A few years ago we bought our daughter an acoustic guitar. We figured if she could learn early it would be better. With being homeschoolers, and my husband rocking at the guitar. We thought it would be best if he was her guitar teacher. However, like all kids she loses focus, and acted as though she wasn’t to interested. So this guitar was put down, only to be picked up when she was wanting to annoy mom.
Lately, she has been showing more and more interest, and I have been finding her sitting in her room trying to play. I am hoping in time she will concentrate and let her daddy teach her how to read music, and play some small songs. She is always saying how one day she wants to be famous and she wants to audition for American Idol.
She likes to joke and tell me she will be moving us all to Hollywood, and when she is rich she will buy me a purple convertible. I should get her to put that in writing for me. :)
How do you get your child excited about learning new things? Her problem is she is afraid she will fail. We have tried to explain things to her, that there is no such thing is failing if you at least try.
About Jammie Morey
You didn’t mention your daughter’s age, but my son, grown now, is an excellent guitarist as were a couple of his friends. He was about 10 or 11 when he started. I never made a “practice time” or even told him to “go practice.” Every so often I’d ask him to play me a tune. The pressure to play came from him-my job was to accommodate that and make sure he had what he needed to get good. He plays rock, blues and classical–the classical he studied in college.
It’s interesting that you mentioned your daughter’s possible fear. I once mentioned to my son and his friend how awesome they were playing. Their response: you can’t be scared of it. you have to be fearless. The absolute worse thing that can happen when learning a piece is that you make a mistake, have to play through it, then play the tune again. No lightening bolts for a mistake, no dreadful punishments-just try again.
My daughter is 10, she got the guitar when she was 7. She does just what your son did, plays when she wants too… I do not force her, because I know if you force a child to do something they will hate it!
We have tried to let her know there is never no failing as long as you do try. She just gets embarrassed. Hopefully in time she will outgrow it, and she will pick the guitar up and jam out with daddy.
10–she’s about the age that mine started. Because Dad can get her started and show her a few licks when she’s ready, she’ll gain confidence pretty quickly. I love learning about a child learning to do music! All the best to ya’ll :)