[HANASHIR:14693] The size of guitars

[Ethan Leigh Bueno de Mesquita <mesquita...>]

Hi,

Someone on the list, though I can't remember who  argued that buying a
smaller than "full sized" guitar was a bad idea because then the student
would have to learn everything all over again when they moved on to a full size.


>
> A learner's guitar is problematic.  He'd have to relearn everything
>again on a full size guitar.  At 13
> he's old enough for a full size guitar.  At least that's my opinion.


This strikes me as incorrect.

Everyone who learns violin or cello as a child starts on a smaller than
full sized instrument and, indeed, may change instruments size as 5 times
before reaching a full size (not all of which are themselves the exact
same size). Yes, you have to adjust finger positioning for intonation but
this is a small price to pay to avoide the frustration/impossibility of
getting a good sound out of an instrument that is too big for you. And
you still learn bowing technique, vibrato, finger technique, develop your
ear, etc.

The same, I think, goes for guitar. You see lots of guitar players (even
adults with pretty small hands, I would argue) playing instruments that
are way too big for them (like my wife playing her dreadnought). The
result is that it is hard to get a subtle touch with the right hand, hard
to avoid fret buzz with the left, and hard to reach long stretches.
Furthermore, the transition to a bigger guitar, if it eventually needs to
be made, is super easy on guitar because the frets eliminate any
intonation issues (which is, of course, not true on other string
instruments). And, it is not even the case that what we think of as a full
size guitar (the standard folky dreadnought) is the only full size guitar.
There are lots of options in steel string guitars that are both bigger
(the Jumbo for which Gibson is famous) and smaller (the grand
concert/parlor guitars) than a dreadnought.

It seems to me that the most important thing, especially for a
student, is to find a guitar of a size that lets them play
comfortably and produce a good sound.

Best,

Ethan
*******************************
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Washington University
CB 1063
1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO  63130

mesquita (at) post(dot)harvard(dot)edu
www.fas.harvard.edu/~mesquita

"Prudence is a rascally virtue." -- Benjamin Rush



------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org -----------------------+