We've all heard of strumming the guitar and plucking their guitar strings, but what does it mean to have a certain style of playing the guitar?
All the guitar tutorials out there seek to teach specific ways of playing the guitar, so it's important to know what kind of guitar-playing style you want to learn.
If you are new to the guitar or have been learning to play guitar for a while now, this article will help you explore some of the most popular styles of playing the guitar. Learn about what each style sounds like and whether it may suit you, the skills you will need to play each style and some famous artists you can learn guitar from.
1. Learn Guitar Like a Classic
It's essential that we start with the classical guitar since it's one of the most recommended styles of playing for beginners. For the instrument itself, the classical guitar comes with a special rosette design around its sound hole, with its strings made of nylon and a wider fretboard in comparison to other guitars. Many different genres of music can be played on this type of guitar, but the classical way of playing is indeed distinct from other styles.
To play in the classical style, a guitarist usually relies on their fingernails, and not a guitar pick, to produce loud, resonant sounds when they play guitar. The thumb, index, middle and ring fingers are also most used to pluck the strings, much like the fingerstyle technique. These techniques contribute to the clean and natural acoustic sounds that classical guitarists aim for, often without the use of any electric support or amplification.
This can sound like a warm, rich tone with mellow notes, although this can vary across different classical guitarists. Classical guitar students are encouraged to explore the traditional cultures that have contributed to the classical style of guitar, ranging from baroque to romantic, and even Spanish to Latin American influences.
If you are looking to venture into classical guitar, you must be adventurous to learn guitar in other approaches and improve your skills in the classical style of playing.
To get a better sense of the style of music that classical guitarists play, look out for the masters of this guitar-playing style. "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" by Francisco Tárrega, who is widely considered the father of classical guitar, is one of the standard pieces that all classical guitarists need to know. Find out more about this timeless guitar-playing style when you learn everything about the guitar.
2. Using Blues to Play Guitar
Often characterised as sad, most blues music reflects the personal hardship of the early masters of this style.
Traditionally, blues guitar is a folk style of music that narrates the stories of poor African-American labourers in the nineteenth century, who worked in plantations throughout the southern parts of the States. However, their unique combination of African chants, prayers and rhythmic dance stemming from their roots greatly transformed blues music, and when intertwined with later jazz and rock 'n' roll, blues guitar evolved into the more positive and upbeat rhythm we know today.
There is indeed some message of spirit and hope in blues guitar, and you can look out for these common elements as a blues guitarist:
- A blues guitar player relies on the 12-bar chord progression which is not only common to all blues music, but is also considered the backbone chord progression of this guitar style.
- Time and again, the lyrics of blues music follow an AAB pattern, a three-line verse structure where the first and second lines (the As) are often repeated.
- The minor pentatonic scale, which is a musical scale with five notes per octave instead of seven, is the most frequently used scale in blues music.
You can play blues music on a classical guitar or an electric guitar. Specific techniques that you should pick up to play the blues guitar well include slide guitar, rhythmic phrasing, string bending and double stops. It's also encouraged that you developed a good sense of tone and groove so you can play the blues guitar in your own way.
B. B. King's "The Thrill is Gone" and "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals are among the most famous blues guitar songs you should listen to so you can hear the different ways that blues guitar can be played. You can even take guitar classes for blues music to experience the brain benefits of playing the guitar.
3. Learning to Play Guitar in Rock
Did you know that rock music is one of the most diverse music genres?
Rock music was derived from older musical styles such as blues, country and gospel, with one of its earliest influencers being the one and only Elvis Presley. With other performers such as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin leading the way for others to play rock guitar, the musical forms of rock music have now grown from folk rock to heavy metal.
If you want to play guitar in the style of rock music, you'll come across these common features of rock guitar:
Downstrokes
Downstrokes, while considered a subtle technique, really showcase what it means to play rock guitar. Rock guitarists often use all downstrokes when they play guitar, instead of alternating between upstrokes and downstrokes. This gives off the impression of a more aggressive style of playing while highlighting the distortion of the guitar.
Distortion
While the word itself actually refers to a "clean" sound, most would describe distortion as "fuzzy or gritty tones". Distortion is the effect of altering your audio signal to make the sound of your guitar "rougher", providing you with the kind of grit that feels good when playing rock guitar. When you take guitar classes as a rock guitarist, you'll learn how to create the right amount of distortion with amps or stompboxes.
Palm muting
This is another technique to underscore your rock guitar's distortion, which happens when you keep a ringing string from vibrating. By placing your palm at a point where the strings connect to the bridge of your guitar, you can "silence" this vibration, also known as muting. The desired effect of palm muting can depend on how firmly you've placed your palm, how close your palm is to the guitar bridge, and even the strength of your strumming.
If you'd like to check out what it's like to play rock guitar, "Already Gone" by The Eagles and "Purple Rain" by Prince are among the top songs that defined the rock era. There is an incredible number of famous guitarists from around the world that you can learn from.
How to find your style to play guitar
Other than these three popular styles of playing the guitar, there are many other styles you can also explore if you want to learn guitar. Here are some other styles of playing the guitar that you might be interested in:
- Jazz guitar, characterised by syncopated rhythms and a strong emphasis on improvisation
- Fingerstyle, less of a guitar-playing style and more like a technique of playing the guitar with your fingers instead of a guitar pick
- R&B and funk guitar, known to be catchy and grounded in jazz and blues
It can be overwhelming to figure out your style of playing the guitar all on your own. If you are learning to play guitar as a beginner, you may not even know where to start. It's impossible to learn about all the guitar styles in a day! However, speaking to a guitar teacher on Superprof can help you discover where your guitar-playing potential lies.
You can learn about the proven methods of learning the guitar at the beginner level.
Here are some benefits you can gain from a guitar teacher on Superprof:
- Guitar concepts and basics of playing the guitar made easy
- Technical knowledge of guitar playing from an expert
- Easy-to-access notes and materials to prepare for guitar tutorials
- An interactive and fun learning experience!
Did you know that on average, Malaysians pay RM80 for a guitar lesson? For an average price of only RM66 per lesson, you can find your style to play guitar with a Superprof tutor. Simply visit our Superprof Private Tutors page to get connected with the best guitar teachers in Malaysia. You can decide whether you'd like to learn offline or online.
To do so, be sure to create a free account on Superprof to gain access to all our guitar experts. This will also allow you to choose whether you'd like play guitar as an individual learner or with other students, as well as other guitar lesson details like tutor response time, preferred lesson rate and level of learning. Remember to look out for student reviews and recommendations, too.
There is never one perfect style to play guitar. In fact, guitar playing styles have always been, and still are, changing and evolving - what's important is doing what makes you, you.
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