Posted on October 9, 2011 by Andy John

The earliest age I have successfully taught a child guitar is about six years old.  It is certainly possible to teach kids instruments at a very young age.  My expectations for a very young beginner are really not much different from older kids.  I simplify the goals to things like “follow me” where the student repeats what I play and vice versa.  Also, tuning the guitar to an open chord means the student can strum and sing “row row row your boat” or other simple songs and develop right hand technique and rhythm.  This makes the eventual goal of putting both hands together much easier.  I also teach slide once they are ready to coordinate the two hands (see video).  With the slide, we can play simple blues songs.  This is an old idea.  Many of the blues greats started on a diddley-bow which is a one string slide instrument.  Songs like “I’m a Man” alternate between guitar and singing making it very accessible for young guitar players.