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Children and music

If a child can lay a happy foundation in music playing at a younger age, this can be a great gift for life. Playing music can give much pleasure to the player and the listeners. It cheers people up and encourages them. It is a sociable thing to do togther. It can bring great joy and comfort. What a great gift of life music is!

Of course children can play and enjoy music.
It is best that they do not start before their hands are ready for the guitar.
8 years of age is a good minimum age to start playing in my opnion.
However there is a style of teaching called Susuki which starts children at a younger age.
It is possible to purchase smaller guitars for younger players.
It just requires that the child is keen to play music and the guitar and that they will recieve support at home for playing.

Support

The support for a child learnimg guitar can include:

• Praise for the playing they do and focusing on the postive.
• Playing the provided CD regularly at home so the child is hearing both the pieces they are playing and the pieces
  they will be going on to play
• Have an area for the student that is quiet and unbothered where they can do their playing without distraction.
• Depending on the child, perhaps providing other rewards for practise done, or musical goals achieved.

There is a great resource book we use for working with children called "Guitar for Kids". It allows children to learn fundemental single line and strumming skills while participating in fun and interesting songs. It is both an instruction book and also it includes a CD
for the pieces learned. This is used to hear the new pieces that will be learned and also it is used to play along with as part of
the learning process.

After this is complete the child will have some tunes they can play and they will be able to accompany themselves on several songs
by strumming the chords.

After this course is finished, which would normally take about 2 terms.

Exams or no exams
At the same time students can start to prepare for a Trinity Classical, Trinity Pop/Rock or a Rockschool exam.
Exams suit some people and not others.
For some it provides a great motivation for successful development.
The student may choose to aim for a "mock" exam with the teacher instead of the formal exam with the Trinity or Rockschool Examiner.

This can be done for
plectrum guitar/electric guitar- which has more of a focus on Rock, Pop and Jazz
fingerstyle guitar - which focuses more on many different areas from the the classical world

Buying a guitar
Get the right guitar for the student is essential. A poor or unsuitable guitar can sound terrible and be difficult to play.
This does not support successful progress.
There are good deals for guitars which I can recommend.
See the page "Buying a Guitar" for more information.

Contact
Cell: 0275626341 Phone: 5626341 Email: mikewr09@gmail.com