Good Guitar for Small Child?

[RalphH]

You guys suggesting 3/4 sized guitars and baby taylors and martins are nuts (or are too young/too old to know/remember what a kindergarten-aged kid is - and isn't - capable of). There is just no way. You're talking about an age group that still needs help wiping their own backsides. At least 'round here they start proper school at age 4. We're talking 2-4 age group anywhere I've lived.

A Yamaha GL1 Guitalele or a Ukulele is about all they'll be able to hold, and teaching them to actually play (beyond randomly making a noise) is just nonsense. By all means, get them into the idea of having an instrument by buying a Ukulele as a toy as I did with both my girls - it's a fantastic idea, but if you think you're going to be teaching a 3 year old their first chords you're going to be disappointed.

Here's my eldest daughter "playing guitar" when she was in kindergarten (note that is a very small Ukulele)




She is now 7 and has actually started learning to play the guitar properly just this month. She also figured out there is no Santa, wears makeup from time to time and sang her first solo performance in front of about 200 parents at the school Christmas show yesterday. It was beautiful and grandma actually cried. The difference between kindergarten and age 7 is absolutely vast;

Kindergarten = large baby. 7-year-old = undersized teenager.

[steelvibe]

Need second cuppa coffee. I initially read this thread title as, "Small child for a good guitar?"

Back to your regularly scheduled program

[swarfrat]

Yeah, this is a 25" scale mini-bass (not the u-bass I built him later) and I think he's around 4 here.



Here's what I did to the u-bass (20" scale)


I did this because he wanted a "bass". It was fun. But definitely think uke for real. ESPECIALLY since this is a nephew and not your own kid (I'm assuming you don't live with the kid.) It needs to be fun for the kid and not require a lot of parental commitment.

[The Watchman]

Don't buy anything you'll be upset to see the dog dragging around the yard or used as a bat on little sister. Seriously, I'm looking at my five-year old grandson (and the size of his hands) and the toy guitar with a crank on it that was worth a few minutes of his interest.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by swarfrat

Taylor for a 5-6yo? You guys are nuts.

I agree. First Act all the way. If it lasts 6 months then get a Dean. If that lasts 6 months then get a Yamaha. When the kid finally takes a serious interest in music when he discovers girls (or boys, don’t judge) then donate your beater (like a Takamine, Washburn, etc.)

The only way I’d recommend a Taylor (even a GS mini) would be if the kid is playing gigs or has just graduated college - but for kindergarten, you’re basically buying them a toy that will likely get ignored.

[printer2]

A Yamaha is not much more than a First Act and they are useful far longer. One of the things not mentioned here, Ior I could have missed it is lessons. If it is just something they can amuse themselves with it might not last. My niece's kid took violin starting about 5, it would have lasted ten minutes without lessons. Unless you have a gifted kid getting their hands on the strings and just learning rhythm is success.

[619TF]

Another important point...especially if one is going the cheap route would be to get the guitar a setup by a competent person before giving it. The easier it is to play (and, conversely the less it hurts to play) the more the kid will play it. Spend the extra $50 to $100 and get it done right.

[menhir]

For a kindergartner? I'm going to go against the grain and vote, along with a few others, for a First Act guitar.

Don't write those little mini-gutars off too fast.

I have one here with me right now. Blue. With hippie flowers. I bought it used and dusty at a thrift shop for $3.00 several years ago, intending to bring it along on my motorcycle camping adventures. The abuse it would suffer on those trips would probably pale to what even a good little child may inadvertently do to it.

I cleaned it up and put on a used set of steel stings and it actually works pretty durn good for what it is. Beautiful, sonorous tones? Uh...No. Smoothly operating tuners? Nyet.
But it works, and it plays like a guitar. Not a uke or something else that's not a guitar. Plus it's dirt cheap so there's not so many tears if something happens to it.

One caveat: They come with steel strings. Sharp little pointy ends, even though they're equipped with plastic peg guards (I removed them).
Not fun if enthusiastic little fingers over-wind them and they snap.
I don't trust them. No sir, I don't.

