Do your children love music? Do they mention guitars frequently?
Well, if you don’t have a budget to pay for private lessons, perhaps you could try online guitar lessons made especially for children.
This way you can track their progress from home and take classes anytime they ask for it.
At a Glance: Our Top Picks for Guitar Lessons For Kids
- OUR TOP PICK: Jamplay Kids and Guitar with Steve Eulberg
- RUNNER-UP: Guitar Tricks Guitar Fundamental Courses with Lisa McCormick
- BEST BUDGET OPTION: Fender Play
Table of Contents
- Benefits of Learning Guitar for Kids
- Comparison of the Best Guitar Lessons For Kids
- Review of the Best Guitar Lessons for Kids
- Can Kids Really Learn to Play Guitar Online?
- How Do Online Guitar Lessons Work?
- Why Did these Guitar Lessons Make Our List?
- How to Buy a Guitar for a Child
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Kids Online Guitar Lessons
- Final Word
- People Also Ask
Benefits of Learning Guitar for Kids
Learning how to play a guitar can mean a lot more than just involving your kid into the world of music, so here’s a quick list of things that they will probably improve if they play frequently:
Hand Coordination
Playing guitar requires that both of your hands can play together. As soon as they learn how to use both hands for a single thing the better their overall hand coordination will be.
Aural Training
Ear training is another thing that will improve and they won’t even notice. Playing the guitar is inevitable without having proper pitch detection. The longer they play the better their listening will become.
Discipline and Consistency
Proper guitar playing isn’t possible without strictly following the norms, tips, and rules in general. That’s why guitar lessons may improve the discipline of your kids and teach them how to never give up. They will also learn how important consistency is and that any progress requires some time.
Imagination and Creativity
Musicians are usually dreamers. They can fantasize about the things that regular people can’t even cope with.
Involving your kid in guitar playing may open them up and make them more eager to express themselves artistically.
Confidence
Every kid who dreams about guitar players probably wants to perform in the large crowd venues. While they may not have the required knowledge to do so, making obvious progress with the lessons will surely be an ego boost for your kids.
Comparison of the Best Guitar Lessons For Kids
| IMAGE | PRODUCT | |
|---|---|---|
Our Top Pick  |
| View Latest Price → |
 |
| View Latest Price → |
Best Budget Option  |
| View Latest Price → |
 |
| View Latest Price → |
 |
| View Latest Price → |
Review of the Best Guitar Lessons for Kids
Here are some of the best online guitar lessons for your kids:
Best Overall:
Jamplay Kids and Guitar with Steve Eulberg
PROS
CONS
Teachers Bio
Steve Eulberg is a multi-instrumentalist that has been playing since 1970. He’s one of the most active teachers on Jamplay with more than 320 lessons in a dozen courses and one of the teachers with the highest positive feedback ratio. His down-to-Earth lesson approach is especially praised among beginners.
Why it Stands Out to Us
While many courses can be appropriate for children, not so many are intentionally made just for them. This course has everything set to match such age and field of interest.
Steve will provide you with a course that may be suitable even for kids that have never played the guitar before. That’s why a portion of this course will cover guitar setup tutorials so your kids will also learn how to tune a guitar.
Who Are These Best For?
The course title speaks for itself. These lessons were specifically made for kids and everything is suited for their needs - the talk, phrases that have been used, or approach to master certain playing techniques. The songs learned in this course are also kid-appropriate.
Bottom Line
Having a good teacher is sometimes more important than a lesson itself. Steve has terrific field experience and the approach that kids are going to love. We truly believe that your child can learn how to play guitar with this course even without your help.
Runner-up:
Guitar Tricks Guitar Fundamental Courses with Lisa McCormick
PROS
CONS
Teacher Bio
Lisa McCormick has learned about music theory and education in New Hampshire and right after that, she has become a full-time artist with awards won for USA Songwriting Contest and Indie Band contest award by Mixx Magazine.
She is one of the most active teachers on the GuitarTricks.com website with over 600 lessons at the moment.
Why it Stands Out to Us
This course is our favorite course to recommend to the complete guitar newbie.
While these fundamental courses aren’t designed for children specifically, this teacher excels in providing the right approach for everyone. She is both fun, positive, and resourceful when needed and keeps reminding you of important stuff, just like a real teacher would do.
