5 yr old too young for guitar?

[joshandjamie]

My 5 year old son (turns 6 next Feb) is dying to get a guitar. I've told him that he can only get one if he's prepared to go to music lessons. But is he too young to learn a guitar. I don't want to squash something he really wants to do but am not sure whether he's too young for guitar. Thoughts?

[coffeeholic]

Could you get him a toy one; there are some lovely wooden ones out there, and see if he plays with it before commiting to a real one? Also, I'm not sure about this, but I would imagine that his hands would have to be a certain size before he would be able to learn anyway.

[duckyfuzz]

DT1 wants one too, we have a full size one but she can't handle it very well, we are going to getthis for her, she is 6 in Dec

[joshandjamie]

duckyfuzz, that one looks good. Coffeeholic - sadly a toy one won't cut it. He's adamant he wants a real one. So as long is it's a smaller version that is reasonably tuneful I reckon he'd be ok. I just don't want to see it being turned into a sword/shield instead of a musical instrument - which I can well see happening :-)

[FlamingoBingo]

DD1 (6) and DD2 (nearly 5) are getting small real guitars for Christmas. A musician friend of mine said that ukeleles (sp?) were really good for small children who are interested in learning the guitar as they get big enough.

[trickerg]

Too young. The guitar teacher at school says Y3 is too young (even though he teaches them). If the child isn't dextrous enough (which a 5 year old is very unlikely to be), s/he will get bored and never want to touch a guitar again.

[threestars]

My son's 5. He plays a half size guitar. He has a fantastic teacher who is used to working with young children. She's been teaching him some tunes (Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, Smoke on the Water riff(!)) and has been going through the chords inbetween. He's starting to do chord changes but it's quite tricky.

Practising is the only problem. DS is great with his teacher and all enthusiastic, but he doesn't like to practise with me. So progress is slow, but the teacher is not pushy and she's really patient, and she asks him if there's anything he'd really like to learn.

I'm hoping he'll learn that you can't be amazing immediately, but if you put a bit of effort in, you'll get alot out of it, but I do think the trickiest part is the practising, which could well put him off if I don't handle it well.

[mumblecrumble]

Not too young, depending on your expectations.

Ukele would be ideal but he will still want a guitar.

Many schools/shops do a hire scheme. You pay to rent it and after a while can either pay the balance and own it or give it back.

[thirtypence]

Ds is almost 7 and is just about old enough - and he plays the cello already so used to putting his fingers into position without looking etc.

The year 3 boys that have been learning all year are pretty much the same as at the start of the year.

You can fortunately sing quite a few things over the top of one or two chords - but I'm not sure all guitar teachers are happy to do this week after week.

[Heated]

Ds wants to learn as dh plays guitar, he is 5 but he won't start until he's 7, and even then may not be quite ready. In the meantime, through EY Music they're playing ocarinas and simple percussion, all in preparation.

[DidSantasMum]

I got given my first guitar at 3 1/2yrs it was a proper 1/2 size guitar and i learnt gently (ie short lessons) for a long while. i gave up when i discovered my dyslexia meant i couldnt sight read and it became more upsetting then rewarding. Still occassionally pick it up for fun though.

So my advice depends on the child and whether this is a new thing or a long thought out thing. and how flitty they are. do you think they have the concentration span to cope with lessons and practice.

[Mincepiedermama]

Mine started at 5 with a half size spanish guitar. He's 9 now and a really great guitarist. I got him one on one lessons as IME the school ones don't work so well.

I think you have to encourage these things whether they come off or not. They can't really tell if they'll stick with it until they try after all.

[Nevergoogle]

DS1 is 5 and has a junior size guitar that he got last christmas. Before that he had a toy one.

He quite happily strums it and sings the songs he's learned at school.

I just smile and say well done even though it sounds dreadful. I've said he can have lessons when he's bigger and i think lessons at this stage would put him off.

[Jux]

My dh teaches guitar. He says 5 is not too young to learn. It does require dexterity, but then so does the violin and plenty of people start that even younger than 5 (almost all my cousins started at about 3). The thing is, you won't be hearing him play Jimi Hendrix riffs at his age, but he can learn to strum and to pick on open strings.