The Dos and Donts of Getting Your Child to Love Learning an Instrument

We all know that music can be inspiring, entertaining, and exhilarating. There are few things more enjoyable than listening to good music. If you're lucky enough to be able to play a musical instrument, you know the joy that can come from strumming those strings, tapping those keys, or blowing those reeds. It's immeasurable. But, with all the amazing aspects of music, why is it such a struggle to get your child to enjoy learning how to play an instrument? Some children naturally enjoy the learning process, while others rally against it like it with all their will.

If you're the parent of such a willful musical holdout, thankfully for you there are simple ways to help your child love learning an instrument. For your benefit (and sanity), I'd like to share the following tips-the Do's and Don'ts of getting your child to love learning an instrument-so that music is always a pleasure to your family's ears.

The Acoustic Guitar

The steel-stringed acoustic guitar is usually credited with being developed by C.F. Martin and Company sometime during the 1830s. Although other "gut-stringed" acoustics were around at that time, it was the Martin Company that introduced the idea of crossbracing underneath the soundboard which enabled the guitar to support the heavier steel strings. Because there is approximately 160 lbs. of tension created by the use of steel strings, they should never be put on a classic guitar, for it is not strong enough to carry them. But thanks in part to C.F. Martin's new design, the use of steel strings on acoustic guitars became fairly common by the end of the 1800s, and by the 1930s it became a standardized component.

The acoustic steel-stringed guitar is commonly referred to as a "dreadnaught", possibly after a British battleship by that name, which was the first of it's type to use heavy armor and large-caliber guns in turrets.