Guitar Lessons for Children

Most dance and music studios recommend children starting guitar lessons be no younger than five years of age. Playing guitar requires a fair amount of strength in the fingers for pressing on the strings. Children under eight generally have small hands and may find playing the guitar uncomfortable.

Although some people will advise you, “the sooner the better” when talking about guitar lessons for children. This attitude can actually have a negative effect on the child’s musical career or overall musical enjoyment. If a child is put into guitar lessons too soon, they may feel overwhelmed and frustrated. The last thing you would want to do is to turn a child off to music. An unpleasant experience can easily be prevented by waiting until the appropriate age before starting guitar lessons.

Another benefit to waiting until your child is of the appropriate age for guitar lessons is that sometimes if the child waits just one year, their progress can be much faster.

The biggest challenges a child must overcome when learning to play the guitar are developing hand strength and their fine motor skills. Playing chords on the guitar requires nimble fingers and the strength to hold the strings down while strumming.

Names of Guitar Strings

One of the first things a child will learn when taking guitar lessons is that every note on the guitar has a name that is represented by a letter. In order to read music and make sense of the strings, a child taking guitar lessons can use this acronym to memorize the strings – Every Adult Dog Growls, Barks, Eats. The first letter of each word of this acronym represents one of the strings. From the thickest to the thinnest strings, they are named E, A, D, G, B and E again.

Guitar teachers will often have a student say the name of each string out loud as they play that string. As the guitar lessons progress, the teacher may point to a string and have the student name it as quickly as possible.

A Qualified Guitar Teacher

Learning music is not just a matter of having a qualified music teacher but also having an environment that is focused on music education. In a professional music school environment, a student cannot be distracted by the television, pets, ringing phone, siblings, or anything else. In a music school, the lessons are not just a hobby for the music teach, but a responsibility which is taken very seriously.
Music should be something that you enjoy for a lifetime. Don’t put unrealistic expectations on yourself or your children to learn too quickly. Everyone learns at a different pace and ideally, the key is to enjoy the journey.

About Wagner Dance and Music

Since 1989, Wagner Dance and Music, a performing arts school, has been teaching East Valley students. Our 3600 square foot Gilbert facility is conveniently located on the southeast corner of Gilbert and Guadalupe in the Big Lots plaza. We offer classes for ages two to adult in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Hip-Hop, Lyrical, Tumbling, Cheer, Musical Theater and Voice as well as adult classes. For more information about Wagner Dance and Music or to sign up for a class, visit http://wagnerdancearts.com or call 480-892-7179.