Decent guitar for 4 and 7 yo kids?

[Princess5]

our 4 yo ds loves to imitate playing guitar and listen to songs etc..my 7yo dd likes it too.  any decent guitars which might fit both and are not too expensive.  we are not planning any real lessons soon, and we adults dont play any instrument so we are sort of music novices. it might be a phase or not.  want to get started slowly.

[Michael12]

Do ukulele instead. Soprano size. Anything else for their age/size would just be a toy and wouldn't really teach anything about music. Ukulele gives a nice return on a little practice, and after a while if you choose to move to guitar they will have great transferable skills. With ukulele you can do an F chord with 2 fingers and C or C7 with one finger - which gets you lots of simple songs right there. There are many websites with instruction and chords for favorite children's songs.

[Rachel]

We got a small Gibson (I can't remember if it was a half or 3/4 sized guitar) from our local music shop. It was about $120 new, but they let us rent it for $8 per month. That gave us a chance to determine if our kids were really interested in guitar before we bought it at a discount. The 5 year old loves to play but her fingers aren't really strong enough yet. My 7 year old learned to play Happy Birthday last week. We haven't started any formal lessons but my husband is teaching himself to play and works with the kids a couple nights a week.

 

The music shop had a lot of smaller guitars that sounded nice under $200, a few under $100.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I second a guitar shop, one that offers lessons.  They will likely have small guitars that are not too expensive.  Our guitar shop sells small size nylon string models for less than $100.

 

Stay away from the guitars sold in toy departments at Target and the like.  They are poorly made, of inferior materials.  They don't hold a tune and sound terrible.

[Aurelia]

I bought this one for DD when she was around 9. It would be a little big for your 4 year old, maybe, but the 7 year old shouldn't have trouble. It actually has a decent sound, and if you replace the strings with nylon ones, it's softer on little fingers that haven't built any calluses yet. The pitch pipe is just about useless, though. We use this Snark tuner to make tuning SO much easier.

 

The suggestion for the ukulele for the younger, at least, is a good one. 

Edited November 21, 2015 by Aurelia

[eternallytired]

My oldest just started classical guitar lessons this summer.  His studio (specializes in guitar) recommended a Cordoba Protege.  They said it's a good sound at a low price point--great for beginners.  We were told to get a 1/4 size, which they said is the right size for most young beginners (though this studio/method starts kids at 5--and they did say that some smaller kids need something a little smaller to start) and would likely last my son a year or so based on his current size.  He's about 4'2".

[Targhee]

Little Martin $300 at Musician's Friend - it's 3/4 size, lovely sound, incredibly durable. And it's a Martin!

 

ETA I bought this is a guitar for ME, to take on camp trips and such, and it was my dd's learning instrument for 2 years until she moved into a nylon/steel acoustic/electric hybrid at age 11.

Edited November 21, 2015 by Targhee

[luuknam]

I don't know - my 8yo will have a sample lesson on Monday, so I'm brand new to this, but you'd have to decide first if you want an acoustic (steel string) guitar, a classical (nylon string) guitar, or an electric guitar. They all sound different, and you'd generally play different kinds of music on the different kinds of guitars. Or, you could do what the others suggested and just start on a ukulele, since you're just playing around at this point. My son liked the sound of a classical guitar better than that of an acoustic guitar.

 

Opinions on guitar size seem to vary widely, and it seems that classical guitar instructors seem to be more inclined to recommend smaller sizes whereas others seem to be prone to saying "oh, a 3/4 size will work". When I started violin at 8yo, I started on a 1/4 size violin (which is an instrument that experts don't disagree on wrt what size for what size kid), and many classical guitar websites I've found recommend a 1/4 size guitar for a kid the size of my 8yo (he's 3'11"), but other sites (mostly acoustic ones) were saying that for kids 5+ or 6+ a 3/4 size guitar is fine which is also what the guy at Guitar Center was telling me (he was trying to convince me that the 1/2 size was too small for my son). So, yeah... I don't know, I don't play guitar, but apparently opinions are quite divided on the issue. The guy at Guitar Center was saying that the 1/2 size would be good for my (then) 4yo who was then 3'6". Given my background in violin I'm inclined to believe the people suggesting smaller sizes, like a 1/4 size guitar for my (small) 8yo. They do btw make even smaller sizes for even younger/smaller kids, like 1/8, or 1/16, etc. Then and again, you don't give a smaller piano to younger/smaller kids, so...

 

For a 4yo who won't be taking lessons, I probably would lean toward a ukulele  rather than figuring out the whole guitar ordeal, lol.

Edited November 21, 2015 by luuknam

[three4me]

I second the ukulele recommendation. YouTube has some kids lessons.

[luuknam]

Btw, my son had his sample guitar lesson today, and his instructor said the 1/2 size was good for him. That said, I'm pretty sure that the 1/2 size he had (a Strunal) was significantly smaller than the 1/2 size he'd tried at Guitar Center (a Yamaha, iirc). Guitar sizes aren't standardized, unfortunately.