Trip Meter Music

Archive for October, 2010

At What Age Should My Child Start To Play Guitar?

What is the proper age? There is no hard and fast rule, however, no less than 10 years of age would be the norm. At age 10 the ability to remember and concentrate is much more developed than an 8 year old. It does take a steady effort and you must make sure your child is able and willing to provide it.

From the beginning of playing the guitar there is a lot of information to understand, plus to sit with an instrument and press fingers against a fret board is at first challenging. As a parent you wont understand how difficult that is. When you press your finger against a steel string the tip of the finger is depressed and produces a buzzing sound, if any at all.

With practice a callous will develop on the tip of a finger that enables the string to be pressed into the steel string without sinking into the fleshy finger tip. That allows the string to ring freely.

The second thing is determine how serious the intent to learn is. He must understand that a guitar is more than a toy. A guitar like any instrument demands that you develop good habits and consistently practicing daily following a lesson program is the only way to succeed. The goal is to move forward step by step and in a way that the child can accomplish the task and have the confidence to want to learn more.

The Right Guitar

If guitars are foreign to you always get the guidance of someone who knows guitars that can assist you. You will need a child size guitar because kids hands and fingers are much shorter and a child size guitar is much easier to play and hold.

Beware Of Bargain Basement Guitars

This more than ever is what will make or break your childs desire to want to play. I do not know how many times I have seen parents buy poor quality guitars with the plan that if he/she doesn’t pan out there isn’t much to lose. That’s good thinking but the wrong decision. You don’t have to buy expensive but always buy quality.

You can sell a quality guitar much easier than cheap poor quality guitars if it doesn’t work out. Some of those bargain priced cheap guitars are so difficult to play I couldn’t play it. The strings are about a 1/4 inch or higher above the fret board which makes it almost impossible for me to press my finger to the frets never mind how difficult that would be for a child. It is surprising how a lot of poor quality guitars or second hand junk end up in the hands of beginners.

The Best Approach For Lessons And Learning

There’s lots of types of guitar lessons for kids in the form of lesson books, DVD’s, etc. So which should you choose? It is always ALWAYS recommended to start the youngster off on the right foot with a knowledgeable guitar teacher. There is much to learn besides notes, proper technique can only be taught, a book can’t explain all you’ll want to know on how to play the guitar. A teacher can encourage, correct mistakes and provide confidence to continue which is just as important as learning notes.

After A While You now have a budding young player, off to good start and is learning and really enjoying music and playing. As your child matures he will outgrow his instrument. The selection of music style that they would like to play is what will determine the type of guitar best suited to their interest.

If it’s folk music or classical. acoustic guitars are the best choice. Rock & roll usually means electric models. Country playing can be either electric or acoustic. Most of all your child is going to be a very different individual, (for the better) music is known for a method of transforming an individual, even your friends are different. The beginning of a life long journey that may lead to places they has never dreamed of. I wish you the best.