How about to young?

I think 4 is too young.

If a lesson is kept short, with songs that interest a 5 year old they may well be able to hack it. If you force them to go when they don't want to you may turn them from music for a very long time though.

It's a tough call. It may be an idea to get the older child a small guitar and let them "help" you out when you practice in order to gauge interest before paying for lessons.

If the interest is there, you're never too young.

However, you shouldn't push a child of that age - encouragement is fine "hey, that sounded great!". Let a child of 4 or 5 go at it's own pace, a result may not be seen for 10 years, but the lack of pressure will bring bigger rewards later rather than smaller ones sooner.

Think of those idiotic pageants that have 4 and 5 year olds competing for "Miss Redneck America" or whatever - those kids are in psychiatric care from about 10 onwards.

It really depends on the child. My grandson is 6 years old (7 in November) and has been playing a little less than a year. He expressed an interest because his father plays so he bought him a decent child's guitar last year.

He is not pushed to play, his lessons are when he visits his father and they play together. He uses basic open chords, changes pretty well and strums pretty well, he also loves Bob Dylan.

And I love to watch his foot go with the beat.

I like the comparison to the pageant kids! Maybe I could just get them a kiddie guitar to play around with and strum and pretend with for a while. That way no big loss if it gets broken from playing to ruff. Heck I could even try to teach them a chord myself. See how it takes.

Good idea.

I can only speak of how my daughter now 9, has been when it comes to practicing and playing guitar and other instruments. I let her move along at her own pace. Example she sang last Saturday night with a rock band for a benefit, besides the two nights of practice with them, she spend the better part of Friday and Saturday preparing. She's loves it.

I didn't push anything on her its all her doing.

Hope this Helps

Joe

I like the comparison to the pageant kids! Maybe I could just get them a kiddie guitar to play around with and strum and pretend with for a while. That way no big loss if it gets broken from playing to ruff. Heck I could even try to teach them a chord myself. See how it takes.
Heres a thought...By them a rugged mid size and if they give up you have a good travel guitar. Maybe something like a Les Paul Jr. :lol:

My son, who is now 6 took a few piano lessons when he just turned 4. He took a few lessons and actually learned a couple real simple tunes but after a month he lost interest in working at it. (As I expected he would. The idea for lessons was his so I figured I'd let him try.) The next year he wanted to take violin lessons so I let him take a couple lessons. He learned a little bit and quit. I think both of those experiences were good because it gave him a sense of what is involved. He still loves music and I'm sure he'll pick it up again when he 's a bit older. I would never consider forcing him into it at his age.
As for guitar, I did get him a 3/4 size cheap one last Christmas (he is always asking for instruments,) but his hands and fingers are pretty small. That's OK. He likes to just hit the strings. Sometimes I feel that is all I can do too.
I afraid this probably doesn't help you too much. What I'm trying to say is I don't think any age is really too young, but only give them the exposure they can handle and if their interest wanes don't make it a chore or it will backfire and then they will never want to learn.

I have a 10 year old grand-daughter (OK step grand daughter if you want to be pedantic) who took karate, violin, clarinet,ballet lessons,,,,,,only the ballet has lasted, cos she enjoys that,,,,,,,I bought her a guitar for Xmas 18 months ago, she's hardly touched it till now.....today I was watching a video, stuff I taped off VH-1 classic rock, she was enjoying the music and was totally knocked out when I picked a guitar up and started playing along.......said to her, if you'd listened to me 18 months ago, you'd be able to do that now - and now I have to dig her 3/4 size acoustic out of the loft and get some new strings.......

Point about music, it's in all of us...it'll come out when it's ready......Lauren heard stuff today she's never heard before, and wants to play like that .......so do I!!!!!

I really, really wish I'd had pushy parents who were into music......they might have sent me to piano lessons when I was a kid........

Never to young... But definitly don't push them on it.

Theres this kid, hes 15 years old I think... He's been playing since he was 4 years old or so.... And he started Gigging in New York City, at age 11 I believe... (His name is Randy McStine, for those who care, hes amazing)

I personally wish my parents had started me on guitar sooner, but they didn't. So I'd say, try to get them interested, play around them, give them a love for music.

Ever since 1st grade, both of our kids have lived with the "one instrument, one sport" requirement. We don't care which instrument or sport, although they both started with piano and soccer.

Now they are in 8th grade and 12th grade, and they do soccer, volleyball, wrestling, and sailing. And they can both play multiple instruments.

I will admit to a bias against teaching children under 10 to play small fretless instruments with very high action :? , but otherwise any instrument is fine.

-Laz

I wouldn't push little kids into anything if they dont want to do it. If their heart's not in it, their development will be really slow, and they'll hate it (most likely). Plus, they might just develop faster in two years if they're older and more inspired than six years with no inspiration.

My daughter is six, she's always wanted to play my guitars, so I bought her one of the $30 wal mart toy things. She loved it, and played with it so much that I finally went out and spent some money on a real guitar for her. She doesn't play with it a whole lot, but whenever I'm playing, she will pull hers off the wall, and try to play along with me. I don't push her to do or learn anything on the guitar, I figure we need to master reading and addition first.

I started at 9, I wanted to play because my grandpa played. He gave me my first guitar, and I tried it for a week, and then it sat for several months, because it hurt my fingers. The interest in guitar finally took over, and I learned how to play. I am almost completley self taught, I was never pushed into it.

I figure my daughter will pick it up, and really learn when she's ready to. It's just got to be on her terms.

It's interesting how different these opinions are from what I've heard about piano playing.
My co-workers daughter (who's 7, I believe) has been studying piano for about a year, and is, apparently, rather good. So her mother went out and found her a highly rated teacher. This teacher took her in, but reluctantly, not because she was too young, but because she was too old!
The teacher usually only takes 4 year olds and said that she would teach my friends daughter, but that she shouldn't expect to be very good because she started too late!