By Linda Stiles
Staff Writer
Citizen Patriot
Sunday - March 31, 2002 - page E-1

When Kathy Kemler sees two of her sons practicing the violin and cello, she envisions their two younger brothers eventually joining in.

"I hope my other two boys will play, and I'll have a string quartet," said Kemler, of Vandercook Lake.

Kemler, who played the bass in high school and college and sings in the church choir, is only half joking about the string quartet.

She takes Dale, age 9 and the cello player, and Kyle, 7, on violin, to music lessons every week.

"I just think music is a part of life," Kemler said. "Even if they only do it for two or three years, I think it's well worthwhile knowing something about music."

But while the choice was easy for Kemler, to some families the decision is less clear‑cut, raising questions about how young to start music lessons, how to choose an instrument and what the costs will be as well as the outcomes.

Costs can range from about $20 to $45 a month for instrument rental and $12 to $15 a week for a half hour lesson, according to the Jackson Symphony Orchestra Community Music School in downtown Jackson and Sounds Incredible music store on N. West Avenue.

The other answers aren't as straight forward.

On the age question, some say the sooner the better depending on the instrument.

No matter at what age one starts lessons, "you have to start at 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,"' said LaFon Riedel, who owns Sounds Incredible and also teaches piano and organ lessons.

The young students are "less offended by the simplicity of where you have to start," she said. "For a 13-year-old, it isn't very exciting" playing simple nursery rhyme tunes.

By starting early, students can play more advanced music that they enjoy by the teen years, said Riedel, who is closing the Sounds Incredible business but will continue teaching lessons.

Plus, "there's less competition for their time and attention" from both homework and sports in the early years, Riedel said.

But there is a limit, especially with the piano, agreed Riedel and Mary Spring, the Jackson Symphony Orchestra's director of development.

"We prefer to wait until kids can read with some proficiency," Spring said, so that students aren't overloaded and confused by trying to learn to read musical notes at the same time they're being taught language skills in school.

"We can start them at age 5. We prefer not to," Spring said.

But students are welcome to start as early as age 5 on the violin, as Kyle Kemler did two years ago.

Early lessons focus on creating sounds rather than reading notes, and violins can be leased or purchased in smaller sizes for children.

By Christmas, Kyle, now a first-grader, was playing "Jingle Bells" at the music school's Christmas concert and "Pop Goes the Weasel" and other children's and folk songs at music school recitals and church programs.

Sometimes older students progress more quickly once they start, Spring said Dale Kemler, who began lessons in September, already is playing simple songs and played a duet recently with his instructor at his first music school recital.

"That was really fun," said Dale, a third­grader. He was attracted to the cello partly because his mom played the bass and his brother Kyle the violin, and he was curious about the slightly different‑sounding stringed instrument.

"I like the feel and the sound and the way it echoes inside," he said. "I wanted to trv and learn something about it. ...It's gone really well. I like it."

Students generally are older when they begin brass and woodwind instruments ‑ the saxophone, clarinet and flute families,

The appropriate age often depends on the size of those types of instruments and the wind power needed to play them.

Often, fifth- and sixth-graders have an opportunity to begin an instrument in their school band and, can investigate private lessons after learning the basics, Spring said.

Band directors usually help students choose an instrument, often depending on the shape of their mouth and teeth. But considerations also can include costs. "The saxophone is among the most expensive," Spring said.

One school of thought says students should study piano first before branching off to other instruments, Spring and Riedel said.

"I wanted to play the violin," said Allison Richard, 7, of Jackson. and a first-grader at Queen of the Miraculous Medal school. But her mother, Liz Richard, enrolled Allison in piano lessons at the symphony school this past summer.

"I said not until you take piano first," said Richard, whose mother, a music teacher, believed in learning piano as a building block. "I guess we're going by what Grandma said," Richard said.

Other instruments, however, have their own advantages.

"Piano is most often a solitary instrument," Riedel said. With other instruments, students also generally learn to play as part of a group, in a band or ensemble. "You have to learn to listen and follow along. You're part of a team," she said.

Recommended practice times vary by age, ranging from 10 to 15 minutes a dav for younger children and longer for older children.

Outcomes can range beyond learning to play and enjoy music. Research shows students involved in music are less likely to be involved in drugs, crime or teen pregnancy, Spring said.

Music lessons also involve some of the steps identified as helpful in raising children to be successful adults, including having an adult mentor, she said.

Several other studies also show that making music, and not just listening to it, also increases body and brain chemistry that help older people sleep better and helps their body heal itself, Riedel said.

"It really is a one­-on-one nurturing process," Spring said. "The benefits are tremendous."

© 2002 Jackson Citizen Patriot.
All rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission