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Should young children be “forced” to learn piano? That verb “forced” invites an answer in the negative, but music is a wonderful gift that brings so much joy a

Should young children be “forced” to learn piano? That verb “forced” invites an answer in the negative, but music is a wonderful gift that brings so much joy and social opportunity. Music is best learned young. But what if a child says no to lessons? I didn’t say yes and I see now that I cost myself a lot of joy.

lovelyviking 5y ago
Or perhaps you have managed to keep the joy and music related. I've seen people who learned piano in music school and as soon as they have passed theier final exams they forgot about it and never came back to piano because they learned to hate it during their "education". Contrary to that I said "no" to a bad teacher and enjoy plaing music to this day. I do not have a perfect training but still enjoy to learn and play when I can. I believe though such "hard" choice should be avoided if possible. One should have a good teacher and with a good teacher you do not need to "force" anything because it is a joy to learn. Unfortunately I didn't have access to such teacher so I had to learn by myself and it's not easy because when you stuck you have to figure out how to move forward. It happens from time to time and right now for instance I am really puzzled about what to learn next and I do not know where to get a good advice that is "workable" in my current situation.
oriolid 5y ago
Classical piano training is a great way to take joy away from music.
criddell 5y ago
> Music is best learned young. In what way? When I was a kid, I would have been a horrible music student. I was interested in 500 things and music wasn't one of them. I eventually bought a guitar when I was around 25 and took lessons. When it's something you want to do and you have songs you want to play, it's a much different experience. I don't think I would want to trade the thousands of hours I spent playing with legos, swimming, riding my bike or doing any of the other things I did as a kid (including more passive things like reading books and playing video games). So to answer your initial question, no I don't think kids should be forced to play any instrument with a few exceptions. Childhood is too short.
analog31 5y ago
I took classical cello lessons as a kid. Today, I'm a jazz bassist and I perform regularly but it's not my career. I would not be able to function on the bandstand without that background. Both of my kids took classical lessons, both are quite accomplished and enjoy playing. I believe it's comes down to all families, and kids, being different. My own view is that parents should be perceptive to their kids preferences, and whether they are really enjoying something or not. But some kids need to be "forced" to experience new things, and some need to be "forced" to keep working on something, even when it's something that they genuinely enjoy. Whether it can be done in a beneficial or harmful way depends on the way that each family functions. I kept up with music lessons through high school, but my other activity was figure skating, which I didn't enjoy. My mom let me drop out of figure skating, so it's clear that the "forcing" had its limits, and was only occurring within reason. Do you like classical music? And, do you know what it's like to be a musician? Because if your kids study classical music, you'll be hearing a lot of it. If you have visceral "yuck" response to classical music, it might not be right for your family. And of course there are infinitely many ways to approach music, that are not classical music. For instance, the instruments of popular music tend to be easier to learn by older kids and adults, and can be learned with or without lessons. There is something about the neuroplasticity of children that lends itself to some kinds of learning, but I think we're discovering that there aren't even any hard rules about that.
ioseph 5y ago
As someone who was "forced" to learn classical piano while young I think I will do the same for my kids. At age 12 I asked to learn violin instead and did, now playing folk music as a hobby is how I met my wife and the basis of my social life now (playing in two bands). That being said, I look to my friends who played team sports from an early age and get great joy playing in a football team and feel like I missed out on that part of our culture.

lovelyviking 5y ago

Or perhaps you have managed to keep the joy and music related. I've seen people who learned piano in music school and as soon as they have passed theier final exams they forgot about it and never came back to piano because they learned to hate it during their "education". Contrary to that I said "no" to a bad teacher and enjoy plaing music to this day. I do not have a perfect training but still enjoy to learn and play when I can. I believe though such "hard" choice should be avoided if possible. One should have a good teacher and with a good teacher you do not need to "force" anything because it is a joy to learn. Unfortunately I didn't have access to such teacher so I had to learn by myself and it's not easy because when you stuck you have to figure out how to move forward. It happens from time to time and right now for instance I am really puzzled about what to learn next and I do not know where to get a good advice that is "workable" in my current situation.

oriolid 5y ago

Classical piano training is a great way to take joy away from music.

criddell 5y ago

> Music is best learned young. In what way? When I was a kid, I would have been a horrible music student. I was interested in 500 things and music wasn't one of them. I eventually bought a guitar when I was around 25 and took lessons. When it's something you want to do and you have songs you want to play, it's a much different experience. I don't think I would want to trade the thousands of hours I spent playing with legos, swimming, riding my bike or doing any of the other things I did as a kid (including more passive things like reading books and playing video games). So to answer your initial question, no I don't think kids should be forced to play any instrument with a few exceptions. Childhood is too short.

analog31 5y ago

I took classical cello lessons as a kid. Today, I'm a jazz bassist and I perform regularly but it's not my career. I would not be able to function on the bandstand without that background. Both of my kids took classical lessons, both are quite accomplished and enjoy playing. I believe it's comes down to all families, and kids, being different. My own view is that parents should be perceptive to their kids preferences, and whether they are really enjoying something or not. But some kids need to be "forced" to experience new things, and some need to be "forced" to keep working on something, even when it's something that they genuinely enjoy. Whether it can be done in a beneficial or harmful way depends on the way that each family functions. I kept up with music lessons through high school, but my other activity was figure skating, which I didn't enjoy. My mom let me drop out of figure skating, so it's clear that the "forcing" had its limits, and was only occurring within reason. Do you like classical music? And, do you know what it's like to be a musician? Because if your kids study classical music, you'll be hearing a lot of it. If you have visceral "yuck" response to classical music, it might not be right for your family. And of course there are infinitely many ways to approach music, that are not classical music. For instance, the instruments of popular music tend to be easier to learn by older kids and adults, and can be learned with or without lessons. There is something about the neuroplasticity of children that lends itself to some kinds of learning, but I think we're discovering that there aren't even any hard rules about that.

ioseph 5y ago

As someone who was "forced" to learn classical piano while young I think I will do the same for my kids. At age 12 I asked to learn violin instead and did, now playing folk music as a hobby is how I met my wife and the basis of my social life now (playing in two bands). That being said, I look to my friends who played team sports from an early age and get great joy playing in a football team and feel like I missed out on that part of our culture.