And once you’re done with the fundamental course, there are hundreds of songs and artist style courses to be learned.
Who Are These Best For?
As already said, complete beginners will enjoy the approach the most regardless of the current age. As for genre, once you solve the fundamentals, there are dedicated courses based on the musical preference of your child.
Bottom Line
People from Guitar Tricks did an excellent job to provide the basic courses that will work for everyone and especially if your kid is a bit uncomfortable about the whole playing guitar idea. These courses are the fastest way to learn how to play the guitar.
Best for the Money:
Fender Play
PROS
CONS
Teachers Bio
When we compare Fender Play teachers with others, they are more inexperienced, but they compensate for this flaw with effort and an approach that might be more appealing towards the younger population. Their knowledge is however unquestionable as they are usually Berklee music college graduates with a decent live experience.
Why it Stands Out to Us
Fender Play is a system of various courses designed for learning guitar and other string instruments. It’s one of the best apps developed and it excels in applying fun gaming elements into musical learning systems.
And because of the monthly membership option, it will be also easy to opt-in and out based on the level of interest your kid currently has with guitar playing topics.
Who Are These Best For?
The lessons on Fender Play are oriented towards the younger population. They will be able to learn how to play specific songs in a simplified manner and best of all, they can even learn to play ukulele or bass guitar for the same price.
Bottom Line
Fender Play may not be a strictly kids-oriented platform, but their general approach and user interface will be very appealing to the children. It's a modern and complete app that should cover all the basics for your kids’ guitar learning.
Best Electric Guitar Lessons for Kids:
Jamplay Rock Guitars for Beginners with Will Ripley
PROS
CONS
Teacher Bio
Will Ripley is a young but very resourceful Jamplay teacher influenced mostly with the 90’s rock music combined with the blues roots and old school rock such as Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix and besides Jamplay he’s also teaching at Vancouver Guitar School.
Why it Stands Out to Us
The first thing that any kid would like to do is to play the guitar just like his favorite band and this request may determine their willpower to learn how to play the guitar.
And that’s where Will’s course rocks. Instead of explaining music theory, your kid will get a nice and detailed insight into how some famous songs and classic rock guitar licks are initially being formed.
Who Are These Best For?
We recommend this course for any rock music lover as this course is pretty much rock specific. It will occupy children’s minds a lot as they will recognize the sound and will love the idea of learning how to play it.
Bottom Line
If your kid is a rocker, you have a winner then. Will’s course will keep them occupied for months and you can be sure that they will come to you bragging about what they have learned.
Best Acoustic Guitar Lessons for Kids:
Jamplay Skill Building Guitar Course from Tyler Grant
PROS
CONS
Teacher Bio
Tyler Grant is an experienced guitar teacher that has been playing the guitar since 1980. He has graduated in 2000 from CalArts in California and has won several awards from US guitar contests. His favorite playing style is flatpicking and he also has a lot of experience as a musical director.
Why it Stands Out to Us
The content in these lessons has been stripped down to the bare basics so your children will learn all the necessary chord progressions and strum patterns frequently used in traditional campfire songs.
It also included a handful of ear training tips so once they pass this course, they will have the experience needed to learn how to play any other traditional song on their own and how to transpose a song.
Who Are These Best For?
We find that this course will be suitable for all beginners that can hold the full-size guitar regardless of the actual age. It's a casual course, ideal for those who don’t plan to become a full professional anytime soon.
Bottom Line
While this course isn’t strictly intended for kids only, it’s covering those basics that older kids could comprehend and it seems to be an ideal start for taking guitar playing seriously.
Honorable Mention:
Jamplay Beginner Guitar Course from Orville Johnson
PROS
CONS
Teachers Bio
Orville Johnson is a US guitar player from Seattle and he’s been playing guitar since the early 1970s and has over 100 recorded albums in his career along with some instructional CDs made by Microsoft. Besides Jamplay, he’s also teaching at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop and Pt. Townsend Country Blues Week.
Why it Stands Out to Us
It’s not that often that we see a course dedicated to improving the skills of your children. It will feed them with various practical lessons, explain some tips and tricks such as, how to use a capo or a metronome or what is open D tuning.
