The age old beginners question of which type of guitar should I buy to start off with, is best answered by asking yourself which type of music you want to play. Here is a brief lowdown and the points to look out for when choosing a suitable acoustic.

There are two main categories here – acoustic and electric guitars. Acoustic guitars are great for accompanying yourself singing in a singer-songwriter role and also can be used in a band situation for virtuoso style group playing, say in a soloing jazz style. Electric guitars are mainly used in a band or group situation for guitar solos and rhythm work.

The description acoustic guitar covers all types of guitar, designed to play and sound without further or necessary amplification. They come with either steel or nylon strings. Steel stringers sound very much different to their more rounded and mellower cousins. They can be heard on all types of music too, from Pop to Elvis, to swampy old bottle-neck blues licks, to the mighty Travis. Great for banging out moving tunes or dropping it down to subtle finger-style chicken-pickin’. They are versatile to say the least, and the most common amongst bedrooms I would imagine.

Nylon stringed guitars are typically suited to and heard in Classical, Spanish and Flamenco style music. For a wonderful example of nylon-stringed magic check out Paco De Lucia or John Williams. These guitars are also to be heard in many other popular styles, such as Sting’s wonderfully simplistic but effective fret work, in the well known and beautiful song Fragile.

Tip: If you want to play traditional classical or flamenco style guitar, get a good graded teacher ASAP.

An important point to note here is that strings are the lifeblood of any guitar so make sure to invest in a quality brand at all times. Start off with a set of medium gauge (12s or 13s) and see how you get on. The heavier the gauge the more body in the sound. The price? Harder on the fingers to play but you get used to it. A typical medium size acoustic set would contain the following size strings in a set.:

E string .013
B string .017
G string .026
D string .038
A string .048
E string .058

Experiment over time until you find a good set that suits YOUR style. Go with a respected brand-name such as Martin or Fender.

Acoustic guitars can also be amplified on stage and recorded in various ways if desired or necessary. The simplest and most direct way is to mic them up with a microphone or install/stick on a pickup. Acoustic/Electro guitars as their name suggests, are simply acoustic guitars with the ability to plug into a suitable amplifier. This just means that they can be heard over say, a noisy pub racket of cheering…yeaahhh. Normally this feature is used for live gigging. In the recording studio it’s usual to use the studio’s recording facilities to capture a guitars sound to tape. It’s far superior, but feel free to experiment in your own time.

A good tip is that when looking out for an Acoustic Electros, or a Semi-Electric as they are also commonly called, is to make sure that the guitar sounds great un-amplified as well as great when plugged in. If the guitar sounds weak un-amplified, chances are it could sound weak amplified too.

Also watch out that your chosen guitar has a nice playable action. This relates to how high the strings come up off the fretboard. A cheap and badly made guitar has a very high action, and is therefore very hard to play. This is to be avoided like the plague! If you simply lower the action on a cheap guitar it will buzz and fret out (not sound) all over the place. And so onto Electric guitars which we can have a look at next – in the meantime happy strumming.

David O’Toole is a guitar player, music fan, and musician from Ireland. He is the webmaster at the UniGTR? Center and editor at the BellaOnline Musician Site

A keen player and experienced guitar teacher, he is also the author of the popular standard, lefthand, reverse guitar, and piano / keyboard series of Basic Chord Families — Not just another random selection of 1000s of chords, but the key to fast learning and playing 1000s of songs with under 60 chords!

This article may be freely reproduced as is, provided it is keep it intact, and that the above resource box is maintained – thank you.

Music isnt just learning notes and playing them, you learn notes to play to the music of your soul Katie Greenwood.

Why are you learning music anyway? Is it to pick up chicks? Is it to fulfill a void in your mundane life? Is it an indescribable calling?

I always wanted to learn the drums. I dont know why, maybe its the aggressive nature of the things. You sit there and bash the crap out of them.

As fate would have it I shared a house with Dave, a guitar player, so I decided to learn the guitar as I had my very own teacher living in the next room. Or so I thought.

