Real Questions about Lessons from parents, and our real answers!

We get lots of questions from parents, and what better way to Summarize them and Learn from them then to provide them here as real questions about lessons from parents and our real answers, typically by email or text message and then we have put them here for your reference and and hopefully to be helpful. For more general FAQs - we have summarized them on another FAQ page here.

My child is starting 5th grade and he needs to pick an instrument for this grade. Do you have any recommendations for him to choose from and that will also compliment his piano skills ( easier to pick).. any suggestions would be appreciated. 

The beauty of what Aarush has already learned on the piano is that he can read both bass and treble clef and already understands the fundamentals of music. There is quite literally no instrument he could choose where he wouldn’t begin with a significant amount of knowledge! The fun part will be learning the idiosyncrasies of that particular instrument - how to produce the sound, hold it, and use its unique technique.

Violin would give him a very direct connection to treble-clef reading, while clarinet or alto saxophone would also be excellent choices if he is interested in band. Honestly, though, I would let him choose the instrument whose sound and personality excite him most, because his piano foundation will help him succeed with any of them. My suggested next step is simply to have him listen to or try those instruments at school and choose the one he feels most drawn to.

I would assume they have some kind of a discovery day or something like that so that he gets a little experience with the instruments at school before picking?