R. H. Haweis gives this opinion about learning to play the violin,
which applies equally well to all training of youth:
Ought young children to begin upon small-sized violins? All
makers say “Yes”; naturally, for they supply the new violins of
all sizes. But I emphatically say “No.” The sooner the child is
accustomed to the right violin intervals the better; the small
violins merely present him with a series of wrong distances,
which he has successively to unlearn.
(204)
See TIMIDITY.