The misplaced notes may be hard to handle for the first little while, but a recent Canadian study suggests the benefits of giving your children music lessons reverberates outside the piano room and into class.
Researchers at McMaster University compared developmental changes in 12 kids between the ages of four and six over the course of a year using MEG brain scanning technology.
The study, to be published in the October edition of Oxford University's neurology journal Brain, found that children who are exercising their fingers practising scales are also exercising their brains - the McMaster researchers found that kids who took music lessons showed more changes in brain responses.
"There are probably really fundamental things going on in the brain as those kids are learning over that first year, so even though they appear on the surface to maybe only play a few pieces, very simple pieces, it's probably setting up networks in their brain," said professor Laurel Trainor who led the study.
This report suggests music training could lead to heightened literacy, verbal memory, math and I.Q. skills in kids as young as four.
The positive effects music can have on marks have been documented in previous studies that have shown learning an instrument improves I.Q. scores.
"I think our study and other studies show that music has benefits ... for cognitive processing and cognitive development," Trainor said.
"We would hope that when decisions have to be made, music would be considered a core part of the preschool and school curriculum."
Lin Dong agrees. She enrolled her eight-year-old son Jeff in music lessons when he was just three.
"I take him to music lessons because he loves music," she said. "He enjoys playing music. That's ... the most important thing."