Need to buy a guitar for my 7 year old who is a beginner. Please suggest:
Thank you.
Classical guitar or acoustic guitar ?
Definitely classical, for any beginner the nylon strings will be much easier on fingers than steel strings.
Steel strings cause a great deal of pain and suffering for a beginner.
Kids guitars seem kind of hard to find in my experience. I think most kids are just given a ukelele, and for the layperson, it looks 'close enough' .
I did eventually find an actual 6 string kids guitar at garage sale etc, it looks very much like a toy. Not sure if you can source anything of good quality at that size, but should add a budget to your post.
Adult size guitars can range from $50 to >$5,000 .
I'm not an expert here, but my 2c.
Classical (a nylon string acoustic) will be lighter on the fingers for a beginner, less prone to broken strings and softer on the ears.
Steel string acoustic will (obviously) be harder on the fingers, experience more broken strings and is harder on everyone's ears.
Brand? Not a cheap junk guitar, these will likely have trouble staying tuned and will therefore sound terrible and not good for a serious beginner.
I'd go into a store and not buy online, you need to feel and hear the guitar (IMO) play it for a few mins and see if it's good enough quality to stay tuned and sounds acceptable.
I'd choose the nylon string acoustic (classical or whatnot) for a beginner.
trouble staying tuned and will therefore sound terrible
Can just tune every time before playing, but not sure a 7yo could be bothered with this, depends on the kid I guess. Personally, I found it really therapeutic to tune before every play. I still tune every time before I play now, just the changes in temperature will put guitar out of tune to a certain extent.
I agree that an awesome quality guitar does tend to keep in tune more .
harder on everyone's ears.
Nobody can sound that bad, with a perfectly in tune guitar IMO. Even just the strings played open, will sound pretty good if perfectly in tune.
I used to use a seperate tuner, but now just use phone app. Tip, put tuning device on the wood of guitar, picks it up better
Can just tune every time before playing, but not sure a 7yo could be bothered with this, depends on the kid I guess.
Naa, I'm referring to the junk cheap guitars that will not stay tuned at all (basically). Even if a parent tuned it prior to every session, within a minute or two they can be a total mess again.
Nobody can sound that bad, with a perfectly in tune guitar IMO.
You've either got seriously robust ears (noise tolerance) or you've never heard kids play guitar like mine do.
I'm certainly not implying you should get an expensive guitar that'll keep tune, just don't get a junk guitar that will not keep tune at all (they exist)!
Naa, I'm referring to the junk cheap guitars that will not stay tuned at all (basically)
My son had an older Epiphone Les Paul junior electric as his first electric guitar that he just refused to play because you couldn't even get all 6 strings in tune at once . My mate christened them comedy tuners . I chastised him for for not giving it a fair go but after spending 2 hours trying to get it properly in tune I very nearly threw it through the window . Frustrating beyond belief .
This may not be a popular opinion but it is what I did and I have recommended it before to friends with great success.
Start with an electric guitar … The strings are much closer to the fret board and makes it easier to hold notes.
Once they have the basic finger strength and core knowledge down you can switch out to an acoustic.
And a huge plus as a parent is they can plug headphones into the amp and go nuts, you don't need to put the rest of the family though the early stages of pain.
Jack Cracker of a suggestion!!
If kids are happy with wearing the headphones, great suggestion. Kind of depends a bit on what style of music a bit also.
I know f all about electrics tbh, but I did recently get my first decent electric (have over 15 acoustics) and then found I need to spend a fair bit on top for an amp that doesn't sound crap and completely defeat the purpose of having a decent electric guitar.
Someone with more knowledge on electrics (and amps) might be able to suggest a combo of sorts . But OP really needs to add a price range, budget etc.
Sungha Jung or kid whose head bumped into a few too many door frames?
One gets a Lakewood, the other gets a Kmart guitar with strings removed.
Start with a ukulele I reckon. Like a proper one not a toy one.
My teenagers are only now strong enough so that playing guitar isn't and exercise in frustration for them.
Maybe for a first instrument a ukelele or piano?
My best suggestion is to book an introductory lesson with a music teacher to get a feel for what instrument suits.
This is also a good first step if you are set on guitar.