My Kid Wants Guitar Lessons: Choosing the Right Guitar
So, your kid is begging you for a guitar for Christmas, and you don’t know where to start. Or, maybe you’re looking to take it up yourself. No problem. Keep reading, and I’ll hopefully steer you in the right direction.
Guitars come in 2 basic flavors, acoustic and electric. Acoustic guitars, in the simplest sense, don’t require amplification. They work right out of the box. Electric guitars, on the other hand, normally require some amplification, which complicates things for first time buyers. So how do you choose?
Age is definitely a factor. I think it makes sense for very young kids, say elementary-school age, to start with a small-scale steel-string acoustic with light strings. These small guitars are called 3/4-size or 3/4-scale. They’re relatively cheap (<$150), so you won’t feel like you wasted money if junior decides he’d rather spend his time playing baseball. The light strings are essential, because if there’s one thing about learning guitar that sucks, it’s how bad your fingertips hurt until you build up decent callouses. And, uh, kids have this funny aversion to doing things every day that hurt, if you get my drift. Silly kids.
Another factor is the type of music you or your kid is into. If you and your boy love Megadeth and Allan Holdsworth as I do, an acoustic guitar is probably not the right route. If you guys are James Taylor and Eagles fans, a full-size steel-string acoustic is probably the way to go.
If you decide to go acoustic, the choices are endless. For beginner normal-sized guitars, I’d stay below $300. You’ll see Yamaha, Martin, Fender, Epiphone, Applause, Taylor, Takamine, Dean and likely more. I’ve owned Yamahas and played Martins I really liked, but any of these at this stage are probably just fine. Remember, you won’t really be able to feel the subtle differences in brands for quite a while, so you’re really just looking for something that’s well built. All of those I mentioned are.
One other consideration is if you’re interested in classical guitar. These acoustics have thicker nylon strings and wider fretboards (where you put your fingers). They’re played generally finger-style, which means you pick individual strings with your fingers as opposed to with a pick. Nylon-stringed guitars are not only used for classical music. They play great jazz and flamenco as well. But, they don’t make very good strumming guitars. For that, you’ll need a steel-string. Nylon-stringed guitars can be had for roughly the same price as their steel-string counterparts. I’d stick with a Yamaha, but I’m biased because I still play and love a Yamaha nylon string I bought in 1983 for about $200.
If junior is a little older, say a teenager, she’s probably interested in joining a band. In that case, you’ll want to think about an electric guitar. This is a topic of great debate, but in this case, I would recommend an off-the-shelf Fender Squire Stratocaster “get-started-playing” kit. These are available from Amazon.com
The downside to these kits is the amp, which is small (10W). Fortunately, by the time your kid is good enough to realize that her amp is too small to be of much use in a rockin’ band, you’ll be so happy she’s stuck with it that you’ll probably be happy to upgrade. And the good news is that at that stage, she’ll know what to buy. All you need to do is use good judgment at that point, like you would with any other electronic purchase.
Keep in mind that no matter what type of guitar you learn to play as a beginner–electric, steel-string, nylon-string–you can crossover to another type with no trouble at all.
One last thing when you’re buying… What I wouldn’t do if I were you is walk into your local guitar mega-mart with no idea what you want. These salespeople work for commission and will tempt you into buying too much guitar. For example, I once saw a poor guy in a music store in New York buying his kid a multi-thousand-dollar guitar that the kid couldn’t even play. The sales guy was playing it (through a smoking good amp) and saying things like, “And in a couple years, you’ll be able to do this!” Ugh. Don’t let it happen to you! Stick with web purchases at this stage.
So, you’ve got your guitar. What now? Do yourself a favor: open up the Yellow Pages and talk to a couple of local teachers. Believe me, they’ll be happy to hear from you. How do you choose the right one? Go with someone you like personally and who’s happy to play something for you. Credentials are okay but not the be-all-end-all. Most great players don’t have degrees from music schools or teaching certificates. Again, just use your judgment and remember that you can switch teachers any time if someone doesn’t work out.
If you have any questions, please post them in the comment section and I’ll be happy to answer. Good luck!
Always take proper care in choosing and buying a guitar. I suggest you to take advice from an experienced person or from a teacher who teaches to play guitar.