Interested in Buying your child a guitar?
I hope you have caught some of the excitement from music class as we have begun the year learning the basics of guitar. We are doing a unit on guitars this fall, will go to other things and then will incorporate them into class again in the spring. Many students have mentioned the possibility of getting their own guitar so I wanted to offer a few pointers if you are considering a purchase. Remember, this is OPTIONAL and not necessary for music class.
From my own experience as a musician, teacher and parent this is what I believe about playing and buying instruments:
1– Learning to play any instrument is hard work. The better your instrument sounds the more worth it the work is. If your instrument is hard to play and doesn’t sound so great anyway it will end up in the closet and musical interest will disappear.
2- If an instrument is sold in the toy department/discount store it is a toy. Please do not judge your child’s interest in playing or musical ability by how much they are motivated to play a toy disguised as a guitar.
3-Watch for two things when choosing a guitar: size and action. The size is extremely important to success. Do not buy a guitar that your child must grow in to. It will not save you money because a too big guitar is almost impossible to succeed on and it will end up in the closet. The action is how high above the fretboard the strings are. Guitars with strings high above the fretboard are difficult to press down and will really HURT. Again, it will probably end up in the closet.
There are many great, inexpensive instruments out there. I have been very pleased with the ones we have purchased for school. They are staying in tune, have a great sound and a good action – plus we received a huge school discount for them. I highly recommend these guitars: ¾ size Hohner, model number HW03 (these are the smaller of our class set and fit everyone.) Oscar Schmidt, model number OF2 are bigger and work for only our tallest students. Both are acoustic guitars. Classical guitars and, of course, electric have a different shape and feel though you can play the same things on each.
Locally, R & H Music and Gullia Music deal in guitars a lot and are great sources of information, strings, instruments, lessons and help. You can also get good deals online, especially if you know what instrument you want.
Good luck! I am glad to help if I can. I’ve been really impressed with all of our 4th and 5th graders!
From my own experience as a musician, teacher and parent this is what I believe about playing and buying instruments:
1– Learning to play any instrument is hard work. The better your instrument sounds the more worth it the work is. If your instrument is hard to play and doesn’t sound so great anyway it will end up in the closet and musical interest will disappear.
2- If an instrument is sold in the toy department/discount store it is a toy. Please do not judge your child’s interest in playing or musical ability by how much they are motivated to play a toy disguised as a guitar.
3-Watch for two things when choosing a guitar: size and action. The size is extremely important to success. Do not buy a guitar that your child must grow in to. It will not save you money because a too big guitar is almost impossible to succeed on and it will end up in the closet. The action is how high above the fretboard the strings are. Guitars with strings high above the fretboard are difficult to press down and will really HURT. Again, it will probably end up in the closet.
There are many great, inexpensive instruments out there. I have been very pleased with the ones we have purchased for school. They are staying in tune, have a great sound and a good action – plus we received a huge school discount for them. I highly recommend these guitars: ¾ size Hohner, model number HW03 (these are the smaller of our class set and fit everyone.) Oscar Schmidt, model number OF2 are bigger and work for only our tallest students. Both are acoustic guitars. Classical guitars and, of course, electric have a different shape and feel though you can play the same things on each.
Locally, R & H Music and Gullia Music deal in guitars a lot and are great sources of information, strings, instruments, lessons and help. You can also get good deals online, especially if you know what instrument you want.
Good luck! I am glad to help if I can. I’ve been really impressed with all of our 4th and 5th graders!
