Janice asks: | I have a new student starting who is only five years old. The youngest I | have ever taught | was 9 years old. Does anyone have any tips on teaching the fiddle to a 5 | year old girl? Is | she too young to learn to read?
Well, I'd say that most 5-year-olds are plenty old to be reading, text or music. But I'm not sure I'd want to start her on a sheet of music. It's probably more important to get across the idea that the fiddle isn't something intimidating. Maybe find a few tunes that she likes, and help her learn to play them on the instrument. Get her playing them well enough that she likes what she plays. Then suggest that being able to read music is useful for the same reason that reading books is useful: You can learn things from people who aren't around. It might take months or a year to get to that point, though. Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
