Ukulele - The Perfect Instrument to Introduce Your Child To Music
By Al Wood

Music is an essential part of any child's education. An early introduction to music will foster a life long enjoyment of playing, singing and listening. The choice of instruments can be quite bewildering. So what's the perfect instrument for your child?

1. It's the perfect size - The ukulele fits into a child's hands. It's almost exactly proportionate to a child as a guitar is to an adult. This makes it feel that the instrument is theirs.

2. The ukulele is easy to learn - Anyone who has had a child learning the violin will know the terror of practice time. It takes many months of practice for a child to produce in tune, pleasant sounding notes. This can be discouraging for both parent and child. The ukulele, on the other hand, is much easier for beginners. Most children will be able to strum a chord or two within minutes of picking it up.

3. You can play and sing at the same time - As adults, many of us become nervous and almost ashamed of singing. Children have no such problem and love to sing. Teaching them to play a wind instrument such as the recorder prevents them singing. Similarly, a piano is too loud and will overwhelm the child's voice. Give a child a ukulele and they'll be singing and strumming before you know it.

4. Skills learned on the ukulele are easily transferable - Although many people become life long ukulele players, it is quite likely your child will want to move on to playing other instruments. Skills that are gained by playing the ukulele obviously transfer smoothly to other stringed instruments such as the guitar and the violin. But, unlike some instruments children are given to learn, they teach a child about harmony and chords. A very important grounding if the child is to go on to play an instrument like the piano.

5. It's cheap - Children can't always be trusted to be careful with their instrument. There's no need to worry with a ukulele. They are cheap to replace and hardy instruments (I once watched a child stand on one to reach a shelf).

6. Children can relate to it - The ukulele looks like a mini-guitar. Kids love to imitate their favorite stars and immediately take to the ukulele. They will also probably be familiar with the ukulele from cartoons such as Sponge Bob Square Pants and Lilo & Stitch. As soon as you give them a ukulele, they'll be strumming and striking rock star poses.

7. The ukulele is a whole lot of fun - It's very rare you'll see any, child or grown up, playing the ukulele without them and their audience sporting a grin. There's something about the ukulele that brings an instant slice of joy to everyone around.

The ukulele is being increasingly used to introduce children to music in Canada and the UK with great results. But be careful, many parents have bought a ukulele for their child, picked it up themselves and become completely addicted.

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