, like cutting with scissors. And are you the parent ready to help them support their learning?

Remember, you don't have to know how to play the instrument yourself. You just need the resources, and that's where your private teacher or Music in Our Homeschool, if you wanna use a course like Recorder Time with Mr. Jerry or Guitar Time with [00:09:00] Ben comes in. And if you are interested in Suzuki violin, just know that you will be learning with them.

A word of encouragement. Let me encourage you. There is no wrong time to start music. If your child starts "late", that's okay. If they're ready to start early, go ahead and give it a try. See how it goes. The real win is building a lifeline love of music.

When your child plays an instrument at any age, they develop confidence, focus, discipline, and creativity. And if they try one instrument and it's not the right fit. Pivot to another one. Lots of musicians have started on one instrument but ended up switching to another later on. Music is a journey.

So here's how to get started today. You can learn about instruments through one of my instrument courses. I'll link to those in the show notes or description. Definitely look at Beginning [00:10:00] Music Theory for Elementary or Beginning Music theory for Teens. And if you're not sure what course fits your child best, please send me an Gena@MusicinOurHomeschool.com, Gena with an E, and I'd be happy to talk you through it.

Thanks for joining me today. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a fellow homeschool mom who's thinking about starting music lessons for her child. Until next time, keep the music alive.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/best-age-private-music-lessons/