Teaching children to play the guitar can be extremely challenging, even in the optimal conditions. Students who are about 10 years old and younger often have a smaller attention span, a smaller arm-span, and a lack of finger dexterity. Sometimes, teaching young students can feel like an uphill battle!
This is why I propose that most students in this age group (10 years or younger) should not play guitar, instead they should play the ukulele. The ukulele provides many advantages for a child in music lessons, and I believe it can still provide an equally rigorous and enjoyable education. Here are some key points to discuss with parents of a new student, who are looking to purchase a guitar for their child.
1. Parents almost always purchase a guitar that is too big for their child. A 6 foot tall man will easily fit a full size guitar, but a “dreadnought” sized guitar is a jumbo guitar! Too big for many adults. A smaller adult (around 5 ft tall) will often fit a smaller guitar better (620-640mm). A ten year old child will need at least 3/4 size guitar, and a 5 year old will probably need a 1/2 size guitar. Often times music shops will sell guitars that are too big to children on purpose. Getting a guitar that is too big for a child can ruin music for them forever! It makes them feel like they are inadequate, or stupid, and can cause injuries. Even when they follow all the directions correctly, the big guitar doesn’t work. The young student says to themselves, “It must be my fault, there is something wrong with me”, but it is only the guitar’s fault. This is one of the biggest tragedies of guitar teaching; getting the wrong size guitar for a student is a dream-killer. Soprano ukuleles are all basically the same size, and will fit any size person.
2. Guitars are expensive. An awful, cheap guitar will cost you slightly less than $100. A few students have parents that want their child to start a life-long journey of classical guitar, and so they will invest hundreds of dollars into a high-quality miniature-guitar. Most parents don’t have that kind of money, or don’t know what classical guitar is. My personal ukulele that I use in concert is $25. So if you’re a parent who is testing the waters with new lessons, consider purchasing a $25 ukulele instead of a $100+ guitar. Saving that money early on can help you invest in a great guitar for a future birthday!
3. Ukulele is easier to play in many ways. The simplest chords on guitar require 2 left hand fingers to play, but the simplest chords on ukulele only require a single finger. This helps young children who have yet to develop their natural finger dexterity. Having only 4 strings is a great advantage too, because we guitarists hate using our right hand pinky fingers for plucking the strings! That means most of us only pluck with 4 fingers. Having only 4 fingers and 4 strings means every finger has its own “assigned seat”, and the A finger goes on the A string. Children find this extremely intuitive, and it’s a great way to introduce fingerstyle. It’s like bowling with the bumpers up, there’s so much less to worry about. The same is true of playing a small 4 string instrument instead of a giant 6 string instrument!
Ukuleles are more cost effective, and more accessible mentally and physically, especially for kids. So why aren’t we all teaching young students ukulele, and graduating them up to bigger guitars as they get older?
1.) Ukuleles are not viewed as “serious” instruments like violin and piano. But 100 years ago, before the legacy of Andres Segovia, guitars weren’t taken seriously either.
2. Ukuleles can’t teach you the same songs a guitar can, like the music of Sor, Aguado, and Guiliani. But actually it can! Check out these free pdfs: https://pdfminstrel.wordpress.com/2-standard-high-g-ukulele-pdfs/
3. You’ll have to unlearn certain techniques. This may be true, you may not be able to hold and play a ukulele exactly like a guitar, but it’s pretty darn close. As you grow from a child into an adult, you will already have to relearn/unlearn many things, even if you only play guitar your whole life. Your body shape changes, and so you must change your playing posture. The way you play the strings may change from ukulele to guitar, but no more or less than the way you play guitar changes from young age to old age. Many professional guitarists never play a stringed instrument until they are 18.
There are always exceptions to the rules. Some young students are exceptionally tall, and some old students are exceptionally short! Some parents and students are extremely passionate about classical guitar, and will go to any length, even building a custom guitar, to ensure their child sticks to playing the guitar. But this is not the average situation. With the average young student, I believe they can learn more and learn faster on a ukulele instead of a guitar. That is why I say children should (almost) never play guitar!