Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
Learning to play a musical instrument is a great skill for kids. Playing a musical instrument is very beneficial for kids as well as being loads of fun. Children simply love singing, music and rhythm. Loads of kids dream of being a rock star and playing in a band, so take advantage of this enthusiasm early on and get started with lessons to teach your child how to play a musical instrument.
Here are some of the best musical instrument for kids:
Ukulele
The ukulele is an instrument from the lute family that originates from Hawai. It generally has 4 strings, although they can be paired to have 6 or even 8 strings.
Lots of children want to learn to play guitar but starting them with the ukulele is a much better idea due to the fact that they are so much smaller and easier for your child to hold and handle.
The ukulele is one of the easiest music instruments to learn. There are only 4 strings and the chords are simplistic. The hand movements are not hard or complicated. Kids will pick up the ukulele quickly and soon be strumming along playing music on their own.
Ukuleles are small and easy to transport, chances are good that you can fit the ukulele in a backpack.
It is not too expensive to purchase one which is a big bonus for parents.
Research the best ukulele for kids and beginners to get your child started.
Piano
Learning how to play the piano is a great skill and one that comes with many benefits. It takes dedication and perseverance to learn how to play the piano. Your child will be challenged when learning how to play the piano which will teach your child how to work hard and concentrate.
Mastering the piano will give your child a huge sense of achievement and fill them with pride. It will build self confidence.
The piano offers a really good grounding for learning music since it forms the basis of so much music. Starting with the piano will make it easier for your child to learn other musical instruments in the future.
It may be expensive to buy a piano for your child, however most piano teachers and schools have a piano for your child to learn on. This means that there will be no expense other than the actual lessons if your child decides to learn piano. The down side of course is that unless you do buy a piano for home your child won’t be able to practice in his or her own time at home.
Drums
Drums are one of the cool instruments for kids to play. There are plenty of kids that look at the drummers in bands and want to be just like them.
Drums provide kids with an amazing sense of stress release and let’s face it, drums are loads of fun. How often do you see toddler turning over buckets or tins and whacking them with sticks, pencils or anything else they can get their hands on, mimicking being a drummer?
Your child will learn coordination and how to feel the rhythm, as well as how to play along with others.
Playing drums will improve your child’s mood and help to combat frustration and disappointment.
Some of the disadvantages of learning drums is that buying a drum set won’t come cheap. It is also not easy to transport a drum set compared to other smaller instruments.
Drums are loud and may be your worst nightmare as a parent, but they will truly provide your child with great skills and provide many benefits if you can put up with the noise!
Guitar
Playing guitar is another seriously cool instrument for kids. The lead guitarist of famous bands are often worshipped by kids. Think Slash, James Hetfield and Joe Perry… all incredible lead guitarists that are well loved.
Guitars are relatively cheap as a first musical instrument for your child to learn – certainly cheaper than a drum set or piano. They are also reasonably small and not too hard to transport.
Violin
The violin is an amazing musical instrument to play and while many people think that learning to play the violin is difficult and expensive that is not necessarily the case. Children that start to play the violin from an early age often pick it up very quickly.
Playing the violin increases dexterity and also improves fine motor skills, it can also improve posture as your child will need to sit straight and tall while playing.
Recorder
The recorder is often a first choice for musical instrument that parents choose for their child. This is because the recorder is one of the cheapest musical instruments, plus it is small and convenient to transport. The recorder is easy to learn and is very often taught in primary schools as part of the curriculum.
It is possible that learning an instrument aids in learning math and vice versa because both require assiduous and disciplined practice as well as patient analytical skills. If you play an instrument, you know that most of practicing is identifying errors and finding a way to fix them. For instance, if you keep messing up a certain bar of a fast passage, you must isolate that bar and continue to break it down analytically until you identify the precise problem that causes you to mess up (perhaps it is a shifting problem, or a lazy string crossing).
If you have not learned the patience and analytical skills to identify the problem and it’s solution, you cannot solve it and thus you don’t play “good”. Sounds a lot like solving a proof or writing code, right? Therefore, while becoming proficient in music does not allow you to wake up one morning and know calculus, but the algorithm for success is similar in both fields. As a result, unlocking the steps for mastering one will help you do the same for the other.
My 4 year old son is in love with a guitar .
Thank you so much for this article it’s packed with so much information
it is so good for a child to play musical instruments, there are so many benefits that come with it, i remember taking guitar lessons growing up. my finger tips should hurt but it was worth it. i cant remember how to play now though
played piano myself, hope one day my baby also has a interest in a instrument. music is so important.
Lovely tips. I know I wish I could play the piano and violin it seems so soothing. I would be ecstatic if my son wishes to play an instrument.