The Best Guitars For Kids
Choosing the best Guitars For Kids involves answering 2 quite different questions:
1. Just what is the best Guitar for your Kids?
AND
2. Are your kids going to stick with Playing the Guitar?
As a parent I understand that our kids want to try everything out, and particularly if Johny or Sally down the road are playing guitar, OR if they want to be just like one of their pop star idols.
And while we like to encourage our kids to find their special talent in this world, we all know that most of these desires end as just another passing phase or fad.
So with that in mind I definitely recommend keeping the cost down when buying your first guitars for kids. And there are plenty to choose from under $100.00, so you definitely don’t need to go overboard into a designer or replica guitar. You can read my post The Best Kids Acoustic Guitar for my personal recommendations.
On the other hand I would also suggest avoiding the really cheap guitars. They just tend to be really hard to keep in tune, and don’t have a very good sound to them in the first place.
It is really important to at least give your kids a chance at making that thing sing!
Now getting down to that first question of choosing the best Guitars For Kids.
There are a couple of things to consider like;
- What size
- What Style
- What accesories are required, Lessons and Noise!!!
What Size Guitars For Kids;
As a general rule you could follow the guidelines below
Acoustic Guitars;
3 to 6 years old – 1/2 Size Acoustic Guitar
6 to 9 years old – 3/4 or 34” Acoustic Guitar
9 to 12 years old – Student 36” Acoustic Guitar
13 years to Adult – Full Size Acoustic Guita
Electric Guitars;
6 to 9 years old – Junior Electric Guitar
9 to 12 years old – Short Scale Electric Bass Guitar
10 Years to Adult – Full Size Electric Guitar
13 years to Adult – Full Size Electric Bass Guitar
What Style Of Guitars For Kids?
While I typically recommend adults all start on a basic acoustic guitar. And firmly believe the same applies to kids.
It is a little harder to convince a 13 year old who is desperate to emulate his favourite Bass Guitarist that an acoustic guitar is in any way “Cool”.
So you may need to just go with the flow, you know your kids better then I. But if you can get them to start with an Acoustic great, if not make sure they can at least access lessons either online or locally with an instructor.
Other things like accessories, lessons and the amount of noise also need to be considered. Obviously electric guitars need more accessories like amps.
They can also be more restrictive in regards to lessons as not all local tutors want to deal with electric guitars and even more particularly bass guitars. There are plenty of online lessons available like Jamorama. Here is a post on my favorite Guitar Lessons For Kids.
Finally noise is definitely a factor, even with acoustic guitars. Make sure you have somewhere for you kids to do their stuff uninhibited.
If there is not a space that they can go to, then try to identify a time where they can use the family room that is ok for them to go for it to the hearts content.
