Buying a guitar

Teaching guitar to a 4 / 5 years old kid
    Getting interested
    Buying a guitar
    My teaching method 

   I usually go to a 100 JPY (app US$ 1) shop.
   And there is a 100 JPY very small guitar toy, and there is my boy always saying he wanted it...
   He was trying to play with my electric guitar, but could not improve much because it is a full size and heavy, and because I had never taught some one to play guitar.
   One of my first miss was trying to teach him how to read guitar tabs... This was also a lesson for me.
   If I thought he was losing interest, than he wanted that toy guitar again.
   At the beginning of December, I was almost giving up, 
until we went to a shopping mall, with a real guitar shop.
  And there was a small (3/4) size acoustic guitar. I asked the shop guy if my kid could try it. His eyes blinked. It was smaller, fit in his arms, and was light. Something like, "I want to play guitar, but that one was too heavy. This one is great!". After that, he was saying he wanted it.

  I am a believer that if you don't give up, you can achieve things.
  Oh well, so, 4 months after he touch a guitar for the first time at the park, Santa decided to give him his guitar.




⬆C/G are reduced versions.

  Soon after my son got interested on guitars, I started searching for one. I was not sure if I would buy, but I had to look around. I had to investigate, see opinions until making my decision.
  I went through many options and many makers. 
  The biggest issue is because of his small hand. I was not sure if he could reach all strings or frets...

  Another problem is that there are many opinions out there, and some opinions being the opposite of others.
I had to chose:
- The type of the guitar. Ex: Ukulele, Acoustic, Classical, or other
- The scale size of the guitar. This affects the default tune.
- The neck size of the guitar.

  For example, I found some suggestions saying that I should start with a small Ukulele, and going up according to the kid age or height (here). That is, I should buy a bigger Uke (or whatever) every few years.

  After 2 months, I decided to not adopt the method to buy few Ukes. 
  The main reason was this opinion I found on Amazon review for Yamaha JR2 guitar:
"For me, as an advanced beginner, the big +++ for this v. a Uke/Guitalele are:
1) You can tune it to "E" and don't have to re-invent the wheel while learning!"
  That is, since the size and tuning of Ukes are different, my kid would have to re-learn everything on the new Uke.
  This seemed more like a product oriented model to me. Nope.
  I am not against Uke. I just think re-learning as not so effective. If he wants to plan an Uke, he can do after learning a guitar.


  There were other reasons: I did not want to budget a new guitar every few years.
  Also, with a standard "E" tune guitar, I could play with my electric guitar while teaching him.

  It took me a long time to decide, because I was not sure if a standard 6 string "E" tune guitar would fit in his hand.
  My doubt ended after looking at some videos:
- This is a video of a 5 years old playing an almost full size electric guitar (Marine Rider)
- This is a video of what also seems like kindergartens playing full size classic guitars
  So, these little kids can play a full size guitar!

  Still, I had to chose the type (acoustic or classical), scale and neck sizes.
  Although the videos above are full size guitars, I thought a smaller but still "E" tune would be easier.
  I also had my budget. I still was not sure if his interest would continue, so I did not want to spend too much, but on the other hand, I did not want to give him a toy or low quality guitar.
  My best preference would be Hohner HC02. A 3/4 scale and small neck guitar with nylon string. 
  However, I could just not find one in Japan.
  So, I ended up with a still 3/4 scale and 43mm Yamaha JR2 acoustic guitar. My preference was for a nylon string, because it's softer than a steel string. I overcame this issue by using a steel and silk string instead of steel one.