The Boy brought an acoustic guitar home from boarding school, which he bought from a pawn shop. It seems in a decent condition, but obviously quite old and a student guitar to start with.
I remember how to tune it by ear. I gave up strings for woodwinds when I was 12 but I started guitar at six so that’s all I remember.
He likes Brian May. (Yeah, mom raised him well!) I’m not about to build a guitar for him, sorry, so he gets to keep this one!
So, given that:
Are the plastic strings ok? They detune really fast, IMO. If he needs metal strings, what kind?
I want to get him a book to learn from, can anybody recommend a beginner one? (He can do basically Smoke on the Water. If it does it again, I will go mad.)
What else does he need? A case, obviously. Anything else?
This needs to move to Cafe Society and I will link it to the Great Ongoing Guitar Thread (GOGT) there so fellow geeks can see it.
Unfortunately, you are not giving us much to go on. It sounds like you are saying that he brought home a nylon-stringed classical guitar given your reference to “plastic” strings. If that is the case, then it should ONLY be strung with nylon strings - don’t switch to steel strings; I suspect the guitar might implode over time under the added tension. If I have that wrong and it is a steel string, then never mind.
Either way, you would be well-served bring the guitar to a guitar store and getting the strings changed and giving it a general once over. While there, buy a cheap tuner - I loveSNARK clip-on tunersfor their accuracy and ease of use and they are ~$12.
As for learning - options include lessons, books, youtube clips (search on Beginning Guitar and/or the song you want to learn and there are typically dozens of wannabee teachers up there showing their stuff - a few are really good)…
ETA: oh, and search in Cafe Society on, I dunno, “starting guitar” - there have been a few good tips-oriented threads. Now that I think about it, if you find any threads, post links to them in the GOGT and we’ll be able to find them more easily!
Reitterating the importance of this. An easy way to tell is if the guitar has a pick guard. If not, then it is meant for nylon strings only, and is to be plucked with fingers rather than a pick.
The type of strings needed is dictated by the guitar. If it’s a steel-string guitar, using nylon strings will be easier on the fingers but will generally give crappy sound. If it’s a nylon-string guitar (typically a classical guitar), using steel strings will almost certainly break the instrument in time.
Most steel-string guitar headstocks look like this, but a few look like this. Note the similarity between the latter and the classical design.
A steel-string guitar saddle (the white bar under the strings) will be angled like this, with the strings typically anchored under the pegs (the peg heads are the black dots). A classical guitar saddle will be straight like this, with the strings typically tied on. There are a few variations, though.
If this is unclear to you, or there are any doubts, take the guitar to a knowledgeable shop to select strings. The main thing is to NOT put steel strings on a guitar that’s not made for them, so as not to ruin the guitar.
Strings that go out of tune easily usually indicate the wrong strings for the guitar, old strings, or faulty tuning mechanisms: typical for steel-string; typical for classical. A good place to start is a new set of the right kind of strings.
An electronic tuner. They are cheap, easy to use and it is much more enjoyable to play a perfectly tuned guitar.
Re-reading the thread, I see Snark already mentioned it. But it is worth repeating. A good friend of mine had let her guitar gather dust for years because she found tuning so difficult. We were talking in the car and I mentioned electronic tuners. We literally hit the next exit to go buy one and she started playing again the next day.
Granted, but it is a skill like being able to multiply two long numbers in your head - impressive, but not essential. Spend the time that would be used learning how to tune by ear on learning new tunings.
That really rubs me the wrong way, but I’m not sure if I can articulate why. Maybe I’m just old-school. Tuning without technology is now impressive? It used to be called a very basic part of being a musician.
I don’t see it as being like multiplying two long numbers. To me it’s like adding two short numbers. You shouldn’t need a calculator for 2nd grade addition.
While I agree with tdn that the ability to tune your instrument unaided is an essential part of being competent, I think that the suggestion to get a tuner is right. Remember the kid’s a beginner. Nothing’s more likely to make him give up then the frustration of trying to tune his guitar when he’s not really able to. This goes double if (as seems likely) your guitar is old and beat up and won’t tune easily.
As for books - I don’t know if you can learn an instrument just from a book . A course of introductory lessons seem to be the best plan to me.
I agree with the idea of getting a tuner. I remember when I was first starting to play–I could tune the strings with respect to each other but I never had the ear for using a pitch pipe* so I wasn’t ever sure I had started right. In other words, the guitar was in tune with respect to itself, but not to the rest of the world. This was before home internet so I couldn’t get a reference tone that way. And there were no musically-inclined friends whose instruments I could use to get a reference. (And my hands were always cold from having to carry my milk, outside, in the cold, uphill, both ways. But that’s another story.)
Still don’t. I don’t know why, it just is. And my tuner, once I got one, made it unnecessary and increased my desire to play.
That’s true. It does create a bit of a conundrum, though. A student who starts out with an electronic tuner is likely to use it as a crutch and never learn the skill of tuning. I was at a party a couple of years ago and talking to a fellow guitarist about an amazing singer/songwriter who was also at the party. He told me that while she is good, she can;t tune a guitar without a gadget to help her. I was really disappointed hearing that.
Tuning a guitar by ear (I start with a tuning fork to get my A 440) is like learning to drive a stick shift car: it is simply better, because it gets you more, um, mechanically involved, in the workings of the tool you are using (car, guitar). Having said that, starting off with a tuner/automatic transmission is a smoother, easier way to go…
Every pro I know uses an electronic tuner. I’d imagine they all can tune by ear, but doing so on a stage in a club or theater is apparently much more difficult.
With an electronic tuner, they can tune between each song if they wish - hit the foot-switch to mute the amp, tweak the tuning while looking at the LEDs while telling a story about the next song.
I’ll take the guitar to the local shop and ask about strings. I didn’t realise some guitars can’t have steel strings, so I appreciate the advice. I’ll also take a picture when I get home. It might even be a good guitar for all I know!
What’s a capo? Someone mentioned it upthread.
I think I will look into a tuner. I can actually tune it by ear (because I sing, and can therefore hum the note, and if I can’t hum the note, then I can tune it to my flute which I am confident about.) I am going to teach my kid to tune it that way - firstly, because it’s literally all I remember about how to play a guitar, and secondly, because I’m a musician as well, and I think it’s a good skill to know. That said, a tuner is a good idea and I hadn’t thought of it.
He goes to boarding school, so lessons are a bit problematic - I will take the advice of a good Google search, and also ask about a book at the local shop. In all honesty, theres a few boys that play there and I suspect theywill show him stuff if only to make it sound less bad. The school he goes to has a high proportion of boys in the musical and dramatic arts. If he’s still interested by his first school holidays, I might see if I can arrange an ad hoc lesson here and there. There’s a guitar shop literally up the street, I just didn’t want to go in there and sound like a moron.
I’m a big fan of the School of Rock. I shoot video of their performances, and the best kids are great. The program gets everybody playing songs they know and gets them on stage in real venues.
