Buying A First Guitar- The Importance Of Quality
Posted in October 14th, 2008 by admin | Filed under Instrument Tips | Comments (0)
When buying a guitar for a beginner, most people reason along these lines: Let’s buy a cheap one first, in case it doesn’t work out. If it does, we can always buy a better one later. This might be just a passing phase, and we do not want to waste money. This reasoning, with all the good intent it carries, has probably been the biggest single cause of guitar students giving up.It happens everywhere, every day. The parents come home with a guitar, seeing their child’s eyes light up as he sees the instrument. None of them knows anything about instruments, so they did not know what to look for. The guitars at the professional musicians’ store seemed too expensive for a “first instrument”, so they went and bought thi one at the odd shop around the corner. It’s “just as good for now”.
So the child starts the journey of learning. pretty soon there are complaints about sore fingers, but that “will toughen in time”. There are complaints of “my chords don’t sound clear”, but that can be rectified by just “pressing harder”. Every time “pressing harder” is required, the fingers become more worn and sore. The hour or two required for daily practice becomes a punishment, and the child gives up, feeling defeated for not being able to master the instrument.
The parents turn around and say: See – that’s why we bought a cheap guitar. If we spent more we would have wasted more. Imagine if we bought it at the professional musicians’ store…….We knew he / she would never actually be able to play the thing, right ?
WRONG.
If you bought a quality instrument your child would probably still be playing. Maybe not as well as Eric Clapton or Van Halen, but at least at the level of self-entertainment. You did not “satisfy a curiosity” as you suspected. Instead, you destroyed the desire by causing the child to feel like a failure.
So how do you prevent this from happening ?
First you go to the odd shop around the corner. Don’t buy, just look. Pick up one of the cheap guitars, press on four strings at once, and strum it. Does it sound clear ? If not, press harder. Don’t worry about it sounding out of tune. Can you feel the effect on your fingers after a few seconds ? Do you think you would be able to handle doing that for an hour or two ? Not ? Then why expect your child to?
Next, go to the professional musicians’ store. Tell the salesperson about your child, and ask for an recommended beginner’s instrument. Once again, pick it up, press four fingers down at once, and strum. Do you feel the difference ? So will your child.
The deciding factor is the distance between the neck and the strings. The larger the gap, the harder it will be to play. Musicians refer to it as the “action” of the guitar. On a good quality instrument, it can be adjusted to your needs. It is not simple, but it can be done. It all boils down to the build quality of the instrument. Some instruments are just thrown together, with little regard for the musician that will have to play it some day. Real instruments are built for musicians.
