Best first musical instrument?

[hex]

DD1 is 6 and her school has offered musical tuition in the following:
cello
guitar
keyboard
violin
recorder
drums

I was wondering which of the above would be the best instrument for her to learn...she hasn't particularly showed any musical talent yet..ar some easier than others?

just to throw in some more food for thought - I found the music lessons through school v. poor value for money - we paid £56 for a term of weekly 20 min group guitar lessons, and they weren't very good. Dd1 also has individual piano lessons outside school with a retired opera singer, which cost us £10 for 30 minutes once a week - money much better spent tbh.

(Ds1's violin sounds lovely btw!!! But we did go through that terrible scrapey phase when he first started using the bow!!!)

Keyboard. At least you can unplug it and/or give her headphones/turn it right down....

what no bagpipes?

All of you that have moaned about the noise - you do know that your dc would stand more chance of making a good noise if you pointed out when they were making one?

The noise from even a badly played violin is much nicer than the sounds of children's TV.

I don't think I've ever complained to the child about noise. I prefer when I listen to their practice to accompany them on the piano so we always find their accompanied piece if much better as I've been happier to sit through that which I am sure is not best practice.

I agree with twenty pence about the keyboard. I wouldn't assume that it is going to lead to playing the piano. My best friend has grade 8 on the keyboard, but only got as far as grade 2 on the piano. She had learned cords rather than reading bass clef and so really struggled.
I'd go with the recorder personally. Very cheap and easy to start with and will show if she has the potential to learn anything more. I started out on recorder, and went on to play flute and clarinet.

My DH is a private guitar teacher and he doesn't take on students younger than 9. He recommends they try to keyboard first. Gives them an understanding of chords/structure and gives a good grounding. Guitar is too difficult and you have to do different things with both hands to make any noise at all. And it hurts.

Above all though, they have to WANT to learn to learn. If they don't WANT to, you might not see results.

Thanks for all yr messages. I have decided with the recorder (I think)for this year, tho I will buy the book 'Right instrument for yr child' to check. dd1 is very sociable and might like to practice with friends. I'll just have to put up with the grating noise and dd2's attempts to copy (will no doubt post if it all becomes to much!!). Depending on how she fares and whethr she takes to music, we'll review it for next yr.

Hex, consider yourself lucky that trumpet is not on the list.

something that fits in your dcs schoolbag - i played the cello at school and hated dragging it back and forth with me!

Keyboard or guitar the most useful, recorder the easiest to start on. Violin and cello come in small sizes.

I would say recorder, but then I had a great recorder teacher at school, in fact what she taught me at junior school carried me through high school where we did random class blowing instead.

I have just started to teach dd recorder (tonguing included) if she gets past a certain level I'll find her a proper teacher but for the moment she is learning notation and fingering. If she has the inclination she will start piano around age 7 although they do class violin in year 3 (aargh!)

so could someone explain tonguing to me then?

My first was a recorder, then I moved onto flute and piano (and later oboe).

I got a lot of fun and enjoyment out of music while I was at school...pity I sold my oboe to go travelling, and mum and dad sold the piano for I don't know what reason!

Tonguing is just the way you use your tongue when starting a sound on a wind instrument. Say ta ta ta and the t sound is what you need. Recorders can be badly played without much tonguing, just blowing into the instrument but you need to learn to always start a sound with your tongue.

You can also use the back of your mouth to start a sound, say ka ka ka which doesn't produce a really clean start but is useful on brass instruments to do really quick successions of notes that your tongue alone wouldn't manage, (double tonguing) so you'd say ta ka ta ka ta ka as you blow.

Clear as mud?

A lot of children use a whole breath to play one note and then another for the next note. Sounds awful and they get very dizzy.

They need to make more than one note with each breath, but if the same note is repeated then a gentle tongue behind the top teeth will allow them to play more than one note in a breath.

I thought schools taught tongueing, I'm quite surprised taht they don't. I've started teaching dd recorder, and she had to learn about tongueing before she was allowed anywhere near it!

This article in the Telegraph talks about matching the child to the instrument.