For me, cheap/toy instruments are worse than none at all. Pay a little bit more for an ok guitar and it opens up the chance of it being enjoyed rather than constantly slipping out of tune, rediculous fret buzz etc. Bad instruments ruin the joy of music IMHO.

Id also pay for a few lessons and see if there is joy after learning the first few tunes, if there is keep going, if not, see what the wee tyke has to say and go from there. But in general, better to learn the basics properly the first time than correct bad practices later.

At 5 years old he's physically going to grow out of anything you get him.

You could buy a decent ukulele. They're cheap. They're real instruments. And because they're harmony instruments he can be making music straight away. If he is making something like music then you can consider following up on teachers and better instruments.

Avoid the ones with friction tuning pegs. They're considered "authentic" but they're impossible to tune or keep in tune. You want geared tuners.

Get yourself a tuning app for your phone so you can tune it. Out of tune instruments are the greatest killer of musical enjoyment for everybody. See if the kid can learn to tune it using the app.

Yes he would love it. Be it 5mins of fun or a lifetime player.

At 1 I started playing music around my boy, now at 2 1/2 he can play random stuff on harmonica, chopsticks on piano and strum random single notes on guitar. We flip the guitar over and he now has drums. Never to young to learn an instrument.

The only reason he learned is because he wanted to, you don't have to be good at something to enjoy it, but only practice makes you good at it. Buy him the guitar dirtyharry - even if it's a cheap one from the markets.

Or snaffle this one for free, with the hope that it will be helpful. Was the choice at the time, and apparently still worthwhile.

http://www.harmonycentral.com/reviews/product/yamaha-g225-classical


Maybe I should put it on Gumtree, and make money of it, rather than potentially help a fellow SB'er?


Regards,

I bought my son and daughter a small guitar each when I think they were 5 and 7 roughly.

I was hoping to see some great prodigy emerge but neither showed any great interest. Anyway at about 14 it was a light bulb came on for my son and I used to go to sleep most nights listening to him just play and play.

It was like watch a formula one driver come racing past me compared to my limited skills.

So at 5 get them the guitar but dont push

Just see what happens and be patient