Hidden Benefits of Learning Guitar

If you are interested in teaching your child to play a musical instrument, the guitar is a good choice. In addition to being fun to play, it offers variety in terms of playing styles, musical genres, and song selection. While you can start your child’s guitar lessons earlier, most teachers recommend starting at age six because kids have the fine motor skills needed to strum and form chords with their fingers… and they have a long attention span!

Aside from the obvious benefits of learning a musical instrument (such as the fun and satisfaction they get), your child will also learn a lot about themselves! Read about the seven benefits of a guitar below!

1. Guitar Lessons Teach Discipline

Learning to play the guitar and almost all musical instruments is hard work. Sure, it may seem easy to play because many professional musicians do it effortlessly. But the skill of learning the placement of the fingers to form chords, the precision needed in finger tapping, the rhythm of strumming, and the coordination of using both hands at the same time takes patience and practice.

Learning to play the guitar is very rewarding on many levels, one that many parents appreciate is teaching their child time management and dedication. Just 20 minutes of exercise every day can produce amazing results. Getting your child to do this can be difficult (…we know, getting your child to do most things can be difficult…) But if disciplined, your child will not only have the potential to become a good guitar player, but they will learn the value of hard work and time management.

2. Learning To Play The Guitar Can Boost Your Confidence

Most parents know the struggle when it comes to getting your child to do any kind of exercise at home. However, the more your child practices, the more confident they will be! Not just as a guitarist, but in all aspects of life! Once your child has mastered the guitar, they can move on to a new instrument. Or maybe try a new sport? Whatever they do, learning an instrument boosts confidence and helps develop an open mind to try new things!

3. It’s A Great Way To Stimulate Creativity

When your child first starts lessons, they will learn the mechanics of the instrument itself, the basic structure of a song, and the technical details of the kind of music the guitar makes. But once they’ve mastered them, they’re confident enough to start experimenting with melodies, chords and songwriting.

This is where the real fun begins. As you watch your young musician grow from a beginner to a better guitar player, they will naturally want to expand their repertoire as a player, and perhaps even as a composer, and become better at writing lyrics to accompany their music. And who knows? Before you know it, you might be heading to their show!

4. Playing The Guitar Promotes Music Appreciation

Part of guitar lessons is listening to music that has a guitar component. When your child is learning a certain song, it is always helpful to have them listen to the original version of the song to learn the mechanics of how it is played.

But because this instrument can be played in many different styles, such as fingerpicking and strumming, the guitar can be seen in various musical genres: from classical and jazz country and blues music (and of course … rock). As your child develops his skills, he will naturally be exposed to all kinds of music to build on what he has learned in the classroom.