The suitable age for young children is very much dependent on their musical ability and interests in music or violin.

For instance, some find it easy to mimic whatever pitch is heard or played on the violin.  Even though at a young age around 3 to 5, this is the period when most of the children are still acquiring the meaning of the language communicated with their family members and friends, things that are musical in nature like the melody that goes high and low, and some basic rhythmic patterns, can be discerned.  Now this is a sign of musical intuition, this kind of intuition normally is innate, a child might not even know why it's natural, he/she can somehow make sense of what is being heard.  So for those children who fall into this category, they usually have a life long interest wether or not they pursuit a musical career when they grow up, and so in this case, a child can start as young as 3 years old.

The second type would be those who might not express their interests in music or violin in a gross level, or don't have enough exposure to music for example never seen anyone playing violin on TV or on the stage, as their parents are inclined to offer music/violin lesson, this type of children can get confused as why they are having violin lessons.  Because their abilities in discerning and digesting music could take time to explore, my approach to these children would be using supports, like flashcards, visual aids, story-telling or whatever works that not only maintain their involvements with violin techniques, it also maintains their interests in violin as well.  From my nearly 10 years of teaching experience, I have learnt the importance to clearly read into the learner's mind, any discomfort or rejection can be a sign of frustration, so as soon as I get to pick up any insight, something must be measured or adjusted, for example, this 5-year-old boy could not remember the name of the strings, I spent the whole lesson trying to get him to draw a picture for each string that he thinks related to the letter of the string(i.e a drawing of an APPLE represents string A), and it was after he acquire the knowledge of all the open strings, he realises that he could move on.  However challenging these children are, they never cease to surprise me, just how much potential they have once they gain the confidence, which allow them to try new things.  Therefore I think It might be better to start around 4~5, just so they are mature enough, that I can access using the supports I just mentioned above.

Thanks for reading

Andy 

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