I make my living as a guitar, mandolin and fiddle teacher. My students come from all walks of life and have varied interests and tastes in music. The majority of them are adults and adolescents rather than children. I try to persuade parents to consider very carefully whether their children are truly committed to the regime of studying a musical instrument. 

Unfortunately, there are too many people who have the wrong idea about playing music and the ability to do so. They believe that one must start at a young age in order to be “good at it”. This concept possibly crosses over from other areas of life, especially the world of sports where the early development of agility, strength, and speed are essential to performance before a person’s body starts to naturally slow down.

In reality, when learning a musical instrument, it is also necessary to develop agility, strength, and speed, but these are focused more in the hands and arms or in breath control.

It can start at just about any time in a person’s life. There are two situations I like to avoid when taking children on as students. The first are the parents who want their child occupied between the time after school and supper.

This is one of the worst times of day for any child to learn anything. The child has been in school all day, is tired, hungry, and needs to get some exercise. Sitting down and focusing on a musical instrument is demanding. If the child does not come to me directly out of school and has had a snack, s/he is in a much more receptive state of mind to learn.The other situation to avoid is where the parents push their child to learn a certain instrument because they themselves always wanted to do it. They live their lives through their children. Since children want to please their parents, they will go along with this.

Naturally a situation of this nature will not last long. If a child’s heart isn’t into something s/he is trying to do, s/he is being set up for failure. Children can convince themselves they are hopeless at music and may likely never try it again in any shape or form. Many parents went through this kind of tumult and they wrongly believe that music instruction is drudgery and toil but they are willing to put their kids through this.

Far too often I hear from my adult students the phrase “if I had only stayed with it, I’d be so good”. Perhaps, but it is not necessarily so. Putting in the time is a lot different than putting in the work. A similar misconception is that just because you are taking lessons you are a player. Again, not so: you must put in the work.