Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion sudden interest in multiple instruments/music

so maybe it's just because this is her first exposure and she just needed a taste of something...Butter (8) took a one hour a week, intro to guitar class at her previous school and really enjoyed it. She actually wanted to quit halfway through, but stuck with it. Now she will also start guitar at her new home study program. Instruments usually start at 4th gr in our district, but we have a new flexible home study/school. She also takes multimedia with the guitar teacher who seems impressed with her productions in Garageband. He asked if either DH or myself were musicians and used the "g" word. I thought that was pretty cool...

2 weeks ago, she announced that she would also like to learn violin, piano and flute! This really surprised me, but...so piano is not taught at school and flute is out, but orchestra teacher says he will accept her for violin. Of 5 schools he teaches at, this group is the most advanced, but they are young, 6th and below and another girl in Butter's class says she doesn't take outside lessons...

Anyway...I'd like to hear your experience with something like this...I'm suspecting alot has to do with a freeing she is experiencing at our new "school" and feeling confident in her ability to "make" music with the computer. I got her the violin she needs, tomorrow will be her first time with it...I'm a little worried she won't like it and we will have to go through a talking down, but a friend who majored in music and has 2 dd's playing since age 4 says if they like it, if they are asking, they are probably ready...I'm a little nervous

DS started asking to play the violin from 2 so we started him just before 3 with a private teacher (not Suzuki). He loves it and has now been learning for 1 year. It will exposure her to different music to that of guitar which is great. Also I have found it great to have DS do something that he has to work at (a little) and can't do perfectly each time - good life lesson... Orchestras would give her a chance to be with older/different kids too. Fingers crossed she likes it...

I'm a little confused, is the orchestra teacher a violin teacher? And what are the arrangements for lessons? I have to say I can't think of any success stories for group lessons for violin at this kind of age; fine to start with that and see whether she likes it, but I think you'd have to plan for going to individual lessons quickly or she will either get into bad habits that will stymie her playing long term or get frustrated or both. I definitely wouldn't allow any child of mine to be taught violin by someone who wasn't a qualified and experienced violin teacher, but I doubt one would take a violin pupil anyway so I guess this is a violin teacher who also takes orchestra?

Instruments really need daily practice (maybe only 10 mins to start with, but it ramps up) to make the lessons worthwhile; for DS8 we've decided that two is enough (he plays piano, and currently has singing lessons which he will give up in the spring in favour of 'cello lessons, though he'd really have preferred to keep all three). Maybe three or even four might fit in an 8yo's life that was less full of school than DS's is, though. If Butter gets serious about music then learning piano would be a really good idea; I'd definitely add that next rather than going to flute.

all the teachers our district employs for music are professional musicians with degrees in theory as well as intrumental playing and instruction...we also have some parent volunteers who are still professional musicians...

ColinsMum-here, the kids take either orchestra (strings) or band (woodwinds) starting in 4th grade. The teacher, Mr Mo, teaches both at our home study school. He is qualified to instruct in individual instruments. I'm guessing that yes, learning to play in a group with a piano to accompany is very different that learning to play solo, but this is pretty standard here, to learn in a group setting like that. Are you thinking she may not get much out of it? The advantage is that this is a free option (other than the violin rental) so I guess if she really gets it and wants to push on, we can quickly move to private lessons...I have no way to gauge the teacher's skill, not being a musician like that myself...

This "home study" program is more like homeschool with provided cirriculum and an optional 3 hour classroom day once a week. She blows through the required work at home, so she really has plenty of "extra" time to fill...even if we add 20 min each of violin, keyboarding and French, that's only one hour of the day, lol!

I second ColinsMum's points here. I've never heard of a situation where kids were thrown into an orchestra before they'd at least been offered the opportunity for instruction to reach a basic competency level first (though it wouldn't necessarily have to be 1-on-1). For example, in my school (in CA) all kids were offered violin in 4th grade... that was your only choice. You could take it all year, and if you stuck with it you could then progress to the Honor Orchestra, which was made up of 5th and 6th graders all over the district, playing the orchestral instruments of their choice. That was their first exposure to a group setting, after basically working on violin on their own for a year. I'm not sure what goes on in my DD's school yet, but I have noticed a teacher comes to the school for 1-on-1 instruction for violin for 3rd graders.

