Choosing the right musical instrument your child will love to play for years

Choosing the right musical instrument for your child will give him a love for music that will last years. This guide is a must-read for parents! #CasioMini

The first time my daughter heard me play the keyboard at a friend’s house (we didn’t own one), my three-year-old acted as if she wasn’t listening. And just a few minutes later we found her pressing the keys away and being perplexed when no sound came out.

That was the beginning of our musical journey.

Benefits of Music in child Development

Music ignites all areas of child development and important skills like their intelligence, social and emotional, motor and even their language skills. It starts them on a path that will enrich their lives in so many ways.

Studying music develops discipline, hand-eye coordination, and brings happiness to both the performer and the whole family.

Did you know? Learning to play an instrument can improve mathematical learning and even increase their exam scores!

But which instrument is best for a child?

Finding the right instrument for our daughter was a difficult but important factor in her continued musical success.

Since the Piano and violin are the most popular instruments for children under six, we decided to gift her a Digital Keyboard.

Learning the keyboard is especially beneficial because it helps build a foundation for your child to choose a different instrument at a later age, should they want to do so.

For example, playing the piano allows children to play both the melody and harmony simultaneously, thus teaching important perceptual and musical skills.

The piano also provides a visual representation of music that is essential to understanding music theory.

Which Keyboard is better suited for a young child?

You don’t need to buy the most expensive keyboard for your child, and you don’t need anything that looks or feels identical to a cheap toy.

For the keyboard you choose, you’ll want a minimum of 44 keys, that’s a good entry level Keyboard. You will also probably need a keyboard that has a good selection of Tones and rhythms and a few built in Song Bank Tunes.

The Casio Mini Keyboard like the Casio SA-78  is perfect for 4 – 8-year olds. The price point also is just perfect to gauge interest. Rather than buying any cheap imitations, I prefer the Casio series because Casio features Japanese quality and offers a 3 years warranty.

When my three-year-old daughter saw me play her nursery rhymes on the new keyboard, she wanted to play too. After my daily chores were done for the day, I’d give her a pretend music lesson.

Most of the time we sang a song together while she smashed keys on the keyboard. When she turned five I began giving her real keyboard lessons, plus she started learning and enjoying her Western classical keyboard lessons at school.

When she turned 10 and could play much better, we upgraded to the Casio CTK-1500 for her, which she continues to play and learn on even today.

How to keep kids motivated enough to not quit

As to how to keep children interested in playing instruments, that’s up to us parents. I think each parent should follow their intuition since only they know their child the best.

Find out what kind of music their child loves, the availability of good teachers, and an instrument sound they’ll like and then encourage them. Making music should be something that children enjoy and will want to keep doing for many years!

The Perfect Gift

Music gives a great sense of pride, confidence and source to relieve some of their stress. It is one of the best gifts we could ever give our child that they can enjoy all their life no matter what age, where ever they live or any career they pursue.

With that in mind, it’s not too late to trade in those Legos, Frozen dollhouse or even the XBox, and swap them out for a Casio Mini Keyboard and music lessons for the kids in your life.