Choosing the Right Guitar for Beginners: Acoustic, Electric, or Classical?

A classical guitar, a steel-string acoustic and an electric guitar all have six strings tuned the same way, E A D G B E, and a chord you learn on one works on the other two. What changes is how they feel and what they need: the string material and how hard the strings pull, the width of the neck, and whether you must plug in. This guide compares the three with real numbers, helps you choose a size and a budget as of October 2026, shows you what to check before you pay, and then gets you playing: tuning, seven open chords, three strumming patterns and a first tune.

Acoustic, electric or classical: what actually changes

Start with the strings. On a classical guitar the three thinnest strings are plain nylon and the three bass strings are wound, and the set pulls with far less force than the steel strings of an acoustic. A steel-string acoustic needs that tension for its bright, loud sound, so it is built heavier and has a steel truss rod in the neck. An electric uses thin steel strings and is quiet unplugged: its pickups turn the vibrating strings into a signal for an amplifier.

The three kinds at one scale. The classical's neck is the widest and meets the body at the 12th fret; a steel-string acoustic's usually meets it at the 14th; the solid-body electric drawn here has pickups instead of a soundhole.

The numbers show the difference. D'Addario's published tensions for its normal-tension nylon set add up to about 86 pounds (39 kg); its light steel acoustic set, gauges 12–53, adds up to about 161 pounds (73 kg), almost twice as much. An electric set of 10–46 totals about 103 pounds, and a 9–42 set about 84, close to nylon. The necks differ too: classical guitars are typically 52 mm wide at the nut, steel-string acoustics 43 to 44.5 mm and electrics about 42 to 43 mm.

Total tension of five D'Addario string sets, added up from the per-string figures on the company's product pages, and typical neck widths at the nut.

So each one feels different to a beginner. Steel acoustic strings press hardest into your fingertips. Nylon is gentlest on the fingertips, but the wide, flat neck asks your hand to stretch further. Electric strings are thin and the neck is slim, so chord shapes come more easily, but you also need an amplifier. Many steel-string and classical models also come as acoustic-electrics, with a built-in pickup for plugging in; they still play unplugged. Choose by the music you want to play, because all three teach the same chords.

Match the guitar to the music you love. Every chord and pattern later in this article works on all three.

The steel-string acoustic

This is the guitar of folk, country and pop: Yamaha's guide lists pop, rock, blues, country, bluegrass and folk as its home ground. It is bright and loud, and it needs no cable or amp. The price is tension. Expect sore fingertips at first: Martin calls that normal for every beginner and suggests frequent breaks and lighter strings. String sets are named by their thinnest and thickest gauge in thousandths of an inch: an extra light set (10–47) pulls about 133 pounds instead of the light set's 161, and a good setup lowers the strings. Bodies run from small parlor and concert sizes up to dreadnought and jumbo; if a dreadnought feels like hugging a barrel, Yamaha suggests a smaller parlor or concert body.

A pin bridge: six bridge pins anchor the strings, which cross the saddle on their way to the soundhole. Photo: John Tuggle, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

The electric guitar, and what the amp adds

Electric guitars lead in rock, blues and metal and turn up in jazz, pop and country too. The strings are thin and the action can be set low, so first chords and single notes come more easily. The trade-off is gear: you need a cable and an amplifier, or one of two quieter routes.

Three ways to hear an electric: a practice amp, a headphone amp that plugs straight into the guitar, or an audio interface with an instrument input feeding an amp app.

For home practice a small amp is plenty: Musician's Friend's amp guide calls anything over about 30 watts "usually overkill for home practice", and some practice amps have a headphone socket. Turn the amp down or off before you plug in, turn up the volume knob on the guitar itself, then bring the amp up slowly; if you hear nothing, check the guitar's knob first.

Once you can hear yourself, learn the scale most players meet first. Yamaha's Robbie Calvo calls the five-note minor pentatonic "the first scale shape that most guitarists learn"; our sheet The Pentatonic & Blues Scales calls such scales "the improviser's best friends". In open position, E minor pentatonic uses only frets 0, 2 and 3.

E minor pentatonic in open position: E, G, A, B and D, two notes on every string. Use finger 2 for fret-2 notes and finger 3 for fret-3 notes.

The classical guitar

Classical guitars are softer in volume and mellower in tone, at home in classical, flamenco and Latin music (Yamaha adds pop and jazz). A traditional model has a wide, flat fingerboard, 52 mm at the nut, a slotted headstock and strings tied to the bridge. The neck can be made entirely of wood, without a steel truss rod, and the light build is why makers warn against steel strings: Cordoba says they "will cause irreparable damage" to the bridge, soundboard, neck and tuners.

