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A common pitfall for beginning students is getting the wrong guitar. It's important to find a guitar that's right for you. A common mistake for parents is to buy their son or daughter a full-sized acoustic guitar. These instruments are bulky, delicate, more expensive and harder to play than either reduced-scale acoustics, or full-sized electrics of comparable quality. Electric I usually recommend beginning on an electric - for several reasons. If it's properly set up, an electric is easier to play than an acoustic. Chances are most of the guitar music you want to play was recorded with electric guitar. There are many inexpensive, high-quality electric guitars available. Manufacturers like Fender, Ibanez, Yamaha and Washburn, offer beginner's packages including a guitar, amp and cord which go for as low as $300. These are good quality, durable instruments. You can also save money by buying a used guitar and amp, and there are always good deals out there. Electric guitars and amps are fairly durable, so you don't have to be afraid of buying used, as long as someone with some experience looks at it first. Some people think there is an advantage to beginning on acoustic instead of electric, but there isn't. People have told me they are afraid they will form bad habits from starting on electric. You are no more likely to form bad habits on electric than on acoustic. Some people think they will become better players if they learn on a guitar that's harder to play, but this only makes them learn more slowly. The most important thing when you are getting the first guitar is to get one that is easy to play. Playability is determined mostly by the height of the strings from the fretboard, the spacing between strings, and the width of the neck overall. Small Scale I recommend to some of my students that they start on a small-scale instrument for the first couple of months at least. Reduced-scale acoustic guitars are available for about $125, and you should be able resell it for a little less than you paid for it. Before you buy a guitar, check to see if you can reach around the body of the guitar with your right hand. Also see if you can reach around the guitar neck with your left hand. If the guitar doesn't pass these two tests, then it probably isn't the right instrument for you. Large Necks Some people have the opposite problem - their fingers are too big to get between the strings. This is a little unusual, but I have seen a couple of instances of this problem. The solution is to find a guitar with a wider neck. Neck width and string spacing vary greatly on acoustic guitars. Nylon string acoustics tend to have very wide necks. Among electrics, Gibson Les Paul style guitars tend to have the widest necks. The Peavy Van Halen electric has an unusually narrow string spacing, and a very round neck. Warmoth Guitars makes a 'Super Wide' Strat neck that is 1-7/8" at the nut. (Search for 'warmoth super wide strat neck'.) Before you go to the trouble of changing your guitar neck, take a few weeks to do some of the still exercises on the 'hand conditioning' page. Even people with large fingers can usually adapt to a regular-size guitar neck. If you have a guitar that is too big, you can use a capo to basically shorten the guitar neck. The 'Beginner's Guitar Method' CD-ROM includes a chapter on playing open chord shapes with the capo on the 5th fret. There is also a chapter on the pentatonic scale that can be played with the capo at the 5th fret. |
 © 2010 Greg Varhaug |