Kid Guitars
Kids Guitar Information
Archive for September, 2009
When most children express a desire to learn the guitar, they often imagine themselves playing extended solos in front of adoring fans. In truth, the best rock songs are almost always together by a solid rhythm guitar player – an unsung hero who provides the backbone for the song. Rhythm playing might not be as glamorous as the solo spot, but it’s a crucial part of any traditional rock song structure.
In between practicing with his electric childrens guitar, have your son sit down to listen to a few examples of quality rhythm playing. Start off with something obvious and heavy on riffs – maybe some early period Who. Pete Townshend was a competent enough solo player, but most critics would agree he was best known for laying down some great rhythms and allowing Roger Daltrey’s voice and Keith Moon’s drums to do the inventive stuff.
add comment | 0 Comments
Noisemaking Machines that Offer Healthy Benefits
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
posted by Strumming-Along 3:58 PM
Children are tiny balls of energy that sometime seem to be never ending, or could be 
referred to as rambunctious. In response to a child’s endless go-go-go attitude, most parents enroll their kids in a variety of sports. Physical activity is a great strategy for tiring out your kids, just a little bit, so they’re not bouncing off the walls. However, the same amount of energy can be applied to playing a musical instrument and, better yet, it unleashes a flood of creativity to your child’s brain.
Drumsets for kids are the ideal musical instrument for energy release. If you’ve ever been to a concert, I’m sure you’ve seen a live drum performance. Watching an artist wail away on the drums usually causes him to break a sweat; and the perk for you is that his music invigorates your senses. Imagine your child exercising his or her arms and legs – don’t forget about the workout from the foot pedal. If you and your child are ready for a musical adventure, purchase a drumset today!
When your child receives her first drum set, she’ll probably be content to simply beat the heads at random for a while. As a parent, it’s important to provide some guidance for playing early on – before bad habits and lack of motivation begin to form. If your kids is already enrolled in a band class, she should be learning how to interpret drum notation, which is similar to that of other musical instruments.
If not, you may need to do some learning of your own before imparting the knowledge to your young prodigy. is a simplified form of musical notation that doesn’t require the player to read music. Rather, the sheet music applies a code to each part of the childrens drum set as well as each action one could take while playing it. For example, a lower case “o” means to strike a certain drum, while a lower case “x” means to hit a cymbal.
Music therapy emerged as a viable form of psychiatric treatment in the U.S. during the height of World War II. Ever since, many licensed therapists have sworn by the beneficial effects of music on a troubled psyche. A music therapy session can take many forms, including allowing the patient to compose his or her own piece. According to the Psychiatric Times, the therapy is often used children suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.
It should come as no surprise that something as simple as the strum of acoustic childrens guitars could make a measurable difference from a psychiatric standpoint. After all, many people rely on music – both as listeners and active participants – to calm down at the end of a busy day. There’s something about the rhythms and the melodic tones that affect us at a primitive level. Children don’t need to understand these principles to benefit from them.
In recent years, music-themed videogames such as the “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” franchises have garnered plenty of attention from kids of all ages. The games seem to be just as popular among preteens as they are among slacker college students. Among older musicians and music shop owners, there are two schools of thought regarding these games – one positive, the other negative.
It remains to be seen whether these guitar-playing games will act as a feeder system for kids to learn the genuine instrument. Generally speaking, electric kids guitars remain the best way for children to hone their skills at an early age. Playing a videogame and playing a real electric guitar are two very different skills, and proficiency with one doesn’t necessarily translate to the other.
Generally speaking, drum sets can last for years and years with very little maintenance work needed. All that really matters is the condition of the drum head, commonly known as the skin. It’s important that children understand from a young age that the sound of their drums largely depends on the drum head – its tension and whether or not it’s fully intact.
At the first sign of indentions or cracks in the surface of kids drum sets, you should swap out the skins. Sometimes tiny bumps will form in the drum heads, and they will change the pitch of the drums in a way that cannot be predicted. In order to increase the longevity of a drum head, reinforce with your child that the drums are meant to be hit right in the center, not outside along the frame.
When my son got his first electric guitar, he was immediately filled with glee. He probably imagined himself jamming out some classic rock staples with minimal effort. Then came the first shock – the guitar barely made any sound at all without an amp to go along with it. The second shock took some time to set in. It turned out that playing guitar is relatively easy but mastering the instrument is a lifelong challenge.
We remedied the first problem by purchasing a mini amp that complemented electric guitars for children. Resolving the second issue to hours and hours of practice, during which time I would offer a few tips and teach my son a few new chord progressions every week. He worked diligently to replicate the styles of his favorite guitar players – Duane Allman and Eric Clapton. By the end of the first year, he was playing jazz guitar in the junior high band and loving his newfound passion.
In some cases, children just learning to play the guitar have only been exposed to a few limited musical styles. Rock music is a mainstay on the pop charts, and there are plenty of rock songs and videos to be found on the radio as well as on TV. But what about the diverse blend of other musical styles whose practitioners employ the guitar in very different ways?
Flamenco and folk music, for example, are very different from what is easily heard in today’s pop culture landscape. Both genres feature prominent use of the capo, a device that is attached to the guitar at a certain fret in order to raise its overall pitch. The capo is especially useful on a childrens guitar as their fingers are often too short to create adequate chords.
Considering the vast amount of guitars on the market today, it’s not always easy to determine which instrument is right for your child. For starters, take the kid’s age into account. If he or she hasn’t yet reached the age of 9, a ¾ scale guitar is probably the best bet. That way, you can ensure that the child can reach the necessary chord fingerings it takes to make music.
If possible, take the time to try out a few acoustic guitars for kids before buying. Pay close attention to the tonality and sustain of each instrument. You can get a feel for the tonality by comparing a few different guitars and selecting the one that sounds best to your ears. Sustain is determined in part by the width of the strings. Wide strings can sustain a note for a longer duration.
When a child gets her first drum set, she’s probably more excited about banging out a few rudimentary rhythms and doing some obligatory rock and roll posturing. Although young drummers should be encouraged to enjoy their new hobby, it’s also important for parents to instill the fundamentals. Before your child gets carried away with her kids drumset, show her how to tune it.
You’ll notice that each drum features a tension screw on the side, which controls the tightness of the drumhead. You can use a drum key to tighten or loosen it as desired. While turning the key, tap the drum with a stick until you notice a change in pitch. Generally speaking, the bass drum should produce the lowest pitch and the snare drum the highest pitch. Over time, the child will develop an ear for an optimal drum sound and tuning will become second nature.