Hello there, I hope you are well.
It is already towards the end of January, and it is nice to see that the children are settling down nicely in class. We warmly welcome the new students who have just joined us as well!
This week, we would like to share about what makes the ideal starter ukulele for children!
5 conditions most ideal for conducive learning
Tight strings
The ideal starter ukulele should hold the strings reasonably well and strings do not go out of tune easily after a few tuning. This means that the peg of the ukulele should be screwed firmly so that it can hold the tension of the strings, but not too firm that it makes peg difficult to turn and tune the ukulele.
Soprano size
If you accidentally make the purchase for a concert size ukulele for your child, do not worry, it can be used as well, it just looks slightly bigger and heavier to carry and needs getting used to.
Sound projects reasonably
We recommend ukuleles made primarily out of wood, or some come with new carbon fiber technology that projects the sound just as well. What can be avoided are ukuleles that are made of plastic. It looks colourful and enticing, but it will need an extra effort to strum the ukulele for sound to be projected.
Strap option
We do know children who do not prefer to have something strapped over their body as they play the ukulele, so it is not recommended to buy any ukuleles that cannot detach a strap.
If your ukulele does not have a strap option, it would require some tricks and extra effort to hold your ukulele up as you stand and play, but with practice, everyone gets used to it and with time learns how to perform with it effectively.
Reasonably Priced
From our experience, an ukulele below 3500yen will likely have issues with one of the 4 above conditions, and ukuleles above 20,000yen means that it may become pricy to replace where children accidents happen to the instruments.
Our recommendations
Here are some ukuleles that fulfills all 5 conditions that are readily available to purchase online:
Enya Mahogany Soprano Ukulele: http://tinyurl.com/4pv9mrjt
Enya Carbon Fiber Soprano Ukulele: http://tinyurl.com/bdh5emh2
Cahaya Soprano Ukulele: http://tinyurl.com/3647n3hc
Strap or no strap, the learning continues!
The hardest condition to fulfill for an ideal ukulele is the easily attachable and detachable screws that allow for a strap option. Many of the children starting ukuleles have purchased one that fulfills all conditions, except coming without a strap (Mahalo and Elvis ukuleles above 3500yen are usually quite reliable for this).
If you have one of these, please do not worry, your children will get used to it and will be well taken care of in class!
The learning continues :)
That is it and we hope this helps!
For more information about our teaching team and philosophy, please visit our website at www.minim.family
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to approach any of our teachers, or contact us at contact@minim.family
Love,
All of us at Minim
