Can a 9 year old practice the flute alone?
Yes.
And no.
Children are so darn smart!
I have had 24 years of experience teaching children under the age of 10 (and over, but that’s not the subject here). Children are so darn smart! I know they can do many, many things, but one thing I know is that they are really good at shortcuts. Especially boys. 🙂
In my experience, when a child reaches about the age of 9, they feel like they are ready for their parent to back off a bit during practice. So, I give them some longer reigns and a very, very detailed practice agenda. They have done great! And, they feel so grown up.
We are human, and humans like to take the path of least resistance. Ha – does that sound familiar in your own life? I know it does in mine. When learning a particular skill, younger children tend to try finding the least resistant path around age 7-9. It is around this age that we have to become very creative in skill repetition. Because they’ll start rolling their eyes if we don’t.
I’ll be giving all I’ve got in this site, and here’s one hint for kids in these stages:
I write something like: “Trae is a super-hero!!!!!” on the top of his practice sheet for the day. He gets a chuckle out of it and starts his practice with a smile. And I can smile from the other room.
Oh wow! Yes, kids are super smart!! And, they really pick up quickly on new skills… especially anything mechanical or digital. I’d consider the flute a very mechanical instrument. All the buttons are super inviting to a young child! Cool. 🙂 Rebecca
Once, My 4 yr old brother wanted to try my flute so bad, that I let him blow into it, but he did it just as he had seen me do, and it sounded great! Probably just got lucky but it sure was amazing!