How young is too young to start music lessons?

Friday, May 31, 2024, Vol. 48, No. 22
By Lucas Hendrickson

In terms of finding the musical spark that lives inside all of us and seeing if it can turn into a lifelong flame, veteran drum teacher Steve Ebe thinks there is such a thing as a little too early, but it’s never too late.

“Everybody’s a little different in that regard. I’ll get the super gung-ho stage mommies who will call me and tell me that their two-year-old really wants drum lessons and I’m like, ‘Your 2-year-old really wants cookies, not drum lessons. They don’t know what a drum lesson even is,’” Ebe says.

“So, I don’t start anybody anywhere near that young. Like, if somebody has a promising 4- or 5-year-old, I’ll recommend that we maybe get together once a month,” he continues. “I’ll teach the parents some games and things to do at home that’ll help prep them so that when they’re 6 or 7 they can start taking proper drum lessons like every week.

“Now, keeping them interested, I wish I knew the answer to that. I’ve had students that would come, come to me when they’re 10 and take (lessons) for maybe a year or two and then drift away because they didn’t really practice and they decided that it was too much work or whatever,” Ebe says. “Then they’ll get in high school and somebody asks them to join a band, and they start realizing all the things that they wish they could do that they can’t, and then they’ll come back to me.”

One other teaching moment Ebe has watched evolve recently is an influx of older players wanting to get in on more lifetime learning.

“Another phenomenon that I’ve watched happen is folks who always kind of wanted to play, but just never did it,” he says. “Then they’ve retired from some lucrative career and they’ll say, ‘I’m gonna buy a nice drum set and take drum lessons at the age of 65.’

“And now I’ve got several of these retiree drum students. They’re great students because they’ve got tons of time and money, so they can really practice,” Ebe laughs. “One guy ended up getting good enough that he got involved with the Nashville Jazz Workshop, and now he’s no longer taking lessons because he’s actively playing with combos down at the Jazz Workshop.”