Online Guitar Lessons

The term “acoustic guitar” commonly refers to two distinct types of instruments, the steel string acoustic guitar and the classical guitar.

For a person learning acoustic guitar, which type of guitar to choose is primarily based on the kind of guitar style the player wishes to learn. While both types are very similar to one another, the differences between the two do tend to favor certain techniques over others. While by no means is it impossible to play the same material on one or the other, it can be more difficult than necessary to use a classical guitar when a steel string might be more appropriate or vice versa.

The Classical Guitar

The classical guitar is not surprisingly the favored version of the acoustic guitar used by classical guitarists. Somewhat more unusually, it is also quite commonly used for acoustic parts by metal guitarists, due to several prominent guitarists in that genre also being classically trained.

The main difference between the classical nylon guitar and the steel string acoustic is that the classical guitar uses nylon strings for the three treble strings rather than metal strings. This lends a fairly different quality to the sound of those strings, even in comparison to the bass strings of the guitar, which are metal strings. Beyond that, classical guitars also tend to have significantly wider fretboards. Nylon guitars are virtually always played with the fingers rather than a pick. There is a reason for this beyond tradition.

Classical guitar strings are usually much lower tension than comparable steel string acoustic strings, and there is also a noticeable difference in tension between the nylon treble strings and the metal bass strings on a classical guitar. Those two factors can make it quite awkward to play pick style strumming with the same kind of evenness that can be achieved on a steel string guitar.

However, with classical style finger technique, the classical guitar is much better. The wider fretboard favors the fretting hand technique commonly found in classical style guitar. In addition, the lower string tension gives much greater control over string dynamics for finger playing. For someone interested in more classical style or even just finger style the classical guitar may be the better choice.

The Steel String Acoustic Guitar

The steel string acoustic guitar is perhaps the more prominent of the two types when the term “acoustic guitar” is used. Outside of classical style, the steel string acoustic is fairly common in just about every other genre that uses guitars.

Lacking the specialized nature of the classical guitar, this is probably the more comfortable variant for an electric guitarist to pick up and use, as well. The closer string spacing and more even string tension favor the chord strumming techniques that are often associated with acoustic guitar.

The reverse is that classical style playing is a bit more difficult. While both are quite similar in form and function and the same techniques can be played on either, the differences in strings and fretboard spacing do favor different styles of playing.

Grab your free course on “How to Solve the 7 Biggest Problems Learning Guitar”right now

You Can Finally Prove Everyone Wrong (And Wipe The Smirks From Their Faces) By Showing Them You Can Play Guitar…”

Plus if you sign up right now there’s an extra special bonus you can get your hands on.

Check it out now at: Learn Guitar

Dave Thomas is a guitarist and writer for http://www.learnguitarblog.com

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Tomas

  

One Response to “Accoustic Guitars - YouTube - Yngwie Malmsteen Acoustic Guitar Solo”