Anyone's kids learning to play guitar?

aliasojo

Lol....and if you've finally had enough and refuse something new on the grounds that they have not continued x,y or z in the past.....the thing you refuse will be the very thing they would possibly excel at. :rolleyes:

Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

lostinrates

My husband and I were both musical children. I at least only played two instruments but DH has literally DOZENS of different instruments which we still have, I'd say only 6 or seven of them are played. My suggestion is to hire a guitar at first (Mine -one of Dh's cast offs! has three nylons and three steel, I'm learning and I decided I wante the feel of both- I preer steel) and then when she's shown her commitment buy. If not then go for a cheaper 3/4 with the promise of a better fullsize as she improves and grows. (lost in rates could easily have been drowning in musical instruments )

Poppy9

My DD learnt classical guitar in primary school. She was given a free loan of a 3/4 guitar and free lessons for 3 years but we bought her own classical guitar (which is also electric) for use outside of school. She went to the same guitar teacher outside school for lessons which cost £7 for 30 minutes.

When we asked the guitar teacher's advice for a guitar for DD she told us you couldn't really buy a decent classical guitar for under £400:eek: :eek: . We ended up paying £150(excluding VAT) for a Santo something guitar through the school music service (you don't pay VAT). Ask your school music teacher if they participate in this scheme as it saved us about £30. It does have nylon strings because classical guitar is plucking. After about a year we paid £25 to have the action lowered.

Paparika

Do you know someone who has one she can borrow for a while before you fork out for something she may or may not take up?

geekgirl

I would put a wanted ad on freecycle, or look in local free ads in the newspaper, cards in newsagents tesco etc...
You could pick up a good second hand one for cheap that would be good enough to use if your daughter loves it and cheap enough not to worry too much if she doesn't want to carry on.
My son saved up and bought his base guitar when he was 11. He is still using it now he is nearly 18. He has done countless gigs and recording with it and still loves it. It cost him £120. Good value I reckon.

aliasojo

Poppy9 wrote: »

Ask your school music teacher if they participate in this scheme as it saved us about £30.

The school doesn't have a music teacher as such, just short term visiting peeps to introduce the idea of music to the kids. :rolleyes:

However the school certainly used to participate in this scheme as we shelled out nearly £500 for my son's bagpipes, years ago bought through them.

Needless to say they sit in their lovely metal case in the hall cupboard now. Every time he's skint he makes noises about selling them but I wont let him in case his wee sister ends up showing an interest.

We dont know anyone who could lend us a guitar btw, but I'd be wary of borrowing in case damage was caused.

Btw....have you seen the 'modern' guitars? They come in all colours now. :rotfl: However because I is old and boring, I still think the original 'woody' colour looks best.

arthur_dent_2

I think guitar is something you can play pretty much without thinking about it or you can't really play at all. Hubby has never had a lesson in his life, he can just do it. He hears a tune fiddles about for a couple of minutes then he can play it. I on the other hand couldn't anage twinkle twinkle. There will always be numerous guitars about for my children to play if they want as we currently own 5 'real' guitars and a base.

Poppy9

aliasojo wrote: »

Btw....have you seen the 'modern' guitars? They come in all colours now. :rotfl: However because I is old and boring, I still think the original 'woody' colour looks best.

I wanted a funky pink one but we would have been paying the money for the colour not the quality of the guitar according to the shop and the music teacher who kindly came shopping with us!

DD gave up about a year ago having guitar lessons as she was bored with the music the teacher was doing. She now has the odd strum and muses she'd like to go for more lessons with a different teacher so we might start again.

We also bought a flute through the music scheme. I bought a brand new yamaha for the same price as decent used ones on Ebay. She doesn't have private lessons for this just the free lessons in school.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

DD2 is 9 and really dinky - there was no way she would be able to manage even a 3/4 size one. When she was 5 we went to the nearest music shop where a very pretty 17 year old boy with eyelashes as long as feathers helped her choose the perfect one for her, ending up with a little practice on the cutest 1/4 size electric I have ever seen! I have the suspicion that DD2 would have been quite happy had we been able to take the boy gift wrapped as well, but she hasn't grown out her guitar yet, so he picked the right one for her!

DD1 gets her lessons free - one set (piano) because she's studying music, and one set (guitar) because we're poor. It probably helps that she also attends the free African drumming and steel drums groups after school, so the staff think she's wonderful!

DD2 costs me £170 per term for piano and guitar - no concessions available in her school, recorder/fife and African drumming are offered for free by one of the teachers.

Yes, home can be a very noisy place!

DD1 has a half size which I like using because it stops my hands from seizing up. She is more into her keyboard and drums these days, as she uses them for her Music coursework. Think she's also trying to find a way to get her computer studies teacher to give her extra GCSE credits more being able to programme, compose and sequence music on the computer as well, which makes me feel better about having cashed my nectar points in to get her a midrange Yamaha keyboard when her old one (25 years old) finally fell to bits!

However, BIL is a professional session musician and reckons that until kids studying guitar are so committed as to 'need' something fancier and prepared to pay for it themselves, £50 is more than enough and free is better. He also replaced their strings with better quality nylon, saying that pure steel would shred their fingers (thinking about it, I used to play until my fingers were blistered), but restringing would make it feel and sound much more expensive anyway. DD2 is learning classical guitar, DD1 learned modern.

I have seen a lot of guitars turn up at cash converters and the like, and the local charity shops tend to have a couple dumped out the back if you ask nicely. For £20 you could be lucky and get something far more special!

aliasojo

OMG what have I done? Toddled off to the music store where a lovely lad helped choose the best size for her and then tuned the thing.

We got home with it and let's just say 'strumming' has taken on a whole new meaning.

Let the lessons commence. Soon. Please.

:rotfl:

Acoustic job, btw, £34.99. Saw cheaper ones but they looked it so we opted for a slightly better (but still entry level) 3/4 size. It's wood colour with a fancy pattern round the hole. (That's probably got a name and isn't just called 'hole' is it? :rotfl: ) Lad said nylon strings are far better for her fingers right now so that's what we got.

Send all spare earplugs to:

aliasojo
1 earache drive
Scotland.