Advice on buying a child's first guitar

In this article I aim to dispel a very common myth, held by everyone from well-meaning parents through to schools, music services and even music shops.  

The guitar is an instrument which has the power to fascinate and enthral young children.  I teach guitar to children as young as five, many of them having been turned on to the instrument by factors such as playing the Guitar Hero games, seeing older siblings or relatives playing the guitar or being exposed to guitar music by their parents.  Others may just have seen the Jonas Brothers on TV and think they and their guitars look cool.

As a parent, negotiating the vast array of guitars available on the internet, in music shops, even in supermarkets, can be incredibly daunting.  How do you know which guitar is the right one for your child to begin learning on?  As well as asking friends with guitar-playing children for advice, many parents will have preconceived ideas about what they think their child should be learning and will take this into account.  Others will look to their child’s school, which may have a number of guitars for students to use, and base their decision on what they see happening there.  Finally, some parents will ask for advice from the local music shop as their employees must know what they’re talking about, right?  The conclusion that many end up coming to is that buying their child a cheap nylon string classical guitar is the best way forward.  This may not be so.

I want to look at the three main reasons parents come to this conclusion, and hope to arm you with the knowledge to make an informed decision when buying your child their first guitar.

Reason #1:

Nylon strings are softer and won’t hurt your child’s fingers as much as a steel string acoustic or electric guitar will.

This is a line still pedalled by many music-shop employees.  I don’t think it’s done out of any malice; they genuinely think they are giving good advice.  But where does this advice come from?  Well, for as long as I can remember, primary schools and music services throughout the UK have been encouraging their pupils to learn classical guitar; the chances are the employee is remembering their school days, where as a primary school child they were given a cheap nylon string classical guitar to learn on and probably embarked on some kind of classical guitar syllabus.  This practice is still rife in schools today, mainly I suspect down to cost, as hard-up state schools aren’t able to buy anything other than cheap nylon string classical guitars in bulk.  What has changed is that today children are a lot more clued up about the style of guitar they want to learn to play.  In my experience, children who want to learn to play rock/pop guitar styles actually find nylon string classical guitars harder to play.  The necks are incredibly wide, which make the guitars very uncomfortable to learn on.  Classical guitars are built for classical guitarists and their technique is very different from pop/rock styles your child will most likely want to play.  It’s true that fingers will take a little while to toughen up, but with plenty of practice your child should be able to break the pain barrier in no time.  There are also lots of ¾ and ½ size acoustic and electric guitars on the market now, which are a more appropriate size for young children and make learning even easier.

Reason #2:

Children should be encouraged to learn to play the guitar “properly”, “progressing” onto the electric guitar/rock/pop styles they actually want to play once they have learnt to read music.

I wouldn’t want to knock classical guitar tuition in the slightest.  Some children do want to learn to play classical guitar and should be encouraged all the way if this is the route they genuinely want to take; but the fact is that most kids today want to play like Matt Bellamy, not Andres Segovia.  A child who decides they want to learn to play the guitar as a result of watching Green Day on TV will most probably not get excited at the prospect of learning scales, studies and pieces called things they can’t pronounce in languages they’ve never heard.  I want to dispel the myth that a child has to “start off” learning a style of music they’re not interested in on an instrument they find very hard to play before they can get to the fun stuff.  The vast majority of children wanting to learn the guitar today simply want to be able to play some tunes they know and that their mates will recognise, at least to start off with.  Why make this hard for them?  My job as a guitar teacher is to keep the student motivated and enthusiastic about playing the guitar; I want to get them playing something before we start looking at theory, scales and arpeggios.  I’m not saying I don’t teach that stuff – I believe it’s very important – but I am saying that it can be integrated into the “fun” stuff so that your child stays motivated and rewarded instead of bored and frustrated.  If you force your child into taking classical guitar lessons they don’t want to take, the best case scenario will be that your child will slog away, viewing guitar playing and practice in the same way as they view their maths homework (unless they’re a maths whiz – but you get the point!) and getting very little or no enjoyment out of it.  The worst case scenario is that your child will simply find the lessons too boring and give up before they’re anywhere near the stage where you deem it is appropriate for them to start learning the stuff they actually want to play.  This results in them then having a very negative view of their own guitar-playing abilities, sometimes for the rest of their lives.  The Rockschool syllabus is an excellent way of combining the styles of music children would be likely to want to play, with relevant music theory, scales and techniques and I highly recommend this if you want your child’s learning to take a more formal route.    

Reason #3:

Nylon string classical guitars are usually the cheapest guitars available and you don’t want to spend too much money in case it’s a flash in the pan.

I have a beautiful nylon string classical guitar, which looks lovely and sounds sublime.  I don’t practice my rock n’ roll chops on this guitar; I use it for playing fingerstyle and traditional folk and country pieces, plus some classical pieces I am trying to get my head (and hands!) around.  Unfortunately not all classical guitars look and sound so great.  Very cheap classical guitars are not worth your time or money!  There is a glut of them on the market, and you could pay as little as £20.  They are made very cheaply abroad and as well as being almost impossible to get in tune, they are also practically unplayable due to cheap materials, shoddy workmanship and very high “action” (how far away the strings are from the neck).  For only a few more ££s, you could find your child a suitable acoustic or electric guitar and I would certainly recommend you look at starter kits appropriate for their age and size.  And if they give up after a week?  You’ll have an almost new decent guitar in very good condition that you can sell on ebay for only slightly less than you paid for it. 

I am happy to advise on the sort of guitar I think your child would benefit most from – please feel free to email me.