Which Guitar to learn with?

There are three main types of guitar that you can use to take guitar lessons. They are:

Chances are that if you have asked someone if you can use their guitar for a while, it would probably be an old classical acoustic guitar or maybe a steel string acoustic.

These guitars are excellent to learn on because electric guitars require extras such as ams, speakers, electric power and leads. You won't need all this for learning with an acoustic guitar.

Another advantage to using an acoustic guitar is that you won't need the loud volume that an electric guitar has. When you are learning to play guitar, you won't want to have everyone hearing your playing, only you need to hear what you are practicing.

If you don’t know which types of guitar you want to play on, ask yourself, ‘what kind of music do I want to play?’

Pick a song that you like for its guitar sound. Listen to the guitar sounds and only the guitar sounds. Are they clean, soft sounds? Or are they harsh, heavy or distorted? Generally, acoustic guitars are softer and cleaner. Distorted, heavy sounds come from electric guitars that are plugged into amplifiers and effects units. Can you hear individual notes being picked or are the strings being strummed hard? The harder you play, the thicker your strings need to be. You need to know what style you want to play.

OK you have found a style of music that you like. Try and find out what the band video for that song is and watch it. There will probably be a section in there where the band is playing. In this part, look at the guitarist. Is he/she playing on an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar? What brand is it? What style? If you know the exact guitar from the video, you can ask to play on it at your local guitar shop to see if it suits you.

People play guitar for many different reasons. You need to understand what it is that you want to get out of the guitar. To discover your tastes in guitar music, listening to different styles and genres. Ask musicians at music shops about what kind of guitars different bands use, or ask them what kind of amps/effects those artists use to get that sound.

The answers don’t have to be exact because they will get you thinking about what you need to buy to achieve the sound you are after.

For more information on achieving different guitar sounds, see our articles on basic guitar effects and guitar manufacturers and guitar models.

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