Stringed instruments are capable of making beautiful music in the hands of a well-trained musician who has been properly trained and is patient about learning.  Stringed instruments include cello, violin, viola, double bass, and many more.  We are going to look at many of the instruments so you can make a good informed decision with your child.  Overall stringed instruments tend to have several advantages, such as being good for small hands, especially those that are small instruments.  Overall disadvantages are that it tends to take several lessons before your child can produce pleasant sounds, as well as they can be very frustrating at times to learn. 

There are numerous woodwind instruments to choose from, I am going to help explain them to you.  I am going to include the benefits, disadvantages, as well as the financial information for the instrument itself.  Due to the varying ranges of prices, the costs of lessons range greatly so I have omitted that information. 

The first thing to remember is that instruments are not cheap, and will likely never be cheap.  This means that the huge financial purchase you make to buy the instrument should be justifiable in the amount of use that it will get.  If your child is just a casual player and is not interested in the long term, then renting may be a much better option since in the long term it is much cheaper.  Remember that once you purchase an instrument it immediately begins to lose value, making a resale less financially capable of recovering your initial investment. 

Most parents are not lucky enough to have a child who enjoys practicing their music.  While many children enjoy the lessons themselves, most children tend to dread practice for some reason.  I am going to help you with some simple tips to help your child enjoy practice more, and make it less painful and easier for everyone in the house. 

Music is a very complicated art form for many to learn; you need to select a teacher for your child whom they feel very comfortable working with, and are capable of talking to without feeling bad about themselves.  Some instructors are better at working with children than others.  Your goal is to find a well-trained instructor who is comfortable working with children and has experience with children as well. 

Piano is technically a stringed instrument, and most will agree that it is a wonderful first instrument.  A great many music teachers who teach other instruments also agree that piano is a great instrument to start with.  It is not required that your child learn piano before anything else, but it does make a great stepping stone. Even if your child chooses to switch to another instrument later on, the melody, rhythm and sense of harmony they acquires with piano education will carry over.