Classic vs Acoustic Guitar – How I started
The first time I touched a guitar was in 1992, there was no internet, YouTube, or a place to learn guitar, so the way to learn to play the guitar was not clear. Now the situation is different, or rather it is reversed. There are thousands of videos and websites that teach you to play guitar, but most of them do not follow a clear method or curriculum in education.
In addition, you do not know what you want to learn in the first place, that is, classic vs acoustic guitar or even electric, and each of them has a different approach to learning, and different techniques in the right and left hand.
I always say start with the classic guitar for many reasons, including:
- It is easy to buy a classical guitar, and it will not cost much.
- The strings are easy and soft on the hand at first
- You will learn the names of the notes and frets on the guitar and this will help you in any style you choose to play
This last point is very important because I see many students playing well but they do not know the names of the notes or the fretboard on the guitar.
You can say that this is not important, the important thing is that I play and sing, but believe me, you will come to a point and stop and not know where to go from here, because you will always be dependent on the information that you know, and there are many things that you do not know you will be missing.
Can I skip Learning Notes?
Example: You decided to play the acoustic guitar, so you need to know how to strum the chords. Every song has a strumming pattern, there are songs that you can play in the same way and sounds good, but after a while and after you have played 10 songs or more, you must learn a different pattern, and the best way to learn this is to know the different rhythms in the note in order to play the rhythm correctly.
So, If you do not know how to read the different rhythms and practice them well, you will be satisfied with what you know and you will not progress in your playing.
And there are many students I met who stopped at the song “Hotel California” and didn’t know what to do after that, they reached the end and were unable to learn new chords or advanced strumming.
So What’s The Answer?
The answer is simple, if you are a complete beginner, learn classical guitar so that you know how to read different rhythms and strum a few songs, and then after a short period of two or three months, you can choose if you want to continue or learn acoustic or electric guitar.
And if you have been playing for a while now and you want to progress, learn to read different rhythms, or maybe if you have time to learn classical guitar and apply this to the acoustic guitar, but this requires time and discipline and it will not work with everyone.
Classic vs Acoustic Guitar – Different Paths
I summarized the two paths of classic vs acoustic guitar to help you decide which one works best for you:
| Classical Guitar | Acoustic Guitar |
|---|---|
| You will learn how to read notes and different rhythms. | Possible, but not in all methods. |
| You will learn the names of the guitar frets | Possible, but not in all methods. |
| You will play melodies – No singing | You will play songs and solos – you might sing |
| The focus is on the notes | The focus is on the chords |
| Classical & Fingerstyle music | Rock, Blues, Country, and Pop music |
| The focus is on the Right hand techniques | The focus is on the Left hand techniques |
| Play with your fingers most of the time | Play with a pick most of the time |
| People will recognize the music without you signing | You might sing so the people recognize the song |
| You will learn Music Theory | Possible, but not in all methods. |
| ABRMS – LCM – Trinity Exam Board | Trinity – LCM – Rockschool Exam Board |
| You can teach later on with the Grade 8 Certificate | You can teach later on with the Grade 8 Certificate |
| You can perform in the Opera/Halls | Play in a band |
In short, these are the differences between classic vs acoustic guitar paths, the classic guitar way and the acoustic/electric guitar way. They have a few points in common, but more important is what you want.
Beware of the wrong teacher
There are guitar teachers and institutes that impose on the student that he must learn classical guitar in the first place because this is the right way, and of course, the teacher does not mention any convincing reason from the reasons I mentioned to convince the student of it, so the result is that the student loses his enthusiasm and feels that the guitar is difficult and boring.
How do you practice something that you feel is boring and will not lead you to the path you want?!
Choosing the right guitar teacher for you is crucial to be on the right track from the start, and to keep you motivated. Here is an article that discusses in detail how to choose the right guitar teacher.
How to choose the best teacher for you.
In Summary
In this article, I tried to highlight the path that you will take to learn to play the guitar, because when I started, there was no one to tell me the difference between classic vs acoustic guitar.
Whatever you choose, stick with it for at least 6 months with full focus. This time will not be wasted if you decide to switch to another guitar or other style of music, especially if you start with the classical guitar.
I hope I helped you decide which path to take in your journey, do leave a comment and tell me what you think, or if you have any questions about the subject and I will get back to you.
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