I'm not saying your kid needs to do the basic stuff for an entire year, but she also just started, didn't she? If your child is vaulting over that basic competency step and landing with a bunch of much older kids that had that already, that could be a setup for failure. I wouldn't want my DD, who battles perfectionism, trying to measure herself by their yardstick.

If she's already learning guitar, I wouldn't think violin or flute have much more to teach her. Both are note-at-a-time instruments, and violin is just another stringed instrument besides, just less versatile. But piano? Definitely. Anyone who wants a really deep understanding of music should learn the piano at some point.

It looks to me like she's so passionate about music that she wants to go broad and deep all at once. At this stage, I'd applaud her enthusiasm, then encourage her to go deeper first, and help her broaden her horizons later.

Two of my kids started band with no prior experience on the instrument they chose, and we found it to be a great way to try out an instrument to see if they liked it enough to purchase an instrument and pay for private lessons.

All of our family plays multiple instruments, and we've found keeping it for pleasure has taken the anxiety and stress out of the process. My daughter still goes to the student union on her college campus to play piano when she gets stressed, and bot of my sons (18 & 11) have asked for a drum set to share. After being selected to play percussion in beginning band back in September, my youngest is now asking for private lessons for drum so he can audition for jazz band next year.

One of the best ways to inhibit curiousity in my opinion is to force a child to either be 100% into something or not at all. My thought would be to allow your child to try it out and see how they take to it - and whether they ask for private lessons after trying it out in orchestra.

Here, orchestra starts in school in 4th grade while band starts in 5th grade. There are small group lessons once a week during the school day and once a week they meet as a group to practice playing together. Most students do not take private lessons, although a few do, perhaps because we live in a lower-income area.

My DS13 did what a lot of kids here do, which is to start in orchestra in 4th grade and then, because he didn't choose an instrument that he loved, switched to band. He's now been in band for 4 years and he definitely benefited from the year in orchestra because it gave him a chance to learn to read music and to explore his options. There was never any intent, on his or the school's part, to nurture a serious, competitive, musician. He really likes playing, but he equally likes the social opportunities being a part of the band brings.

My DD10 currently plays both guitar, which she started when she was 7, and clarinet, which she started at 9. She only practices each for 15 minutes a day. Her guitar teacher recommended shorter practice sessions specifically because he wanted it to be fun for her and a lot of kids get turned off by the "chore" of having to practice for longer periods. Her band director would like students to practice 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. However, what we have found is that DD has a real aptitude for music and can practice for less time than the other students with even better results. Since she doesn't want to become a serious musician at this point, and we just really want her to enjoy music, we're good with the situation. She definitely benefitted from already playing one instrument when she decided to pick up another. She caught up in just 2 months with where the other kids were after an entire year of playing. Yet, it still presents her with a little challenge each week as she sees that practice, short thought it may be, does make her get better. (Which she doesn't get from school, really, but does get from sports).

If anything, I would just encourage your DD to just take up a new instrument one at a time. So now she plays guitar and is taking up violin. Perhaps wait a year or two before she picks up another instrument so that she doesn't get overwhelmed and you're not out a lot of money at one time. And, too, that gives her a chance to really persevere with the two she's currently playing before moving on. But, it's always easier to learn one instrument when you know how to play another, so I'd say encourage her exploration if she's interested.

Of course, I almost always say encourage a child's exploration if he or she is interested.

mnmom23: There's another benefit to shorter, more frequent guitar practices as opposed to longer ones: calluses.

Mr W (3y11m) started piano lessons at his school in the summer. The first few weeks he was more interested in exploring the piano than playing. Then he got very interested in it and the playing. He can now sight read simple songs and uses all ten of his fingers when playing. He is now in his own section with an advanced 6 year old.

He will start individual lessons after the New Years.

I think there is a point when they realize what the instrument can do and then they take off.

The other thing about music that is interesting is that when Mr W took off, the music teacher immediately moved him to his ability group. Just because he was 3 she did not even think hold him back.