Guitar for a 7 year old

Smodlet

Jojo's suggestion is brilliant... If you have money to burn or "know" your LO is going to be the next Andre Segovias. What if he decides he wants a skateboard next week? Or to learn to surf the week after?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Smodlet wrote: »

Jojo's suggestion is brilliant... If you have money to burn or "know" your LO is going to be the next Andre Segovias. What if he decides he wants a skateboard next week? Or to learn to surf the week after?

Did you mean Andres Segovia, dear?

I'm not aware of many primaries in the UK offering skateboarding or surf tuition during the school day, but I would imagine that if the child wants to try those activities, they can do them after school, thus enabling guitar lessons to continue to the end of term as normal - when a half decent guitar can be sold to someone in the next group.

Smodlet

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Did you mean Andres Segovia, dear?

I'm not aware of many primaries in the UK offering skateboarding or surf tuition during the school day, but I would imagine that if the child wants to try those activities, they can do them after school, thus enabling guitar lessons to continue to the end of term as normal - when a half decent guitar can be sold to someone in the next group.

This is supposed to be a money saving site, dear. I'd wait at least six months before buying any guitar.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Smodlet wrote: »

This is supposed to be a money saving site, dear. I'd wait at least six months before buying any guitar.

If there are decent ones of the right size with cases that can be supplied and taken home every night and during school holidays, yes. And if a refusal to consider buying doesn't mean that there won't be enough to go around for the children whose parents genuinely cannot afford one at all.

Children are more likely to engage with any learning if they feel their parents support it. Why not, if it's possible to buy one without suffering, get one and leave the ones knocking around in the back of the music cupboard for the kids whose families genuinely cannot afford £40 on top of the tuition fees, whilst your own child gets the satisfaction of having their own instrument to play?

By giving accurate information about what is actually needed, how to get the best for several price levels, I think I've enabled moneysaving choices to be made more than dismissing the child out of hand - just as this site does with buying and running cars, washing machines, holidays, clothing, mobiles, phone/internet and TV packages. You could easily say 'moneysaving' dictates that nobody needs a TV as all they'll be doing is grumbling that there's nothing on by Friday evening or that a holiday is a waste when you have somewhere to live. But this site doesn't do that - it gives people information so they can make their own choices.

It's not harmful or ridiculous to answer the question asked with actual facts rather than dismissing the idea and the child out of hand - or attacking the person who gave the information for being so forward as to actually answer the question asked.

Nobody knows whether a decision made for a child is going to have long term effects. The odds are that they are not going to be an internationally renowned classical musician; it's just as likely that they might decide they don't want to continue lessons, change to bass, change to drums or not come back to it until they're 14 or 18 or 38. They might spend happy Monday nights after work playing at a session night or jam when they're in their 50s. Or they could end up playing in the Bahamas in a fortnight, like my OH is. It's just as well that his parents didn't baulk at the sixty quid they spent on buying him his first guitar, really.


There's a considerable difference between the price and the value of something. Spotting the potential value and getting the best you can for your budget is moneysaving.

sheramber

My first choice would be to ask what kind the school have and buy the same?

W e bought our son's in a local music shop who gave advice on what to buy. That was many years ago but it was not expensive at the time.

[Deleted User]

Appreciate it may be rather late for this particular poster, but this site is worth a look

http://www.takeitaway.org.uk/about-take-it-away/