Learn Guitar - Should You Teach Yourself To Play On A Steel String Or Classical Guitar?

Should you start learning with a steel string or a classical guitar?

While there is no definitive answer to this question, I’ll let you in my own disastrous experiment in the world of classical nylon string guitars.

You can then make up your own mind.

My very first guitar was a nylon string classical guitar.

I’d heard all about sore fingers from steel strings so I decided to ‘cheat’ a little bit. I figured the softer strings and the wider fret board would be easier to start off on. Once I’d got a little bit better I could move onto the steel string acoustic without any problems.

My cunning plan to start off learning on soft nylon strings backfired

Here are some of the things you need to know about nylon string guitars.

Nylon string guitars are commonly used by classical guitarists.

Strangely enough, they are also used by a lot of heavy metal guitarists for the acoustic parts of there songs. Metallica are a band that do this a lot.

The fret board of the classical nylon string guitar is generally wider, the strings are not as tensioned and the guitar itself is normally smaller and lighter.

But, the biggest difference between steel string and classical string guitars is that the lower 3 strings of the classical guitar are nylon.

These strings make a unique sound that differs in tone even from the brass bound strings in the same set.

This leads to a tonal and tension difference in the two sets of strings.

This tension difference is great for finger picking classical guitarists, but makes the guitar sound horrible when strummed with a pick – which is most likely what a beginner guitarist would need to do

So if you’re only starting to Learn Guitar your best bet is to get a decent steel string guitar.

The more even string tension and the closer string spacing make them perfect for playing a wide variety of musical styles.

Classical guitars are great if you want to only play classical music, but if you’re interested in a broader perspective you will need to learn on steel.

Get Your 3 FREE E-Books on Learning Guitar Chords (37 Pages), Learning Guitar Scales (44 Pages) and Learning Guitar Tab (17 Pages) at learn acoustic guitar

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!