He will also get a bit of a grasp on the music theory basics and will explain how scales and intervals are being formed and how to make new chords.
Who Are These Best For?
Orville’s course is the best choice for those who would like to polish the skills they already have. Those exercises will work for all genres and some specific blues-related parts can also be applied in various genres.
Bottom Line
This course will focus more on improving what your kids already know and getting the most from it. It will be a nice chance to see how far they have gotten and will prepare you for their next step in becoming a semi-pro player.
Editor’s Pick:
Jamplay Basic Guitar with Jessica Baron
PROS
CONS
Teacher Bio
Jessica Baron is an Executive Director for Guitars in the Classroom organization and has published six music and guitar education books already including a parental book dedicated to developing a child’s singing and playing abilities. She has a lot of experience in guitar teaching along with treating children with learning disabilities.
Why it Stands Out to Us
We love how Jessica managed to combine guitar learning and a songwriting course into a single course.
Her teaching approach is different from what you may find online and it focuses more on developing bonding with the instrument.
While you can expect to get the lessons for basic guitar learning it will put a higher emphasis on ear training or the Nashville number system that every musician should learn as soon as possible.
Who Are These Best For?
We would strongly suggest it as the best choice for older children, especially those who are interested in becoming a musician one day. This “musician” part is also what makes the whole course appealing to adult players as well.
Bottom Line
This course could easily turn out to be the only one your teenager is going to need to not just learn how to play the guitar, but also understand the basics about music songwriting.
Can Kids Really Learn to Play Guitar Online?
Yes, these lessons will provide enough material so that kids can learn how to play. Even if they didn’t hold a guitar before, these lessons will break everything down slowly and patiently.
They will learn notes, chords, and how to use all six strings. Also, there will be specific sections where they can learn how to tune the guitar or even how to change the strings on their own.
But, these lessons may require some additional monitoring assistance from you, especially for younger kids.
How Do Online Guitar Lessons Work?
Online guitar lessons are usually grouped in a certain course that covers specific playing techniques, exercise, or music genres and while your membership is active, you can access them as much as you want. Lessons can’t be downloaded by default, but some websites will provide you with an option to buy them out.
Most of the time, the teacher will be addressing you with the specific task that you need to perform, and to help you out, most of the content is covered with several cameras and it can even be slowed down, bookmarked, or looped if you need to repeat it several times.
Why Did these Guitar Lessons Make Our List?
Here are some of the most important reasons why we picked these guitar lessons specifically:
Courses Specially Made for Kids
Not all guitar lessons have children as a target audience. It’s not that often to see them as the majority. On the other hand, explaining a bending or chord to an adult is much easier than finding the right approach for a kid. Most of these lessons don’t think about adults' mindset in the first place.
Songs Suitable for Kids
While it is cute to have a youngster playing Sweet Home Alabama, the truth is they won’t appreciate it as much as you do. At this age, song selection should be appropriate for their interest and these courses take care of it in the right way.
Appropriate Teachers
Not all teachers know how to approach kids. And what’s even more important, not all can maintain their attention and get to them in a way to keep them motivated. The right teacher could mean much more than a high-quality course, especially at this age.
The teachers from these courses have a lot of experience working with children and although it’s pre-recorded, you can be sure that they have done everything to prepare the content so that kids will be occupied and motivated throughout the whole content.
How to Buy a Guitar for a Child
Here are some of the advice on how to get the best guitar for your kid:
Acoustic or Electric
The acoustic classical guitar might be the best solution for the kids because nylon strings are easier to play than steel strings. But, if your kid is all about rock’n’roll we guess that anything other than an electric guitar is out of the option. It's an okay solution but bear in mind that you will have to buy additional equipment such as a guitar amp, strap, and picks as this type of guitar shouldn’t be played by fingers.
Quality Parts
The most important factor for your kid is to have a reliable guitar. By reliable, we refer to one that holds intonation correctly and has frets sanded correctly so that your child won’t cut hands while playing.
In case your guitar already has these problems, bear in mind that it could be addressed at any music local shop, but it’s very important to provide your children with a working instrument.
Appearance
The first guitar doesn’t have to be expensive. Trust us, kids won’t care as much if their guitar has a cutaway or open tuners. But, they will care a lot about how it looks. If they love its appearance, they are going to play it more often and that should be the most important factor for you.
