Good age to start teaching kids guitar or mandolin?

[P_Phrank]

My 4 year old daughter is showing interest in learning guitar and mandolin. She has her own cheap nylon string guitar, and I already told her she could have my backup accoustic and electric when she gets a bit older. We let her strum on her mother's mandolin too.

I don't think I would be able to teach her myself. If she were a bit older I could teach her, but at 4 years old I think a trained professional instructor would be the way to go.

What experiences have you folks had with your kids or with teaching kids?

[warro]

I think it depends on the kid and his or her ability to focus. I started learning guitar at age 10 but probably could have started earlier because I had lots of focus and determination as a kid. I was interested in guitar at age 5, but some teachers told my folks to wait before starting me on lessons. I really think I could have started that early with the right instrument.

Years later, as a teacher, I had a 4-year-old student. He was way too young. Zero focus, no motor skills. His parents just wanted to expose him to music, which he had an interest in, so they did not mind that he never made any progress as a player. It was all in the spirit of exposure and enrichment, so it was OK.

Then you see these virtuoso violinists and pianists who start really young, like 3 or 4, and do amazing things. Granted, they may be under serious pressure too.

I hate to discourage any child from exploring anything, so I say give it a shot and see how it goes. As long as there's no draconian pressure, it can be all in fun.

[guitarpkr67]

Birth.

[jalford]

At the store I used to manage, we recommended 7 as a good starting age, but as the poster above stated - it depends a lot on the kid. I started guitar at 5, lost interest after about a year, then restarted at 12

[tone4days]

i started my son at 5 or so, and he had had some piano for about a year before that

made it all about fun - no pressure ... walked thru a book specifically for kids (alfred series) .. lotsa stickers and smiley faces when he got the exercises down ... he is now 11 and playing a guitar my grandfather gave me ... just chords, mostly ... but still having fun

[SyKrash]

get a 3/4 scale guitar to make things easier.

[P_Phrank]

warro--Thank you...great post

guitarpkr67--I hear you. I've been playing and singing for her and with her since before she was born. She used to clap after every song I played...now she tells me I'm waking her dolls. She does still sing, clap, drum, and dance when I play I just have to make sure her dolls aren't napping if I want to rock out.

tone4days--Pretty much the route I'm looking to go. No pressure, just fun.


From what my wife and I can tell, she has an incredible ear and can match notes very well with her voice. I obviously have no idea at this point if she'd be good at guitar, piano, singing, or whatever, but she seems to have a better grasp of rhythm and pitch than any of her older cousins and friends. She actually might have better rhythm than me. I guess I'll just start with a book...maybe the Alfred series if it worked for you tone4.

Thank you for your input.

[tedm]

I'd say about 6, but find a nylon string 3/4 to start.

As they get older, they can use a full length, but they still may enjoy the 3/4 or something in between 3/4 and full.

Some 3/4's are still 24" scale, so keep that in mind. 20" "Maestro"s are finicky to tune, so probably a good 22" scale might be good to shoot for. There is one vendor in the MF catalog that has a 22" electric, can't remember the brand, but I think I'm going to try it out.

[smallbutmighty]

As a teacher I usually won't take students younger than 10. There are certainly kids out there that can do well much younger, but I think in most cases the attention span just isn't there. I also like them to be big enough to start on a full size guitar.

ac

[drive-south]

If you want the child to learn to read music, they must learn how to read and write in english first.

If you plan to teach them before they know how to read, just focus on teaching good technique and simple chords and melodies.

My parents tried to sign me up for lessons when I was 5 and the music studio told us to wait a few years. During that 2 year period, I taught myself, but developed a lot of bad habits and learned a lot of things wrong.

The most important thing to learning music is having good ears. The hands and fingers will catch up with the ears eventually.

drive-south

[iaresee]

My 16 month old has a piano, a guitar, a tamborine, some egg shakers, a maracas or two, some castanets, a drum...umm...hmm...I'm sure there are some other instruments at his disposal. Musical toys are the ones I don't mind. They're all sized for him. The guitar doesn't stay in tune but he loves to smack the strings along with Dad when I'm playing a Big Guy Guitar. He seems to favour the piano when it's a solo thing -- especially when he wants to reach something higher then him (he'll drag it over and stand on it).

[tone4days]

we bought him a 1/2 size nylon string classical .. it was not a toy .. held tune very well and the action was very playable ... cost about $125 ... recommend this highly over the toy quality 3/4 size ones - they too frequently have very high action and tuners that do not hold tune

[5E3]

As soon as they can hold one?