DS wants Guitar Lessons ....

[clumsymum]

Now in KS2, DS came home with a letter yesterday saying "As your child has expressed an interest in learning to play the guitar......." saying he can start lessons next thursday, please cough up £40.

Now I had no idea that ds had any interest in taking up the guitar, he has never tried to play one.

Spoke to him about it. He thinks if he learns to play, he will be able to play an electric guitar later

So I went in this morning and spoke to school office. No he can't have a 'taster' lesson, I have to stump up £40 just for him to try it. If he gives up after one lesson, my £40 goes west.....

I would be THRILLED for ds to take up an instrument, I am happy to encourage his efforts. But I also know that he is not patient, doesn't have sticking power if he finds something difficult, and has poor fine motor skills (still stuggles to tie shoe-laces, often shouts and gets cross over that). I'm afraid he'll get frustrated and get into trouble over doing this.

Why can't school offer a short trial or something for young kids?

Blimey, that sounds a bit mean.
Sorry, no solution here, but I could swear when I was younger they did taster sessions for some instruments before the parents were lumbered with paying the lesson prices.
(cor, I feel old now, we all HAD to take recorder lessons at primary, bet that doesn't happen anymore??)

By 'as your child has expressed an interest in learning to play the guitar' wonder what they mean by that.. have they just asked him or has he had some exposure to it in a music lesson. How many lessons does that money get him?

If he insists on having a go, then it might be worth pointing out it does take practice, and if you don't practice then what's the point? (something handed down to me by my parents when I learnt the piano - loved it, but bored of the flute quickly and tbh I had poor fine motor skills too.

Following on from Martha's point, what would the practice arrangements be? Presumably you would need to acquire or hire an instrument for him.

The going rate for half-hour individual music lessons is around £15 a lesson. As well as how many lessons, I'd ask how long and how many pupils in a lesson.

This pays for 20 minutes a week until Christmas. There will be 2 or 3 children in each lesson.

DS will think I'm soooo mean if I don't do this, and I WANT to encourage. But £40 for this, just before Christmas...

I don't want to think about buying him a guitar.... Dh has one put away in the back bedroom, but it's too big for ds yet.

I guess I'll just pay up, and see what happens. If he likes it this term, might think of private lessons (more money but better value) next year.

Could you strike a bargain with him - you can do it if...you don't give up, practice 4 days a week,or something else?
Learning an instrument will do wonders for his fine motor co-ordination and has pay offs on many other areas - e.g helps with maths. Most kids find any instrument hard at first, and you may well have to watch him practice, but many benefits in terms of a hobby for life, ready made social circle.
Give it a try?

Hi, my son is in year 4 at primary and started guitar lessons at the beg of the new school year. We have to pay £80 a term for 10 x 1/2 hour lessons. We also had to buy a guitar as our music service (East Sussex) do not hire out guitars!. We got a cheap 3/4 guitar from Argos and so far he is doing really well! We have been told that once he has done a few years of the classical guitar when he starts senior school he can move onto the electric guitar!!!

We also were not offered trial lessons before having to cough up the £80 but discussed with our ds that learning an instrument requires him to practice every day. The teacher has said that at this stage 10mins practice a day is perfect so its not a huge chunk of the evening spent practicing.

I hope your son does enjoy learning to play, my ds is doing really well at the moment and is progressing quite quickly.

CGM X

Thanks Cows, that's really encouraging.

Now I've written the cheque (out of my "This account doesn't exist" account. I throw £20 in whenever I remember, and dedliberately don't have a pin number for it) I feel less agrieved about it.

I'm really hopeful that he'll get on with it, but time will tell.

Best bargain electric guitar is from e- buyer. Guitar, amp, strap, spare strings, pitch pipes, lead, plectrums and postage- £54!And it's a really good little guitar.