The craze for playing the Guitar will never fade. Indian movies never fail to create the hype for a guitarist hero. The lead role flatters the audience by playing the guitar. Many teens tend to choose the guitar as their musical instrument because of the music they listen to.
The guitar is the #2 most learned musical instrument after Keyboard.
Guitar is certainly an instrument that gives goosebumps on listening. Why did you choose this awesome musical instrument? Where did you get your inspiration? You have made an awesome choice anyway! Because there are multiple benefits of learning guitar.
Sharpens Concentration
Builds Multitasking Skill
Improves math and logical reasoning skills
Enhances Discipline
Gives a sense of accomplishment
Things to consider while buying a Guitar:
Type of Guitar
Size of the Guitar
Guitar Must-haves
Optional Accessories
What all to check while buying a guitar
Basic skillset
What all you did not know about playing the guitar?
How to upgrade?
Types of Guitar:
There are three most common types of guitar.
Acoustic Guitar
Classic guitar with Nylon strings
Electric guitar
Before we go to this, let’s examine the reason for you to learn guitar. Usually, beginners are advised to take up an Acoustic guitar and work up to an Electric guitar. You might also take a different approach from the genre of music you listen to and aspire to play! What genre of music do you listen to? What genre do you aspire to play? Is it soft blues, jazz or country music? Or metal and rock?
Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic Guitar is the most commonly bought guitar for beginners.
Though steel strings may be hard on your hands at first, it is wonderful to attain good finger positions and gain confidence in playing the guitar.
Though we can play any genre in this, it is most suitable for plucking and mellow sounding songs.
Classic Guitar with Nylon Strings
Ah! Classic Guitar with Nylon Strings.
I personally love it. The space between each string is a bit wider in the classical guitar. You can get clear notes with this. Since it is nylon strings, it is a bit softer on your hands.
Sounds cool for country, pop, rock ‘n roll and jazz music. You might wanna play the Classic guitar with bare hands and not with the plectrum.
Electric guitar
Electric guitar is like an Acoustic guitar. But it has a solid body (whereas Acoustic has a hollow body) and always has to be connected with an Amplifier to get any output sound.
The Electric guitar has metal strings, they are a bit softer on hands when compared to Acoustic Guitar. You can do magic with an Electric guitar that is also connected with a Guitar pedal.
(A little tip here! The initial stages with the Electric guitar might be noisy for your roomies, connect a headphone instead?) Electric guitar is apt for playing rock, metal rock and lead music pieces.
Hope you have discovered the guitar that you would want to buy. But, just Guitar is not enough! You need to buy some accompanying accessories.
Size of the Guitar
The standard guitar is typically 38” long (This may vary across brands). We also get ¾ and ½ size guitars for younger guitarists. The size is also decided by the number of frets in the guitar.
Must-haves
Plectrum - Acoustic guitar and Electric guitar calls for a plectrum, a small rounded triangle piece to pluck and strum the strings
Tuner - Your guitar has to be tuned into the right frequency to produce a pleasant sound. A digital guitar tuner is your best friend at all times. Clip it on your guitar and tune your guitar.
Cover - There are various types of covers. You mostly get a foldable cover when you buy a guitar. It is necessary to take your guitar to various places. The hardcover protects the guitar from damage. If you are buying a cheaper guitar for practice, the soft foldable cover (“gig bags”) would do.
Guitar Strap - Don’t miss this out if you are aspiring to be a performer. If you would want to play the guitar standing then a guitar strap is inevitable.
Extra set of strings - You would need this in the initial days, especially the last two thin strings. Also, get familiar with “How to change strings for your guitar?” It is always recommended to have an extra set of strings while hard tuning your guitar.
Capo - A Capo looks like a clip that can be put on the bridge of the guitar to play the barre chords initially. This can be helpful for younger learners to help little fingers to play barre chords.
Guitar Cables - Do you have an amp pick in your guitar? Some have a built-in pickup that can be connected to the amplifier. The Guitar cable is inevitable for an Electric guitar. You can also plug in your Acoustic guitar to an amplifier with a pickup.
Optional Accessories:
Guitar stand - Do you want to rest between your practice sessions? Get the guitar stand. It is not an ultimate necessity. You can always rest your guitar on a soft surface supported by a wall.
Sheet stand - You don’t want to pause between notes and read your music notes. If you are learning music from sheet notes, a sheet stand is your best buddy.
Amplifier - An amplifier is inevitable if you are getting an electric guitar. It is optional if you are buying an Acoustic guitar.
Only for Electric Guitar:
Guitar Pedal - Everybody loves a little magic. That’s what your guitar pedal can do to the music you produce. This is only for the Electric Guitar. Control the effects, sustain and volume using a guitar pedal.
Basic skillset:
Tuning the guitar
The first thing you should learn before playing the guitar is to tune the Guitar to the right frequencies. You might have an in-built tuner. There are also a bunch of tuner apps that you download.
Changing Strings
Learn to change the strings just in case it gets old or breaks during tuning or a performance. There are a bunch of tutorials on the internet. (It makes you look like a pro!)
Cleaning the guitar
Know how to clean the guitar. The guitar has a few intricate parts like the pickup that need regular maintenance.
Quick Tip: To learn any musical instrument faster, practice just before going to bed and soon after you wake up. You will find that the note that you were struggling to play last night is way easier in the mornings. Yup, that’s how you use neural connections to learn a new skill faster. Use the Learner Circles’s practice sessions wisely
What all to check while buying a guitar?
Basic Checks
Check the guitar thoroughly to make sure that there are no cracks or scratches. Check whether the strings are rust-free if they are steel strings. How to do this? Run two fingers on the strings and see your hand for brown or a reddish tint(That’s rusty bro!).
Tone of the guitar
Guitars are made of wood and not all guitars have the same tone. The tone of the guitar changes with the shape, the wood and the strings. Do you like to be a bit bass and fill the room or a sharp tone? Play a bunch of guitars to find your best match.
Full-tune check
Some Guitars come with an in-built tuner. Tune the guitar to check the bridge and neck for any bows or back bows (Bows make it hard to press strings. Back bows get you landed on the wrong notes). Make sure that the pegs or the tuning screw don’t get loose after tuning.
What all you did not know?
Did you know that your left-hand fingers might have cuts and callouses(This helps you get the right note people!). Some learners give up at this stage because of the sharp pain while holding the strings to the notes and chords. The guitar like any other instrument needs hours and days of practice to attain proper sound and quality of sound.
While holding a note or a chord, the string that you are playing should be well pressed to the fretboard to create a clear sound. Your finger should not touch the other strings to produce a good quality sound.
How to upgrade?
As you improve in your guitar playing, you might want to upgrade to an instrument with better features.
Do you want to upgrade to an acoustic guitar with a warmer and fuller tone?
Do you want to upgrade to an electric guitar?
If you have an electric guitar, once you learn the basics, you might want to add a guitar pedal where you can get different guitar effects and rhythms just like a keyboard.
Rock it with the guitar that matches your soul! Enjoy
Still, confused? Tried your hand and not able to decide?
Here is a recommendation for the best buy by our star inspirer!
Deal of the day: Yamaha FS100C Acoustic Guitar, Natural https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00QKD79QE/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_dl_DVF6826ZS9KAHK305HZ4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