A slotted headstock: the nylon strings wind around rollers inside the slots, and the tuning keys point back. Photo: Trude Bergheim Mikkelsen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

Classical players traditionally sit with the left foot raised on a footstool, the guitar resting on the left leg. New nylon strings keep stretching for a while, so expect to retune often at first. Nylon is also the natural home of fingerstyle, where the picking hand plucks with the thumb (p) and the index, middle and ring fingers (i, m, a). A common start: the thumb takes the bass strings, and i, m and a take strings 3, 2 and 1.

p i m a on A minor and E major: the thumb plays the chord's bass string (5 for Am, 6 for E), then i, m and a pluck strings 3, 2 and 1. Hold each chord shape for its whole bar.

Choosing a size for children and smaller adults

Guitars come in fractional sizes, and makers size them by height and age. Valencia, which makes student classical guitars, recommends 1/4 for heights of 3′3″ to 3′9″ (99 to 114 cm; ages 4 to 6), 1/2 for 3′10″ to 4′5″ (117 to 135 cm; 5 to 8), 3/4 for 4′6″ to 4′11″ (137 to 150 cm; 8 to 11) and full size from 5 feet (152 cm) and age 11. Ortega's chart overlaps, with wider bands, and both makers call their numbers a guide.

Two makers' size charts by height, with their age ranges. Thomann puts 3/4 at 10 to 13 years, so treat any chart as a starting point.

The fractions are not standard lengths: Cordoba's 1/2 size has a 580 mm scale, the same as Valencia's 3/4. Compare scale lengths in millimeters, then do Yamaha's fit test: sit with the guitar in your lap and reach the far end of the neck, by the tuners, with your fretting hand. If that is a stretch, go shorter. Guitar World's guide for parents suggests a 3/4 or short-scale guitar for most children under 12 and full size from 12; in an acoustic, it adds, a dreadnought "can be a little cumbersome to get your arm around". Smaller adults can choose a compact acoustic (Yamaha's JR1 has a 540 mm scale, the Baby Taylor 578 mm) or an electric with a slightly shorter scale, such as the 24.75-inch (629 mm) scale Gibson uses on most of its guitars. For more on children's first instruments, see our guide to the best first instrument for kids.

What a first guitar costs in October 2026

Older buying guides can be out of date: Guitar World, reporting an S&P Global analysis, says Fender raised prices about 5 percent across its range in the first half of 2025 to offset tariffs. On October 11, 2026, regular US prices at the makers' own stores, Guitar Center and Musician's Friend looked like this.

Regular prices of popular beginner models, and of setups, on October 11, 2026. Sales can drop them for a while; taxes are extra.

Extra money buys a solid top, which Yamaha says gives a richer tone than a laminated one, and often better tuners. Packs such as Yamaha's GigMaker add a gig bag, tuner, strap and picks, and the electric versions a practice amp. In round numbers, a good full-size classical starts near $200, a steel-string acoustic near $220 to $230, and an electric with a small amp near $340 bought separately or $370 to $400 as a pack. Classical Guitar Corner advises avoiding most classical guitars under $150, with their laminated tops and cheap tuners. Add about $40 to $55 for a clip-on tuner, picks, a strap and spare strings, and $60 to $70 for a basic setup at Guitar Center (labor only) if the strings sit high.

In the store, or buying used

Play before you pay, or ask a staff member to play while you listen, and bring a clip-on tuner. Check the action first, the height of the strings above the frets: too high and every chord is hard work, too low and the strings buzz. A setup by a technician adjusts the neck relief (with the truss rod), the string height at the nut and at the saddle, and the intonation.

Try several body sizes and neck widths before you choose. Photo: Sdkb, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

Measure the action at the 12th fret, from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string, with a steel ruler.

Common string-height targets at the 12th fret. Classical guitars are usually set higher than steel-string acoustics and electrics.

The action is one of the six checks in the graphic below; here are the other five. Sight along the edge of the neck: a slight dip around the 7th fret is normal, a strong bow is not. Tune up, play for a few minutes and notice how often you have to retune. Compare the 12th-fret harmonic with the fretted note at the 12th fret: they should match. Feel the edges of the neck for sharp fret ends, a sign the wood has dried and shrunk, and turn each tuner a full turn. Look for cracks and for a bridge lifting away from the top. On an electric or acoustic-electric, also plug in and try every knob and switch while you play: Guitar World's guide to buying a used acoustic lists faulty electronics, worn frets and an over-tightened truss rod among the faults to watch for. Walk away from a bowed or S-shaped neck: a veteran Yamaha store technician quoted by MusicRadar says the cost of trying to correct one is "just not worth the guitar". A used guitar that passes all six checks can be a bargain.

