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| Author | Topic: Need Help! Chosing a string |
NatesMom
Registered User
Registered:
6/28/2005 | posted: 6/28/2005 at 3:18:58 PM ET
my son wants to play at school, eventually wants to learn guitar - they only allow violin or viola at school, which would be a better one to start on as a stepping stone toward guitar
|  imnidiot
Registered User
From:
Ashley PA
Registered:
3/28/2005 | posted: 6/28/2005 at 9:33:06 PM ET
Either would be fine for learning fingering, and learning to read music, but they are tuned differently from the guitar. the nice thing about the viola and violin, is that they are fretless, and you must learn the positions by feel. This may be a plus for learning guitar. If you can afford it, get a guitar to practice on. Better yet, see if you can borrow one. Any other opinions out there?
I am a fragment of my imagination
|  Pete
Registered User
From:
North Coast NSW, Australia
Registered:
3/20/2005 | posted: 6/29/2005 at 1:26:50 AM ET
I don't think there is much connection between the two types of instruments...except perhaps if he plays a fretless bass later on.
Weird that they don't allow guitar, at the school I teach at the kids fight over the guitars, and run a mile from the violins.
Take me to your Lieder...
| TheHornSupremacy
Registered User
Registered:
11/17/2004 | posted: 6/29/2005 at 9:12:04 AM ET
I think it's great that they don't allow guitar. Our world has a sorry lack of knowledge of classical music and instruments. This is partly because all the popular music nowadays is driven mostly by guitars and drums. Not offering guitars to kids in school "forces" them to learn a more classical instrument, and that's the only way that most of them will ever get exposure to it. If you give them a choice, it's exactly as Pete said, they'll fight for the guitar and run away from the violin.
| TheHornSupremacy
Registered User
Registered:
11/17/2004 | posted: 6/29/2005 at 9:21:16 AM ET
To answer the original question, there's a couple of other things besides what's already been mentioned, to take into account.
Violin music is typically a little harder than viola music. So if your son knows that he will never stick with the violin, but will eventually move to the guitar (a knowledge he's probably too young/underexposed to have), then you may not want to give him the challenge of having to play harder music on an instrument he's gonna give up on anyway.
On the other hand, violists have to learn a completely different clef (the dreaded alto clef). So if your son knows that he will never stick with the viola, but will eventually move to the guitar (again, a knowledge he's probably too young/underexposed to have), then it may be easier for him to go with the violin so that he doesn't have to mess around with learning a different clef.
On the off chance that he does like whatever instrument he chooses, you could also consider that it's probably easier to make it professionally as a violist, since they are generally in shorter supply. Everybody and their grandmother (as far as classical music is concerned) plays the violin.
| Pete
Registered User
From:
North Coast NSW, Australia
Registered:
3/20/2005 | posted: 6/29/2005 at 6:30:21 PM ET
..and her hairdresser, and the guy who mows her lawn, and almost everyone else, plays the guitar, of course
There are many magnificant classical pieces for guitar, we should remember...Nat should be able to choose the instrument he learns, not have an off chance of liking the one he gets forced upon him.
I have found the technique of forcing a child to learn an instrument they are not interested in is, in most cases, a disaster.
Also, like it or not, the fact that children will lean toward a particular instrument is influenced by their gender, not by peer pressure, just as choice in sport is governed to a large extent by the same factor.
In Nicholson's study of choice of instrument by gender, published in 2001, and in many others I have seen, guitar is right next to drums/percussion on one (the male) end of the scale, and violin is right at the other (female) end. Not PC, I know.. but fact nevertheless.
Take me to your Lieder...
| TheHornSupremacy
Registered User
Registered:
11/17/2004 | posted: 6/30/2005 at 9:10:56 AM ET
I would agree that forcing a child to play something they're not interested in will, in most cases, not have the best result. I'm not saying to deny the child the opportunity to play what they want to, though. If (s)he is really interested in a instrument, (s)he will find the time outside of school to develop that desire. A school setting is not (or at least should not) be a place to pander to the wants of kids. It's a place of instruction, and most of the time the instruction is in something that the kid really doesn't want to learn. If schools were to let kids choose whatever they want, then (as the Nicholson study predicts) our schools would churn out nothing but male drummers and guitarists and female violinist, with only a scattering of other instruments in between. And let's face it, the reason those boys want to learn the drums and guitars (99.9% of the time) is because they want to be a rock star, not a classical guitarist. So they'll stay interested in music class up until the point they learn the 3 chords they need to know to play 90% of all rock music, then they'll tune everything else out. Schools should be about maximizing the learning experience, and I believe, while there are many fine classical guitar works out there, most kids aren't learning the guitar so they can specialize in the classics. I could be wrong, though.......
| Pete
Registered User
From:
North Coast NSW, Australia
Registered:
3/20/2005 | posted: 6/30/2005 at 12:36:23 PM ET
Yeah, I agree with the points you make about choice of subject, but teaching in a sports-mad country means that if keeping kids interested in music untill they can take it as an elective subject at age 14 or so means using an electric guiter or keyboard to spark interest, that's what you do. It certainly would be worth Nat's mum organising lessons after school on guitar, either way.
Take me to your Lieder...
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