If they enjoy their time with the guitar, they will be much more eager to complete all the lessons and start to play. So, listen to your kid’s choice and avoid getting it only if it doesn’t fit the first advice we gave you.
Physical Size
If your kid is too young to hold a full-size guitar you should know there are other smaller models available such as 3/4 guitars or 1/2 guitars. And while it’s not the same, the Ukulele guitar is also worth considering for a start.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Kids Online Guitar Lessons
Here are some quick traits and flaws of online guitar lessons for kids concept:
Pros
Here are some positives:
Trustworthy Teachers
In most situations, teachers that are holding online lessons have already held the lessons for kids and they know how to prepare the content to be inspiring and fun for their age. There is a huge chance that teachers available in your area don’t have experience with the kids so you may not like the fact that someone is getting their first experience with your children.
Replay Factor
Speaking of kids' learning process - it’s all about the mood. Sometimes they won’t be in the best mood to watch the specific lesson and thanks to these websites, you can repeat the lessons anytime you want and there is no limit on how many times you can do that.
More Affordable Than a Private Teacher
When you compare how much you would have to pay for the private teacher, online guitar lessons for kids are way more affordable.
Cons
Here are some negatives:
Pre-recorded Content
We know that every teacher has their own approach and sometimes you will have to adapt to it. But it's different with the kids as the teaching method has to fit them much better.
That’s why pre-recorded content may not be the best solution. No matter how hard the teachers try to make a decent approach it can’t fit all kids.
Kids Have to Learn on Their Own
Adults may handle the online lessons pretty well as they can organize and discipline themselves to be consistent in watching those lessons. But, kids can lose interest easily, so you may have to watch and check their progress frequently. If you don’t have time for that, perhaps a private teacher or a real music school could be a better solution.
Final Word
At this age, the overall progress of your children shouldn’t be the most important thing for you. What matters is making a bond with the music at an early age. These years are precious and every piece of information learned at this point can make a huge difference at later life stages.
People Also Ask
We hope that you’re a bit more convinced that online guitar lessons can be an interesting solution for your children. Let us now provide you with some brief explanations about different guitar types, the ideal age for starting, and give you a hint of how much such service would cost you.
What is a Good Age to Start Guitar Lessons?
There is no wrong time for kids to learn to play the guitar. Even if they don’t excel at the moment, their brain is developing in a better way so you’re doing a great thing for your kid. As soon as he can hold a guitar without any struggle, it’s a good age to start.
What Chord Should My Kid Learn First?
Open chords or chords found around first positions are the easiest to understand. So, we would suggest you try with the chords such as E minor, C major, G major and D major. These four chords will be enough to play a lot of famous songs actually.
What is a 1/2 Size Guitar?
This guitar is the smallest acoustic guitar that has the standard E tuning. It comes at the size of 34 inches and 23-inch scale length. Due to the shorter scale, it will be much easier to play than a regular guitar. This size makes it ideal for children up to 8 years.
Photo credit: guitargearfinder.com
What is a 3/4 Size Guitar?
Also known as a 36-inch guitar with the same scale length as a 1/2 size guitar, this guitar should fit all children between 8 and 11 years. This guitar model is very popular among kids of this age as their music interests keep evolving. That’s why you will find both acoustic and electric guitar models.
What is the Smallest Guitar?
The smallest guitar is a 1/4 size guitar and it has a 30-inch length and 19-inch scale length. It shouldn’t be mixed with Ukulele guitars, though, although it is also known under the name guitalele and just like a Ukulele guitar, its tune is set 4 frets higher than the regular acoustic guitar.
How Much Are Guitar Lessons for Kids?
Most guitar lessons are paid on a monthly subscription basis, so they can cost you from $9.99 up to $30 per month. There are some nice discounts if you opt for annual or 6-month subscriptions, but you should check with your kids if they are serious about their wish to learn how to play.
What is a Ukulele?
Ukulele is a four-string guitar that might be very suitable for younger kids because of its smaller format and less string tension. It represents an affordable way to get into the world of the guitar so that even a 4-year old child could use it to learn how to strum, pluck or place a hand on a fretboard.
