Developmental Stages in Music Education: Elementary School

Birth to 18 Months [1] > Toddler to Preschooler [1] > Elementary School > Middle School to Highschool [2]

Unless your family is very focused on early music education starting at age 3 (recommended for violin, piano and some other instruments), elementary school is the time many parents begin to enroll their child in formal music education. A key skill many parents overlook is the ability to sit still for long periods! Assess your child's individual strengths and readiness for formal education on top of their current workload in school and your ability to chauffeur them to lessons given your current schedule.

K-Grade 3
• Children often develop some social anxiety around singing in public in the early years of elementary school as peers become more influential than their parents’ praise. Continue to encourage your children to sing at home, particularly boys, even if they begin to feel some social anxiety about public singing.
• Vocal range increases at this age, as does the ability to project.
• Musical memory is greatly enhanced by repetition of familiar songs. Continue to sing with your children and add in more complex songs to your repertoire. Encourage your children to make up their own lyrics to familiar tunes.
• Start taking your child to children’s concerts as they now have the ability to sit still long enough to enjoy the concert.
• When selecting a music teacher for the first lessons, pay close attention to the fit of your child’s temperament and that of the music teacher. A good fit between the first music teacher and student is more important than the teacher’s reputation or musical credentials. Your child is still learning how to work within structure. Once they achieve some competence and confidence in their new skill you can consider a more challenging curriculum for them.
• Simple music concepts can be grasped by young children. Hands on exploration of concepts is best at this age. Small experiments are a good idea, such as creating your own set of chimes with partially filled water glasses to explore concepts like pitch and vibration.

Grades 4 -6
• This is a good time to start an instrument, particularly one of your child’s own choosing as they will have a fairly broad exposure to instruments at this point.
• Computer-savvy kids can benefit from exposure to music games on console, junior mixing/DJ software and online music-based explorations of more advanced musical concepts.
• Critical skills develop at this age: improvisation, evaluation and the development of strong musical preferences.