Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Musical instruments at what age?

Different towns have different ways of setting up their Suzuki, so I won't speak for everyone here. But in our area Suzuki is not primarily a group experience. For us, Suzuki has been weekly individual lessons and a monthly group lesson. The group lesson includes children of all levels including people who are in high school and even college and been playing for 10 or more years. So there is hardly any screeching at the group lesson. In fact, hearing the older kids play has been really inspiriational to DS.

'Neato - your methods sound a lot like ours. Our current incentives for DS involve Pokemon cards and "fun" computer time. They vary every few months or so. DS loves the fact that the challenge becomes a game.

Our Suzuki is set up like acs' too. Weekly private lesson and monthly group for piano. Violin has group almost weekly (even a bigger commitment!)

Both my kids took a kindermusik style class from age 1 that I think really helped pave the way for music lessons. The last class especially was wonderful - teaching beginning music reading concepts and trying out many kinds of instruments, learning about instrument families, etc.

I will tell you what works here as far as math is concerned. Competition with dad!
Example = I spend a lot of time with my DS, a math oriented kid, in a car, driving him places. This spring he was working on some tough math problems. I suggested he uses his "car time", and he was trying to. He was solving those math problems until he got stuck on one and then started saying that it is way too difficult for him and how he needs dad to actually help him. Well, he calls dad on his cell and says that he is absolutely stuck on question so and so and that this is the area of math he never had any exposure to. DH, who happened to have those questions in front of him (a well organized family working towards a common goal says "let me think". DH calls DS ten minutes later and says "I've got the answer". DS screams "DON'T TELL ME" and starts writing vigourously in his notebook. Two minutes later he screams "I GOT IT" and calls DH to check the answer with him. It is correct.
I stress the fact that it took him only 2 (two) minutes to solve a problem he thought he had no idea how to even approach.
So my answer is COMPETITION, be it with dad, be it with age mates.

Great story Ania! That sounds exactly like my DS - one minute absolutely ranting something is SO hard he absolutely cannot do it and the next minute he's off to the races.

Incogneato, I think you have a carbon copy of my kids. Webkinz are a great motivator.

My kids' piano teacher recommended using a candle for practice incentive, which the girls love. Each girl has a taper candle which burns while she practices. Each spent candle is worth roughly $5 towards a Webkinz product. With one candle they can buy something like trading cards (for those who need immediate gratification) or they can save up to buy a Webkinz animal.

acs- I like the way your Suzuki is set up. Ours is 1 group and 1 private lesson per week. Groups are by ability but it would seem very motivating to have different abilities practice together.

I did Suzuki piano and while I don't remember the entire experience, I remember having to take turns as there weren't one piano per student. I had to listen quietly and take turns, which was great for learning patience for sure!!

Yes, competition works great for our DS, too. He practices way harder for a fiddle competition than he does for a violin recital, even though the violin pieces are harder!

A few years ago, when he needed to review all his Suzuki pieces for an upcoming camp, we set up a competition between him and DH (who plays violin OK). DS assigned each song a point value and wrote the song name and point total on a slip and put them in a coffee can. For about a month before camp, whenever either of them had a free moment they would pull out a slip and see if they could play the song from memory. If they could, they got that number of points. They kept track of how many points they accumulated (honor system). Whoever got the most points at the end of the month won $25 gift certificate for a book store. The were neck and neck the whole time and eventually DS won by 1 point at the last minute--funny how that worked. LOL! But there was very little complaining about practice since he really wanted to win!

I have always liked our system. Two lessons a week would make us nuts. It had not occurred to me that anyone did them the way you describe, so now I will be even more grateful for our incredibly sane teacher.

About how long does it take a taper candle to burn? An hour, 4 hours, 10 hours? I might try this with mine and give him a Dollar Store gift card.

I don't know how long they last, but stick 'em in the freezer and they don't drip.