Here is a topic that is very close to my heart.
Not only have I have made my living teaching
guitar to students of all ages for the past 20 years, but I am the father of
three small children.
Who wouldn’t want to learn the guitar?
It doesn’t take long to realize that guitar
players get most of the glory and are often the coolest people in the
room.
You don’t have to be a fan of Guns
N Roses to know the name Slash but how many people can tell you the name of their
drummer?
Yes, you can go on YouTube and see videos of preschoolers
that would make Eddie Van Halen question his own achievements, but these kids
are prodigies and your kid more than likely is not.
Don’t feel bad though.
Most great and successful musicians were not child prodigies
either. They just practiced and worked
at it. So, back to the question at hand;
at what age is a child ready for guitar lessons?
I have taught thousands of guitar lessons over the years, and
from my experience children under six have hurdles that make learning the
guitar challenging. Now before you close
out this screen and decide to wait before registering your child for lessons,
please read on as the answer to this question isn’t as simple as throwing out a
number.
Here are 3 common problems and solutions to consider:
1. Whose idea was this anyway? There is a difference in guitar lessons being
the child’s idea versus the parent’s idea.
Obviously dragging your kid to their first lesson no matter how old the
child, is a sign that that things may not go well.
Solution:
Talk to your child about music.
Listen to a song they like and talk about the different sounds you both
hear. Go online and watch live videos of fun child friendly artists and talk about the different parts of the
performance. Point out the guitars,
drums, microphones, etc. Don’t be pushy
and don’t dominate the conversation. Let
your child talk and make observations.
This will develop a curiosity and maybe motivate them to try something
new.
2. Motor skills: This is the big one. Undeveloped motor skills is the top reason younger kids struggle
with guitar lessons. It's also the
reason that you want a good teacher and not pick some guy with a Craigslist
ad.
Solution: At our teaching
studio, we have teaching techniques that we use to combat this. It’s about understanding the student’s
limitations and knowing how to adjust for them.
Let me say it again…Get a professional teacher!
- The
bad experience: Once a child is open to the idea of music lessons, we
don’t want to put out that fire. If
the child’s first foray into music lessons is with an instrument that is
too cumbersome or requires cognitive skills that are not yet developed, it could lead to the student quitting. Some will leave feeling that music is not for them.
The truth is that kids of any age can benefit from music classes,
but the path they were on was not right for them.
Solution: This is an area
once again where a professional teaching studio is the way to go.
At
Key Music Center
we offer free evaluations of students before they register in order to offer
advice for the path that would best serve them.
For very young students I also recommend introducing piano into the
weekly lessons as well.
There are many
benefits to this. Chief among them is that it allows the student to have an “out”
if the guitar doesn’t work out while leaving a great option to continue with
the piano.
I have had students gravitate
towards one instrument or the other but I have also have seen students fall in
love with both instruments.
The
important thing here is that we don’t extinguish that fire for music.
Bottom line is that you want to introduce your child to a
fun and friendly environment with a teacher that can nurture their inner
Beethoven. This can be done at any age. The tool may be guitar, piano, drums,
or singing but more importantly it's who's teaching them.
