Ds9 wants to learn to play guitar

[jelliebelly]

...and I have no idea where to start! We are totally non musical and need some guidance please. How much does a decent beginners guitar cost and where do I get one? Could he teach himself or do I need to pay for lessons? How difficult/easy is it for a 9 yr old to learn from scratch?

Any experience or guidance appreciated please!

My DD started learning guitar using internet resources but she was a little older (11) and already had some musical background (previously played recorder to about grade 5). It's probably the easiest instrument to teach yourself because of the excellent resources available online and because you don't necessarily need to be able to read ordinary musical notation - but tbh I wouldn't recommend this for a young child starting from scratch unless the child was exceptionally motivated and had a good idea of what music s/he wanted to play.

It would be better to find some lessons. Group lessons are fine for guitar so it doesn't need to be an expensive hobby. A teacher should be able to advise on buying an instrument. For a younger student getting the right instrument is important - you certainly won't want a full-size "dreadnaught" acoustic (the most common steel-string acoustic) - for an average sized 9 year old you'll probably want either a 3/4 size nylon string classical guitar (you can get a decent one for less than £100) or a short-scale steel-string acoustic with a smaller body (budget a bit more - the cheapest steel-string guitars are often horrible to play). Second hand will be less but if you don't know anything about guitars take advice first.

Thanks Mistigri up until now he's shown no interest in music so I'm keen to encourage him but its hard when you haven't got a clue! Ask about rugby, football or cricket and we're fine!

I didn't know anything about guitars either two years ago. Now we have five altogether and I can do a good imitation of a guitar tech when required ;)

If you need any help just shout but really you would be best off asking a teacher's advice before spending anything.

My dd started off on an old 3/4 classical that we had kicking around and then upgraded quite quickly to a short-scale folk guitar, but I had good advice from a semi-professional guitarist friend before forking out the £££ (with acoustic guitars especially, you really do get what you pay for).

This is a reply I sent to someone else, so may not be entirely relevant to you:

Guitar is a difficult instrument to learn for complete beginners, and it could be a year or two before you are playing tunes in a satisfactory way. Just managing three or four chords to accompany simple tunes is feasible, but the hand and finger muscles take time to build up strength and familiarity where fingers should be.

Yes, I would think 3/4 size would be OK for you both; better on the small side for you, rather than being too big for DS.

To get quicker musical progress and satisfaction, I always recommend a Keyboard as a better starting point. And a modern keyboard will have numerous 'guitar' sounds available. Also, 'pop' songs rely very much on 'production' and studio enhancements, so there may not be much for an inexperienced guitarist to 'latch onto'.

Try looking on dedicated guitar sites though, for more in-depth advice.

I agree with a lot of what Ferguson writes but not with all of the above.

A good guitar teacher will get even quite young beginners with no musical experience playing songs quite quickly ... The advantage of guitar is that you can do a lot with a few open chords and no ability to "read music" (this is why it's popular with adult beginners).

Of course for a child who is serious about music there are usually better first instruments - but there many reasons why it's a good choice for a child from a non-musical family with a casual interest, not least because a second hand 3/4 classical guitar won't cost you an arm and a leg and it's generally easy to find inexpensive group lessons.

Thanks for all the advice - will definitely give it a go as ds is so keen - at least I have an idea now of what to expect! Will get looking for a guitar shop locally