TO THE LIVING SECTION:

Regarding the article titled “What Age for a Child’s Music Lessons?” [Feb. 19], perhaps the actual practice of a family expert on both children and music may provide a clue.

“The Bachs began to teach their children to play the clavichord when they were 9 or 10.”

This is the first sentence of Section IV of Chapter 9 of “Bach” by Eva Mary and Sydney Grew (Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, New York, 1947; reprinted by Collier Books, New York, 1962). Who knows what heights Johann Sebastian Bach might have scaled with the benefit of early instruction by the 20th-century Suzuki method?

William F. Eberlein
Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
University of Rochester
Rochester

Source: New York Times, 26 March 1986