But they can be restrung with nylon strings. Easier on the fingers, too.

And it's a guitar.

PS: I raised two good little girls (adult women now).
I've been there, man.

[Birchtop]

Originally Posted by 619TF

Another important point...especially if one is going the cheap route would be to get the guitar a setup by a competent person before giving it. The easier it is to play (and, conversely the less it hurts to play) the more the kid will play it. Spend the extra $50 to $100 and get it done right.

This is so true!

Luckily, my wife's younger beginner students have me to setup their new guitars and violins at no charge. It helps both the students AND the teacher.

[banjopickingman]

It all depends on the child. My son started on ukulele, then guilele, now at 8 plays a parlor sized guitar. I think that starting with nylon strings is a good idea.

[RalphH]

OP, how old - in years - is this child? There's really not much sense to be had here until we know that. Kindergarten means very different things in different places; anything between 1 and 7. Here children start proper school at 4.

Kindergarten here generally means age 2-4. Still wearing diapers and maybe not yet talking at the young end, to merely being very very young at the top end. Still too young for a guitar.

I'd be good to know if we really are talking about a 3 year old before I get much further into telling people they are insane for suggesting anything more than a £15 uke


This is my youngest, who currenly goes to kindergarten, and is one of the biggest children there , holding my GS mini - and to suggest that as a good first guitar for her is clearly nonsense. I'ts not (just) about a small child destroying a proper instrument - it is bigger than she is and she has no hope of reaching anything. It'd be like me trying to play a double bass across my lap.



And this is her guitar vs my GS mini to give you an idea of how far out of scale a GS mini is to an age-appropriate guitar for her. My GS mini never looked so big and manly lol



*note how chipped the paint is on her headstock is - probably from digging holes with it*

*also note is it a different uke to the one I posted of my elder child at about age 3. We normally hand stuff down from one girl to the other, but that little uke, sadly, did not survive*

[Birchtop]

Here Kindergarten or state sanctioned/sponsored home school is 5 years old. Preschool is 4 years and younger.

[RalphH]

Originally Posted by Birchtop

Here Kindergarten or state sanctioned/sponsored home school is 5 years old. Preschool is 4 years and younger.

Here kindergarten and preschool are the same thing, though we dont use the word kindergarten much as it's a German word; US English has far more Dutch, German and Italian mixed in than English English does.

[PAPADON]

To my mind buying an expensive brand name guitar for a child that age would be sort of like buying a new car for a kid who's still using training wheels on their bicycle. I think the more important consideration is that if the guitar is to physically demanding you run the risk of having the the child give up in frustration. At that age I would worry less about tonal quality and focus more on playability. Whatever guitar you choose I'm thinking a slinky set of strings and a low action set up (even if there's a little buzz) will do a lot to avoid that scenario.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by menhir

For a kindergartner? I'm going to go against the grain and vote, along with a few others, for a First Act guitar.

Don't write those little mini-gutars off too fast.

I have one here with me right now. Blue. With hippie flowers. I bought it used and dusty at a thrift shop for $3.00 several years ago, intending to bring it along on my motorcycle camping adventures. The abuse it would suffer on those trips would probably pale to what even a good little child may inadvertently do to it.

I cleaned it up and put on a used set of steel stings and it actually works pretty durn good for what it is. Beautiful, sonorous tones? Uh...No. Smoothly operating tuners? Nyet.
But it works, and it plays like a guitar. Not a uke or something else that's not a guitar. Plus it's dirt cheap so there's not so many tears if something happens to it.

One caveat: They come with steel strings. Sharp little pointy ends, even though they're equipped with plastic peg guards (I removed them).
Not fun if enthusiastic little fingers over-wind them and they snap.
I don't trust them. No sir, I don't.

But they can be restrung with nylon strings. Easier on the fingers, too.

And it's a guitar.

PS: I raised two good little girls (adult women now).
I've been there, man.

You reminded me of a video I saw. Maybe not so bad.