Picking The Right Guitar For You!

If you're a beginner and you haven't bought your first guitar yet, then there are some things you should consider before buying a guitar. There are 3 types of guitars you can choose from:

Electric guitars

Steel string acoustic Guitars

Classical acoustic Guitars

Right off the bat, I HIGHLY recommend getting an electric guitar if you're looking for a guitar that will feel easy to play, and especially if you're a beginner, the strings will be softer and easier to fret, the guitar neck and fretboard will be much easier to maneuver and navigate.

That being said, there are pros and cons for each guitar. Let's start with Electric guitars

Electric Guitar Pros:

• Smaller guitar neck, which makes it easier to play notes

• Thinner strings, which makes it easier to push down on the notes

• Thinner body which makes putting your arm around the guitar a lot easier

Electric Guitar Cons:

• The guitar is heavier, so if you're on the smaller side it can be a challenge

• The guitar is usually rounder so it slips on your leg more, but this can be resolved by using a guitar strap

• You need to buy an amp because it doesn't sound great without it, so if you're on a budget this might not be the best, but there's a lot of bundles out there!

Steel string acoustic guitars are also a fantastic choice as well, let's see what the pros and cons of those instruments are

Steel String Acoustic Pros:

• Sounds beautiful: right as soon as you tune up it sounds FANTASTIC!

• The guitar neck and fretboard are pretty small and easy to navigate around

• No need for an amp because the guitar is plenty loud and you will hear the notes just fine without an amp

Steel String Acoustic Cons:

• The body of the guitar is VERY big most of the time, unless you get a smaller scale guitar. But a full scale guitar body is usually very big and some aspiring guitarists might find it uncomfortable to play

• The strings that usually come with the guitar are very hard to press down, many beginners struggle with playing single note melodies because of it. However, the solution to this is to buy thinner strings and put them on

• The guitar strings are usually pretty close together, so if you have bigger hands it might be hard to play specific notes and you might hit other strings and notes

The next guitar option is the classical acoustic. This is usually the guitar I recommend to new guitarists if they're not interested in electric guitars. Let's see what the pros and cons are:

Classical Acoustic Guitar Pros:

• The guitar sounds amazing: Just like steel strings this has a GREAT tone!

• The strings are MUCH softer: Unlike steel string acoustics, these strings will NOT hurt your fingers and will be MUCH more playable for both single string melodies and chords

• The body is slightly smaller than a steel string acoustic, so it's easier to reach around the body and play melodies and chords

Classical Acoustic Guitar Cons:

• The strings are separated by a decent margin, so that can be strenuous for reaching chords for some students I have

• The body of the guitar is still wide, so reaching around it can be somewhat of a task.

• The strings are not great for certain styles of guitar playing, particular lead guitar and string bending, so if that's the style of music you want to play this guitar is NOT for that!

So there's the pros and cons! Each guitar has their strengths and weaknesses, however, I still believe that the ELECTRIC guitar is the BEST choice if you're a beginner. And the only reason I would say otherwise is if you want to specifically play classical music, Spanish flamenco guitar, or some sort of pop music than I would advise a classical acoustic or steel string.

In the end the choice is yours to make, good luck on your future guitar gains!