My 2 and a half year old is showing a huge amount of interest in learning guitar. He likes to strum my real guitars and is also has a ukelele sized toy guitar which he mimcs guitarists from music videos (his favourite is coheed and cambria's welcome home..complete with guitar behind the head for the solo).
Now the toy guitar cant be tuned, the pegs wont hold the tension required to get the strings outside about a 2-3 note range and I would obviously like to encourage him to learn properly. I have seen half sized start guitars and I'm tempted to get one for Xmas but wondered how people have approached teaching very little children the basics.
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@darthed1981 is right though - start with a uke, small and cheap and will get them used to the idea of frets and the very basics.
I'm planning on getting her a little Uke beater for Christmas which i imagine in short time will become a Uke beaten with probably my entire pick collection hidden inside..
Mine ( who are now only 5 and 6 ) have only just started lessons/playing this summer. The very idea that they’d even listen to me ( let alone sit still long enough to play something!!) was literally impossible at the age of three. You’re lucky !
I teach mine 1 individual 20 minute lesson a week and they have a practice chart to do 5 minutes four times a week. If they achieve this then they get a prize ( bath bomb for my daughter, one of my old toys for my son )
The classical guitar learning method and books are much better geared towards the little ones, but it depends on if they can/how much they can read. See if you can get him to learn the names of the strings first ? And then play a game when you can test him for fun ( but with prizes. Always prizes)
For guitar look at the scenes and themes book by john Compton
http://www.sycamoreseries.co.uk/Page1/Page1.html
Or the guitarists way book one by Peter nuttal
lots of open strings and being accompanied.
Ukulele is an excellent option ( Good Cats Eat Apples) especially if they like nursery rhymes singing etc. I use ukulele basics by Lorraine Bow
Ukulele Basics: Ukuele Teaching Method https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571535887/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XwHQBb9YEMPE5
Which is more chords and strumming.
There’s loads of books out there . I wouldn’t try just one. If you find a cool one let me know. I’m always on the lookout for more repertoire.
Hope that helps.
He has already shown interest in what the strings (and every other component) are called so already doing this with him. for simplicity all my guitars Ive fibbed a bit and as far as he is concerned are tuned in standard*...even the 5 string bass and the 8 string
*I dont believe any of my guitars are tuned in standard
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
And I wouldn't do chords with any young children below 12, just single note melody stuff.
Those mini guitars in my view are a waste of time, you need to use really heavy gauge strings to get any tension at all, the fretboards arnt mini fretboards, ours is the same width at the nut to a full sized guitar so small hands struggle, imagine having a childs hands and trying to play a 42mm nut fretboard?
I wonder if anyone has ever modded a mandolin to 6 string standard tuning?
https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Epiphone-MM-30S-A-Style-Mandolin-Antique-Sunburst/F2N#full-des
Then cut a nut for it to accept 6 strings evenly spaced, then modded the bridge and tail again for 6 strings, then with its 27mm nut width and body/neck size you would have an almost perfectly scaled down half size guitar would you not? The string tension is another battle but its a start?
Really, I should just do what I had and leave some laying around the house. The Tele, as that can take a battering.