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My brothers recently got involved in 40k, one choosing Tau, and the other choosing eldar. Sadly, I don't know anything about how these races should or could be played, so I've turned to dakka for help. Could anyone with some experience in playing either Tau or Eldar give some advice as to strong (not WAAC/super-competitive mind you) builds and good tactics?

Well, I'm a long term Eldar player winning several RTTs with them.
Eldar was better in the 4th ed of the game. Now the codex is a bit outdated.
Nevertheless, Eldar is still playable.
I suggest a mech Eldar army, with

Farseer,
2x 5 Fire Dragons in Serpents,
2x 10 Dire Avengers in Serpents,
2 Fire Prisms.

This would be a decent start.

For the Tau, you'll want to concentrate on "Shoot and Scoot" tactics. It will take a little longer to get used to, but will help your brother learn the game better.

If you're starting off small, you'll want the following:

1 Commander (Crisis Suit)
2 Squads of Crisis Suits
2 x 6 Firewarriors in a Devilfish
1 Team of two or three Broadsides
1 Hammerhead

The Broadsides are obviously your long-range anti-tank, and should always take two shield drones. The Firewarriors stay in the Devilfish in objective games, and pile out as-needed in kill point games. Firewarriors are very fragile, and don't last long outside their ride. They also don't have a great damage output, so should only be used against weakened squads.

The Hammerhead can be equipped with a Railgun (mostly for the Submunition round to be used against troops) or the Ion Cannon (good for light anti-vehicle work at range; go for side armor shots when possible). All vehicles need a Disruption Pod, and Flechette Dischargers are not a bad choice either.

The Crisis Suits fill in the rest of the gaps in your army. Adding two shield drones to Crisis Suit squads greatly improves their survivability, and your Commander should run with another Crisis Suit squad as well. I have an article up about recommendations for equipping Crisis Suit squads: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Tau_Crisis_Suit_Loadouts

Hope this helps.

Thanks to both of you, sorry it was a little late. The help is much appreciated