I went out and bought a nylon string classical guitar for $70. I didnt have a clue what I was doing but that never stopped me before.

So I went back home with my new guitar in its cardboard box. And with anything new, you want to play with it straight away, as soon as you get it home.

I also bought one of those guitar case chord dictionaries. You know the ones, they have a thousand chords in them and they are designed to confuse rather than actually help you.

So I waited for Dave to get home from work and as soon as he was in the door I was at him. I bought this new guitar and I was wondering if you could show me how to play it I said.

He just laughed at me but eventually agreed to show me which chords to learn first. He told me to learn the open chords A, D, E, G, and C. So I did. I spent every spare moment learning these chords.

Dave wouldnt show me any songs to play so I was forced to make up my own songs. This forced me to really explore every one of these chords as I thought at the time that I had to include them all in every song I wrote.

The songs I wrote were pretty strange to say the least. We were into punk music at that time so just imagine what a dying cat like vocals set to a nylon string out of tune guitar played as fast as a speeding train sounds like and you get the picture.

It sounded good to me at the time and I was very proud of my new found ability. It took about three months to get the hang of changing between the chords, and being able to write a song. (if you could call it that).

I didnt know it at the time but I had the one thing that was needed that would ensure I would become a good guitar player. That one thing was sheer bloody determination. And the more people told me how bad I sounded the more determined I became to improve.

So it doesnt matter how good or bad you are at the moment just play the music of your soul even if it sounds like a cat being tortured. You will improve as long as you keep trying. Here’s a mental exercise for you. Fast forward your mind to 4 years from now. How good a guitar player will you be? The time will pass regardless of what you do. Are you going to keep at it? or are you going to give up? It’s up to you. You will be four years older, but will you be four years wiser?

John Stockwell is a guitar player and the author of the acclaimed Mind Over Music for Guitar http://www.learn-to-play-guitar.net/mindovermusic/, a unique approach to learning to play the guitar by ear for beginners to advanced students.

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In this clandestine world of the Internet, people have come to realize the wonders of the new technology. It has brought them many advantages and has changed their lives quite remarkably.

One of the best things that the Internet was able to reveal to humanity was the remarkable uses of the ebooks or the electronic form of books. These virtual replicas of books have gained considerable recognition because they are able to provide the convenience, information, and the feasibility that every consumer is looking for.

For instance, when people started to demand information about learning to play the guitar, many experts found the idea appealing, and thus, created guitar lesson ebooks. This particular type of ebooks were specially made for people who wish to learn how to play the guitar but do not have time to go to the shops or bookstores to search for regular books.

Best of all, guitar lesson ebooks provide additional features that ordinary guitar lessons cannot supply. These ebooks provide interactive features that serve as added benefits for the beginner.

Many ebooks about guitar lessons contain songs that a beginner can use to learn how to play the guitar as easily and as fast as possible. Experts contend that learning to play the guitar with songs playing in the background is a much easier process than reading guitar song tabs.

For people who wish to know why guitar lesson ebooks are consistently gaining recognition, here is a list of some of their benefits:

1. Convenience

One of the best things about this kind of ebook is that you can instantly download them to your computer once they are paid for. This shows that you can instantly start learning the mechanics of playing the guitar.

2. Affordable

Guitar lesson ebooks are available on the Net at very affordable prices and even if some guitar books are cheaper, the additional money that you will spend when you go to the mall or store for books could cost you more.

3. Variety of features

The best thing about a guitar lesson ebook is that it does not just contain the lessons that the learner has to know but also has some added features making the learning process easier and more fun.

For instance, there are ebooks that provide lyrics, chords, transitions, strumming patterns, and songs.

Indeed, guitar lesson ebooks are not just merely new technology but they are especially made to meet the growing demands of the consumers.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Guitar Warehouse the best place to Buy Guitar and Guitar Playing Techniques. Both sites offer free lesson, ebboks product sales.

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