Tenor Ukulele – A Great Starter Guitar:
Before you say anything, no, I did not misstate this title. The Tenor Ukulele does make a wonderful starter guitar for very young children. Heck, it even makes a great guitar for bigger kids and adults.
Now lets take apart my reasoning for suggesting this in the first place:
Tuned Just Like The First 4 Strings of the Guitar:
The Tenor Ukulele has (4) strings in lieu of the normal (6) strings and guess what? The 4 strings of the Tenor Ukulele are tuned exactly the same as a standard guitar, with once small exception. They are one octave higher, but that is really not important at all. The strings are tuned E – B – G – D from the first string to the 4th string, the very same as a guitar. In fact this is the exact same as a tenor guitar which also has 4 strings.
The Tenor Ukulele Is Much Smaller Than a Guitar:
The Tenor Ukulele is a great deal smaller by its very nature than any guitar you can buy. This is a incredible bonus for kids with small hands, short fingers and muscles that are not yet fully developed to press down those guitar strings.
The Strings Are Nylon and Have Much Less Tension:
This again relates to fingers that are not quite up to the task of pressing down high-tension guitar strings.
Frets Are Closer:
Because the scale length of the Tenor Ukulele is much shorter (that is the actual string length from the nut to the saddle), the frets are much closer together and the notes are not nearly as much of a stretch as they are on a full scale guitar, or even a shortened scale guitar.
Get More For Your Money:
This is not always the case, but you can buy a great Tenor Ukulele for a hundred bucks and it will have a very nice sound and be made extremely well.
Strings Last Longer:
You will not have any string rusting problems with the nylon strings. They also have less tension and will last multiple times longer than their steel counterparts or even longer than those of the classical guitar, which are also nylon, but are wound silver, which wears out quite quickly.
Less Maintenance:
Generally speaking, the Tenor Ukulele will give you far less problems than the steel guitar or the classical guitar. The reason is we are not dealing with nearly the string tension pressures of a guitar, which can lead to multiple problems. Also the construction of the body of the Tenor Ukulele is a lot stronger and resistant to damage than the big body profile of the guitar.
Don’t get me wrong. Abuse of an instrument and that applies to the Tenor Ukulele as well. Keep your instrument in a proper humidified atmosphere and keep it in a good case when not being used to protect it from damage.
Easily Graduate To The Guitar:
When your child grows enough and wants to graduate to a full-sized guitar, the transition will be almost transparent. Every single thing learned on the Tenor Ukulele can be applied to the guitar. This will mean that as a bonus your child will not only be able to play the guitar, they can play the Ukulele as well. That is bragging rights!
Is that convincing enough? I can tell you that before I was acquainted with a Tenor Ukulele in Hawaii, when I lived there for several years and to my surprise I realize this little treasure could be a great children’s guitar. I wish I would have discovered this many many years ago.
Tags: child guitar, kids guitar, small guitar for kids, tenor ukulele, young childrens guitars
