How difficult is it to learn guitar on a classical guitar?

Dan: How difficult is it to learn guitar on a classical guitar?
I want to teach myself the guitar. A friend of mine let me borrow an acoustic guitar of his and I used it to get familiar with the instrument, but he asked for it back. I have a family member who has an old classical guitar I could borrow, but I’ve heard that it’s difficult to learn on this type of guitar.

Answers and Views:

Answer by John Martins
complicated to teach yourself an instrument.

Answer by adema fan
it’s difficult to guess what kind of guitar you’re talking about so it’s better if you could upload a picture of the guitar or find a picture which is similar to the guitar. then i could tell you if there would be a major difference or not.

Answer by Steven Smidley
You could get a good guitar at a decent price from Guitar Center. Or craigslist, craigslist would be risky though. If by classical you mean with nylon strings and wide spaces between those strings, it is tricky but learning any instrument is tricky. https://www.FuzzyMonkeyTabs.com has nice videos on how to read guitar tab and how to play the Super Mario Bros music. I say play that ‘classical’ guitar and if you don’t give up in a month or two buy yourself a brand new guitar. Mow some lawns, groom some dogs. Get that axe man, the musical world needs you. 😎

Answer by TheGrandOnion
Nylon-stringed classical guitars’ necks are wider than the usual acoustic guitar. As a result it can feel like your hands are too small for the neck, esp. if your only experience is playing with a regular acoustic.
Give your hands time to adjust & you should do ok, if you put in the time to get your fretting hand in shape.
Just understand that classicals are mainly meant to play classical pieces on. Sure you can goof around & play some rock song on it but it won’t sound as powerful as if you were playing an electric.

Answer by Robert
The difficulty depends on a number of things such as your hand size for instance. If you are a teenager who is learning, then your hands may be a bit small for a classical guitar since the neck is much wider than most standard steel string guitars.

The reason that a classical guitar has such a wide neck is because it is designed for finger picking. This allows for more space between each string. That’s not to say you can’t strum a classical guitar, it’s just not really meant for that.

Also, you do not use a pick with a classical guitar, unless you want to break a lot of strings. This means that while you will be able to learn how to make chords and such, you will not be learning how to use a pick, or at least use one properly. This is another drawback to learning on a classical guitar.

Typically, I would recommend a beginner not trying to learn on a classical because statistically speaking, the most common reason that people stop playing guitar early into their learning experience is because they have a hard time playing. The easier the instrument is for you to play, the more likely you will stick with it. However, if you have true determination, then you may be OK with it. You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Don’t listen to people’s discouraging comment about how hard it is to teach yourself an instrument. This just means that they have not succeeded at it. Many people are self taught on many instrument, including me. I would, however, like to suggest having someone guide you a bit. Just to make sure that what you are teaching yourself is really correct and to also give you pointers on what aspects of the instrument you should concentrate on and which aspects aren’t as important.

Learning guitar isn’t just about learning how to make a few chords and strumming. You need to learn everything from proper tuning and string replacement to scales and different variations of each chord. Once you have learned this you can concentrate on more advanced aspects such as chord theory.

Answer by Phil Simons
Its not easy to learn on the classical because it has a wider neck and it can take a little longer to develop the proper muscles to barre properly on a classical. however, if u do practice on this guitar it will be much easier to play electric later on in your guitar playing….

😀

It would be easier to get a steel string guitar