The first question many beginners need to consider is: Which is the best guitar to develop your playing skills? Is it an acoustic guitar, or an electric guitar or even a classical guitar? Well, the basic answer is quite simple, the acoustic guitar will allow you to learn and develop your practical guitar playing skills so that you can reach a degree of playing skill that may allow you to move up to the next level. If you want to invest in a classical or electric guitar the equipment will cost you more as you will need to invest in more sophisticated equipment accessories or a more expensive guitar.
Starting from the basics
In order to play the guitar as a beginner, you will have to get started and learn the basic techniques. The best advice is to use the most basic training equipment to establish a solid base of your guitar playing techniques before moving onto more complex guitars. You will be faced with some fundamental cross road decisions that you must deliberate on and decide which road you will decide to follow as you become a better player.
The two biggest decisions as you plan to learn and improve your guitar playing capability is that you effectively need to decide whether to use an acoustic guitar or opt for an electric guitar. Next you need to decide if you want to improve your guitar playing skill on your own or if it would be better to hire a tutor and take lessons to improve your ability.
If you are looking for definitive advice on what type of guitar to focus on as you look to learn and make your guitar playing even better, there is little agreement between the guitar manufacturers about the best approach or even the best guitar equipment, so for this reason you will need to make your own decisions, help is at hand read on.
Why you should focus on an acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitars offer you the chance to play without needing an amplifier; the sound is transmitted by the hollow body of the guitar beneath the strings in an area known as the sound hole. As you make the strings vibrate, they cause the soundboard that is the flat top of the guitar to vibrate and this vibration enters the guitar body and produces a deeper tone that comes out of the sound hole.
The great thing about acoustic guitars is that they are simple and require little setting up. Unlike electric guitars you do not need to attach additional equipment like the amplifier to play the guitar. Thanks to their simplicity the acoustic guitar normally costs less than an electric guitar and is considered to be a “pick-up-and-play” musical instrument, for this reason they are considered ideal for beginners but also are the favoured musical instrument for guitar playing professionals too.
If your preference makes you prefer to play a “pure” guitar rather than the electric guitar counterpart, you may consider investing in a classical guitar to take advantage of the clarity and purity of the sound the classical guitar offers. All the techniques that you will have learned on your basic acoustic guitar will be work even better on the classic guitar that you have decided to invest in.