That feels about right. In general my young students seem to transition between six and seven. It is very rare that my students younger than seven take lessons by themselves. At that age I work very hard with a parent to make sure that what happens in lessons can be duplicated, as closely as possible, at home.

I'm on one side, the parent is on the other. We use long colored straws (for pointers), and we change things up quickly. 10 minutes max new things (always playing with the aid of a keyboard chart), 10 minutes on things that are more comfortable, last 10 minutes on whatever they decide are "their favorites".

By around seven almost all of them not only are able to take lessons without the parent but usually ask to do so, and if we have been successful, by that time it becomes very hard for the parent to keep up, which is as it should be.

Opinion noted. See my updated signature...

Actually, I was a late starter at eight, but only because my family could not afford an instrument. I sang, on pitch, about the time I began to speak. I had a tiny record player for very little kids before age 5. Long before I started lessons I was listening to recordings. By age of seven I was fascinated by Finlandia, the Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony, a couple Wagner overtures and the Beethoven 5th Symphony, Toscanini conducting.

That was why I bombed out in 6th grade general music class. They were doing: "The violin's singing, like lov uv uv ly ee ringing", with the no-pitch students trying to sing "the horn, the horn, it wakes me at dawn"--all on one pitch. Then there was "the clarinet, the clarinet, goes doodle doodle doodle doodeldet." I immediately memorized each part, which I am hearing now as I type this, could have sung all of them, but I shrunk away, cringing at the cacaphony.

Minniemay, when I wrote that something seems amiss, I was referring to the impression that you were saying that there is only one cause, one persona to an age group, and therefore only one solution. This cannot have been what you meant, and that is what seemed amiss.

Child psychology and learning theory give broad outlines, but they usually include more than one viewpoint and approach. They also stress variety and the need to observe. What we see too often in education is someone getting a theory or formula, and applying it willy nilly everywhere instead of looking deeply into the particular problem. I'd hate for someone to go "Aha - young kids have to get off the bench - check!" when maybe something else is going on. It's the apparent exclusiveness - one solution - that makes me uneasy. The Internet forces us to write briefly so we don't always give the whole picture. Is that how you meant it?

The wind-up one with the little plastic records, and you could see the grooves in the tracks? I always wanted one of those...

I think that's what it was! I don't remember the wind up part, but I do remember colored records.

That's why we have such discussion forums. We get to discuss different aspects of the same thing. I think that's helpful, especially when we get opposing views.

Maybe it had batteries? I think it was Fisher Price.

They were wind up Fisher Price. Up until about a year ago I still had mine.

Hehehe . . . I had one of those, too!