If youâve ever thought about putting your child in music lessons, give yourself a pat on the back. Raymond Goodrich II, a lifelong musician and store owner, says to do otherwise borders on parental neglect.
The National Association of Music Merchants, also known as NAMM, cites numerous studies that find children trained in music do better in motor skills, school grades, speech, hearing and more.
âAs a parent, I think itâs our responsibility to expose them to the opportunity to play music,â said Goodrich, the second-generation president of Lafayette Music Company. âThereâs one study that got down to DNA and showed there are switches that turn our stress on and off.
âThey have figured out if you participate in music, three to four years consistently, itâs going to take three or four of those switches and permanently turn them to the off position.
âMusic takes you to a better place. You donât get that elsewhere.â
Goodrich is among countless enthusiasts who encourage a life lived in music. But parents often ask, âWhen is my child ready for lessons?â
Local teachers say there is no magic age. Many children start in the fifth grade with school bands. Others begin private lessons as young as the first grade or kindergarten.
But more important than age, the child must have a keen interest in music and be willing to practice for the long haul.
Brazos Huval has taught more than 1,000 children in 10 years at his Breaux Bridge school. Students learn, by ear, to play the accordion, fiddle, guitar, drums, saxophone and more.
But Huval said the students and parents must be interested and committed.
âKids can develop an interest in the music,â said Huval, who plays bass with the Grammy-nominated Cajun band, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. âSome parents come, drop off their kids and say, âWe want to try it for a month.â That aintâ gonna happen.
âTheyâll get through some basics. But if they donât have an interest, it wonât work. Give it six months or a year, thatâll be much better.â
Charlie Gaithe, a touring guitarist and songwriter for 27 years and teacher for 15 years, believes 6 or 7 is a good age for children to start. Gaithe begins with a test lesson to assess a childâs posture, movements and attention span.
âWeâll sit down and see if theyâre physically capable of holding a guitar and playing some parts on the instrument,â said Gaithe. âGenerally, my lessons are 30 minutes.
âBut Iâd say 20 minutes is the window when youâre really learning stuff, especially with younger kids. I keep focus on their eyes and body language. That generally will tell me if theyâre still focused in on what Iâm talking about.â
Proceed Online With Caution
Resources for music lessons are numerous, including countless choices on the Internet. A search for âmusic lessonsâ on YouTube brings 154 million results.
But local teachers urge parents to be cautious with online resources. Many teach bad habits that can set students back.
âA lot of times, a kid will say, âI learned a song today. I picked up the chords online,â said Huval. âItâs totally wrong. We have to go back to the drawing board and start out the song the right way.
âYou can get the chords online. But 80 percent of the time, theyâre not right. We have to do a lot of corrections.â
Gaithe and Goodrich have also corrected numerous errors learned online. Gaithe says nothing beats the instant feedback and direction of a live instructor.
Donât Stop The Music
Once a child starts music lessons, teachers urge parents to keep going. Peaks and valleys are part of the learning process and times for parents to be encouraging.

âThe ones that do well, not only are they into the music,â said Huval. âBut theyâre taking their instrument home and practicing.
âThey listen to live music. They go out and listen to bands. Thatâs how we all learned.â
Gaithe hopes that positive reinforcement goes beyond music.
âI try to make them be aware of their language and thoughts. Youâd be surprised how much that changes them. Sometimes theyâre not even aware thatâs coming up in their vocabulary.
âThey donât, canât, wonât, shouldnât and wouldnât. âThat wonât happenâ or âThatâs too hard.â All of those carry a lot of weight.
âWhen you get rid of that, miracles can happen. It transfers over into life.â
Reprinted by permission of the author Herman Fuselier https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2018/02/14/when-should-my-child-start-music-lessons/317098002/