The earlier children learn, the better. This adagio of current times has led to the idea that early childhood education (ECE) should get children “ready for school” and, subsequently, to heightened scrutiny, control, and revised expectations of quality in early education (Needham & Ülküer, 2020). It is often believed that engaging preschool children in school-like activities will support a more successful start at school by facilitating a smooth transition from playful preschool curricula to the more content-focused elementary-grade curricula (Anning, 2010; Hakkarainen, 2008).In instrumental music education, a similar view has increasingly taken hold in recent years, leading to the development of commercialized alternative, child-friendly versions of traditional instruments and to new curricula. However, despite the emergence of such instruments and curricula, studies involving them remain very scarce (but see e.g., Murphy, 2012), and a scientific knowledge base is almost nonexistent, leading to a lack of scrutiny, control, and revised expectations of quality in early music education.To probe music teachers’ attitudes towards and beliefs about learning and teaching how to play an instrument in early childhood (5-7 years old), and to understand how their way of thinking is related to their demographic, personal, and professional background, a survey was launched in 10 languages and spread worldwide. Items related to their beliefs and attitudes addressed aspects such as prior skill development, pros and cons of learning how to play an instrument in the early years, required teacher competences, lesson priorities and learning goals, and types of activities and music used in a lesson.Eighty-five music teachers with an average experience of 21.43 years of teaching responded to the survey. Most of them are teaching in Luxembourg (12), Belgium (11), the Netherlands (11), and Italy (8). They mainly had a background in classical music. Results offer interesting observations about, for example, learning goals (e.g., development of technical mastery vs. emotional and social development), teacher competencies (e.g., importance of caring), and the lack of adequate training.This presentation will detail the results of the survey, discuss the findings in relation to existing approaches (e.g., Suzuki, Colourstrings), to the future development of (research about) instrumental music teaching and learning in early childhood, and to their implications for practice (e.g., need for training, curriculum design).