At what age can children start learning to play the guitar? This question is often asked by parents who want to introduce their children to the guitar. In theory, the age doesn’t matter as long as the child is personally motivated to learn the instrument. But if we take a closer look, we’ll see that the answer is a little more complicated than that.
First of all, your child needs to be able to hold the guitar properly, keeping both arms in the right position and making sure that the left fingers are in the right position before strumming with the right hand. It takes a lot of hand strength to hold the chords properly, as well as a lot of concentration, especially in the beginning. On the Internet you can sometimes read questions about whether it is safe to introduce small children to the guitar. The answer is a resounding no. Although there are guitar sizes for children, toddlers won’t be able to handle these guitars because they are still too heavy and too big. Instead, you should buy them a good toy guitar. Sure, you can’t compare a toy guitar to a real instrument, but it’s the best way to introduce very young children to the world of guitars. It’s a great way to get them excited about the instrument and let them discover it by playing around.
As you can see, it’s not the best idea to introduce a child to a real guitar too early. Before the age of 4, it’s definitely better to buy a toy guitar for your child. From 4 years it’s theoretically possible to get a children’s guitar, but it depends a lot on the maturity, ability, attention span and motivation of your child.
Although they may seem very inspired to start playing, they can quickly lose motivation when they experience how difficult it really is. As a result, they often end up quitting, which is a shame because they won’t want to pick up the guitar again. If they had waited a few years, I’m sure the learning process would have been much easier, but by then they’ve lost their motivation.
