So....how young IS too young?

Not to put too fine a point to it...yes, it is possible to start piano lessons too young and, yes, there is an entire industry out there devoted to convincing you there is a critical developmental period which you must pounce upon before it is ALL.  OVER.  Call me cynical, but the earlier this purported deadline falls the longer the marketable window over the life of your kid.

This might be a good time to point out that the "Baby Einstein" megalomaniacal corporate nightmare (a subsidiary of Disney) makes soooo much money they can afford to pay off the executors of Albert Einstein's state, putting him in the top 5 of the highest earning dead celebrities.  Nice.  Just imagine what Mozart could have been accruing since "The Mozart Effect" (trademarked, naturally) and the exquisitely marketed "Music for Little Mozarts" piano course hit the shelves back in the early 90s. 

Yes, there are major developmental milestones related to hearing and otherwise experiencing music.  Do these correlate to beginning actual instrumental study at, say, the age of three?  I strongly doubt it.  Approaches to the musical development of young ears and bodies such as the Yamaha method or Dalcroze Eurythmics rightly focus on developing aural acuity and an embodied sense of musical concepts, such as rhythm, which at a more appropriate age transfer into instrumental study.  They are also impossible to teach unless you are a professional musician.  Ahem, random Franchisees.

The students I have been lucky enough to teach who had this foundation had an effortless sense of rhythm in their playing from the very beginning, the ability to play by ear, and to quickly associate specific pitches with formal music notation.  This intuitive sense of musicality is commonly perceived as "talent".  This is in stark contrast to the graduates of "piano preparation" classes I have encountered.  One would be excused for thinking that, if, after two years of "piano tuition", all they can do is play a couple of very simple songs, usually very badly, then they must be very untalented indeed.  This is an extremely depressing misconception.

By writing this I just eliminated a massive market niche for myself.  About one in ten of the inquiries I receive are from well-meaning parents with teeny tiny children who may or may not call me back three years from now.  Just know this:  the average six year old will master in less than one semester what would have taken them two years in the "piano" class with the deluxe materials kit starting at the modest sum of $69.99 before tuition.

Maybe Baby Newton can do the math.