Although the title of this blog of ours seems to be a little intense and seemingly a make-it-or-break-it choice, do not fear. One of the best parts of music is that music lovers are able to grow alongside music as the artists grow themselves, following many varying chapters, genres and sentiments throughout the music world. When it comes to musicians, we typically favor one instrument in particular as it may be the easiest one for us to speak and connect to through. When choosing your child’s first instrument, it’s important to realize that although this decision may seem like a big deal, it will likely take a few rounds of trial and error until your child finds what they jive with!
Now, there are a few different ways to approach this. If you’re looking to just get your feet wet as the family of a musician, then perhaps consider purchasing a few different economically priced instruments to test out what your child appears to respond to that most. This might only be a short-lived love for this particular instrument, so don’t be surprised if they end up interested in something else, but that’s all part of the journey of finding your signature style.
Many children begin with percussive instruments such as some form of a drum or drum set. This can be so exciting because the child is able to play directly with their hands or sometimes with sticks, depending on the age that you feel comfortable with them in control of those. Sometimes if we go straight to instruments with many strings or keys, it can become so overwhelming so quickly that the player will shy away from it completely.
A fun way of figuring out exactly what instrument your child resonates with is to see some live concerts and see if they take a liking to any musician specifically. Consider a day trip to your local music shop and see what your child seems to be interested in the most and go from there. We would suggest taking it easy at first and not investing too much in the quality in the beginning, as instruments can sometimes be quite intricate and extensive and interest can fade.
Something that may be an extremely crucial element to consider is that between acoustic and electric. Depending on the age of your child, if you go a little too extreme – you may end up with a permanent drum set soundtrack to your household. Be sure to realize that with beautiful music, comes a whole lot of practicing and playing around, just getting to know the instrument and the way it responds to certain techniques – this is often not a pretty sound, as it’s a whole lot of “figuring it out” – so if a particular loud instrument that doesn’t have the ability to be plugged into headphones sounds like a great idea, but you’re living in a smaller space, that may be something to reconsider. One of the nicer parts about starting a child with an instrument where they can transfer the sound straight into headphones that only they can hear is that they can oftentimes feel less vulnerable as everyone isn’t listening to them tinker away and learn how not to play, which is just another part of the whole process!
When it comes to the topic of putting many hours of time into rehearsals, lessons, performances, expensive tunings and instrumental pieces and practice – it can really add up fast, much like any hobby or profession. This is when it’s extremely important, if your child is an older age where they are able to voice their interest, that you make a compromise and allow for them to follow their creativity in their own way! This will do wonders for both their playing and your support for them! When they are much younger, this is the time where it’s best to try to gauge the child’s interest based on how many times they suggest playing, reach for it or bring it up during conversation. This is a wonderful sign and certainly something to encourage!
So, after all, there is still a seemingly mystical element in choosing an instrument for your child, as they can move from one to the next rather quickly, but if you follow that which they seem to engage and respond to the most, then you’ll soon be the most wonderful support system in finding the way their creativity is sparked.
