tarted to learn guitar is no different to learning anything else. The sooner we can start to sound half-way decent the better. All we want to do is go from that point of knowing little or nothing to becoming very familiar with the subject in the shortest time possible.

People get into playing guitar in lots of different ways and sometimes the way that you are introduced to guitar playing can have a big influence on the style you choose and how successful you become.

So let’s look at some of those processes and maybe give you some useful pointers to assist your guitar playing.

I guess quite a few of us get introduced to playing an instrument at school these days and have a reasonably open choice as to what style of guitar we choose.

Many adults, however, having decided to play end up buying a second hand instrument from a local classified ad without any real understanding of the different types of instrument and whether the one they have chosen is best suited to the style they want to play.

Choosing a guitar

There are many different types of guitar but they basically break down into acoustic or electric.

The Spanish or classical guitar is the oldest type of guitar and is an acoustic instrument. This means that it creates its sound by the vibrations of the string which are amplified inside the hollow body. It has nylon strings and has a smaller body than the other types that we will look at. It also has a much wider neck than the other types of guitar. This has some advantages when you are just starting out in that it makes it easier to play chords without the annoying buzzing or touching the wrong strings that are a real pain at first. The wider neck does also mean that you have to stretch your fingers wider to form the chords which can be difficult for children.

I personally think it is a good idea for everyone to start out on a classical guitar and learn the basics of chords, how to form them, some music theory and how to play melodies with both the fingers and a pick.

However, for those of you that want to play rock guitar with all kinds of electronic effects, starting out with a classical guitar will probably not be very appealing. All I will say here is that if you study the great rock guitar players as I have you will find that almost without exception they started out learning the basics on a classical guitar.

The steel strung guitar is also an acoustic guitar which is generally bigger in the body and has a longer neck. This is the style of guitar that folk singers and country singers tend to use. The strings are closer together making it harder to form clean chords and push down on the neck. When you are starting out you will get very sore fingers playing with these steel strings while the ends of your fingers harden off.

Finally we have the many types of electric guitar which generally have sold bodies and rely almost entirely on the electrification to create the sound which is pushed out through an electric amplifier.

I said that often the type of guitar we choose has an effect on our playing experience and this is true. As a guitar teacher, I often found that a child would come to me for lessons with a classical guitar that his or her parents had bought them and would get discouraged when it didn’t sound like Eric Clapton.

I had to explain that you can only play a certain style on a classical guitar but that learning the basics would set them up for life. Some of them accepted this and worked hard to improve but the majority who were impatient like most of us or didn’t really have a passion for it would quit.

The choice of guitar for you is really down to the style you want to play and the budget you have to spend. I would recommend that when you are starting out, you visit a large guitar store with lots of choice and knowledgeable staff to help you.

In the specialist music stores you will always find that the staff are not only very helpful but that most of them are good players too and will be able to demonstrate what the instrument is capable of in the hands of someone that really can play.

Go along, take your time to try some out and don’t worry that you sound like a beginner. We were all beginners once and the guys in the store won’t laugh at you.

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