The Benefits of Chamber Music for Young People

Chamber music has long been thought of as only accessible to older students and, in fact, most professional musicians report not having the opportunity to perform chamber music until they reached college. This, despite the fact that nearly every professional musician agrees that earlier exposure to chamber music would have benefitted them greatly. This is, of course, primarily a classical music problem as nearly every other form of music making entails learning in group settings from the beginning. From garage bands, to folk singers, to indigenous music all over the world the most common approach to learning is to simply "join in." In this article we explore the value and some of the challenges of beginning to study chamber music from a very young age.