A good age to start, any advice?
Have an enthusiastic boy wanting a Rock Guitar from Santa,
Thinking he needs to start classical and build some skills
May be too early to encourage him, or is there no such thing as too young to start?
Seeking advice, and ideas of how to start....
No point starting the lad on classical if he wants to play rock.
Assuming he sticks at it, he'll get his acoustic stuff later.
How old? My nephew started at 8. (He's since changed to drums, but still learning - he's 11 now)
Originally Posted by jalapeno
iff hes keen to play it dosnt matter what age.......just let him go his own way and ecourage what music he wants to play..
What you want or what you need?
He is 5, his current influences are The Foo Fighters, Tom All Alone and the 78s, The Killers and The Monkees ....
I started when I was 7 - and I liked the Beatles who had just got in the charts. There wasn't much choice about what to learn - just Bert Weedon's A Tune a Day.
But I think I would be careful about trying to get anyone to play classical at the age of 5 - unless they have huge hands. A classical guiar has a much wider neck that short fingers might struggle with. You can get smaller sized nylon-strung acoustics but they sound rubbish and might put him off.
So a decent rock guitar might be more appropriate. Go on. Get him an electric with a narrow neck and a loud amplifier. Apologise to the neighbours. Close the windows and stick pillows and duvets over them. Let him turn up and rock out. Have fun. He can gain skills on a rock guitar as much as on a classical.
The only thing I would recommend is that it should live on the floor where it is accessible rather than in a case in a cupboard where it won't get much use.
There's no ideal age to start although, if he is able to cope and things come naturally to him, then the younger the better.
However, paying for tuition at such a young age might not represent best value; form experience, when pupils start at such a tender age, improvements can be hard won and progress relatively slow. Give it another year or two and you get more bang for buck as coordination and cognative skills are so much better, This is, I stress, only general advice and no two people are the same so (if you are wanting him to have tuition) a short taster course of lessons might be a good idea.
Starting with a nylon string guitar is a good idea I would suggest as they are about half the string tension of steel strung electrics and acoustics and, very importantly, 1/2 size and 3/4 size models are readily available and they are more affordable too. I appreciate that a nylon string acoustic might not have the wow factor of an electric but some more eye catching nylon string acoustics are available (spogebob squrepants versions etc)!
Also, string tensions are all wrong on extra short scale electrics when tuned to concert pitch causing tuning problems; put them up a tone and things get better.
Last edited by Stan1968; 9th December 2011 at 12:23 AM.
You can never start too young. Guthrie Govan started when he was about three and look where he is now...
And don't start him off on classical if he wants to play rock - he just won't be interested.
My name is Connor and I have a GAS problem.
I also have some videos of myself playing guitar. Here they are.
100% this!!!!!!
For Sale: Jackson DK2
Provided you can find him a guitar that suitable for his size, then why not. Martin Taylor started when he was 4 years old. Either steel string or nylon would be OK. Really depends on what his current interests are.
If he wants to get him started now!!
Start off with electric though if thats where his tastes are. IIRC Squier do reasonable half size Strats
Reply With Quote