Acoustic Guitar 101

Acoustic Guitar 101

The acoustic guitar is a timeless instrument that is a very popular choice for first time learners. It is an incredibly accessible and versatile instrument being able to deliver beautiful, harmonising chords to complex and technical pieces. They make use of their hollow body to produce loud resonating notes. Most of the time acoustic guitars are used to play accompanying chords as they sound much better compared to when played on an electric. They can also be steel stringed which you would play using a pick as they are very sharp and abrasive or nylon strings which can be played using fingers as they are much softer. For younger students it is recommended to play on a nylon string guitar to make the experience more comfortable. 

The acoustic and electric guitar may seem similar but they have some key differences. The main ones being that the acoustic guitar doesn't need an amplifier and cables in order to deliver a proper sound, they are not electronic and they don't vary much in their sound compared to an electric guitar. They are also much lighter making them better for younger students but as a result they are less durable. An acoustic guitar would not be suitable for certain genres such as hard rock, metal and jazz making it slightly less versatile than the electric guitar 

Different Types of Acoustic Guitars

  • Dreadnought: Most common, Most volume, great for country, rock and bluegrass, recommended for beginners 
  • Jumbo: Largest in size, Very loud, Great for country and rock
  • Auditorium: Great for classical, smaller waist and great for fingerstyle playing.

General Musicianship Knowledge 

Knowing the names of the parts of your guitar is important if you want to refer to them in the future, the main parts you need to know are:

  • Bridge: Anchors the strings to the body of the guitar 
  • Body: Main section of guitar that you play on
  • Waist: Where to rest your arm while playing
  • Sound Hole: Where all the sound comes out the guitar 
  • Fret Board: Piece of wood that covers the surface of the neck, often covered with fret marks
  • Neck: Connects the headstock of the guitar to the body
  • Frets: Small metal bars on the fretboard that separates notes 
  • Nut: Holds the strings at the correct spacing on the fretboard 
  • Tuning Pegs: What you turn in order to tune your guitar
  • Machine heads: Holds string tension
  • Headstock: Top part of the guitar that holds the tuning pegs and machine heads

It is also important to know the names of the strings on your instrument. You can use this acronym to remember the names (lowest to highest):

  1. E  (DDY)
  2. A  (TE)
  3. D  (YNAMITE
  4. G  (OOD)
  5. B  (YE)
  6. e  (EDDY)

How Often Should I Practice?

Depending on how much free time or what kind of person you are, the right amount of practice time will vary a lot. An important thing is consistency as it has massive benefits to improving your playing so aim to practice every day even if that just means 5 minutes. 

The type of practice you do can be simple stuff such as learning new songs, playing scales or exercises to improve hand dexterity and developing new techniques. But having fun will be the thing that benefits you the most in the long run as you will think of practice as an entertaining activity, so no matter what you practice, make sure you are enjoying it. 

It is recommended to play in a band as early as possible in your musical journey as you will learn essential and valuable skills from playing with other musicians. It will also develop a love for music and create valuable memories as you will be socialising, having fun and creating music with other people.

 

 

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