Six checks before you buy, new or used.

Five beginner mistakes to avoid

• Buying the cheapest unbranded guitar: Guitar World warns that sub-$100 no-name models bring poor tuning stability, less-than-ideal action and poor sound.
• Skipping the setup: Yamaha names action that is too high as the most common problem you might find in a guitar you buy, and advises beginners to have a qualified luthier adjust it.
• Choosing a guitar that is too big: Valencia warns that an oversized guitar "may be very difficult to play".
• Putting steel strings on a classical guitar.
• Practicing too long at first: short daily sessions spare your fingertips while calluses form.

Getting started: the six strings, tuning and the notes

From low to high, the open strings are E, A, D, G, B and E. They sound E2, A2, D3, G3, B3 and E4, but guitar music is written an octave higher than it sounds, so it stays in the treble clef without piling up ledger lines. If you can read The Staff & the Treble Clef, you will find the low strings below the staff: the open A string is the A on the second ledger line, as on our Ledger Lines sheet, and Name the notes: ledger lines drills them.

The six open strings on the staff and in TAB. TAB's six lines are the strings, high E on top; each number is the fret to press, and 0 means open.

The small 8 under the clef marks the octave. It works like the 8vb sign on our Octave Signs: 8va & 8vb sheet, which means play an octave lower than written. Many guitar books leave the 8 off, but the music still sounds an octave lower.

The two E strings as guitar music writes them (left) and where they sound on a piano grand staff (right): an octave lower, E2 and E4.

Practice sitting at first, with the narrow waist of the body on your thigh and the crook of your picking arm against the top edge of the body. Press each string with an upright fingertip just behind the fret: a finger on top of the fret gives a dead note, and squeezing too hard pulls the note sharp. Tune with a clip-on tuner, one string at a time. To check by ear, use the gaps between the strings: a perfect fourth everywhere except G to B, a major third. So fret 5 on each string matches the next open string, but on the G string use fret 4.

Relative tuning: each pair is one pitch on two strings. Tune the low E first, then match each open string to the fretted note on the next thicker string.

Each fret raises a string by a half step, so the musical alphabet climbs every string with a fret between most letters but none between E and F or B and C, just as Half steps & whole steps shows on the piano. The empty frets hold the sharps and flats (The sharp: one half step up), and at the 12th fret every string reaches its own letter again, an octave up.

Every natural note from the open strings to fret 12. Find E–F and B–C side by side on neighboring frets on every string.

Your first chords

A chord box shows the neck from the front, headstock up. Start with E minor, two fingers and all six strings, and A minor, three fingers with the low E left silent. The letters under each box are the notes the strings sound: Em is E, G and B; Am is A, C and E, the spellings on our Chord symbols chart.

How to read a chord box. Fingers are numbered 1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring; x means don't play the string, o means play it open.

Next come E, A and D. Each stacks a root, a third and a fifth, the recipe you can practice on Build the chords. Watch the bass strings: E sounds all six, A five, D only the four thinnest.

E, A and D, with the notes each string sounds. A squeezes three fingers into the 2nd fret; D is a small triangle on strings 3, 2 and 1.

Now compare E with Em and A with Am. In each pair only one note changes: it falls a half step, G♯ to G on string 3, then C♯ to C on string 2. That half step is the whole difference between a major and a minor chord, as Major & minor: two colors of home shows on the piano.

E to Em and A to Am on the staff and in TAB: one note moves down a half step and everything else stays put.

Change chords by moving the fewest fingers. From Am to C, fingers 1 and 2 stay where they are and only finger 3 moves, from the G string to the A string; E and Am are the same shape, one string apart. Practice each change slowly, without strumming, until your fingers land together. C and G need the widest stretches. If they defeat you for now, play the three-string versions: one finger each, strumming only strings 3, 2 and 1 (G, B and high E). G, C and D are the I, IV and V chords of G major (The primary chords: I, IV & V), and with Em and Am they make five of the seven chords in that key (The chords of a key).

C and G, each with a three-string version to start on. The easy G leaves out D, the chord's fifth, and still sounds like G.

Strumming and your first tune

Strum from a loose wrist and count out loud: downstrokes on the numbers, upstrokes on the "and"s. Begin with four downstrokes a bar, then down-up eighth notes, then a pattern that skips the strum on beat 3. For beat and meter in more depth, see Rhythm vs. Meter.

Three strumming patterns. In pattern 3 the hand still moves down on beat 3 but misses the strings, then catches the upstroke on its "and".

The rhythms are the ones on The quarter note and The eighth note sheets in 4/4 time; practice saying them on Write the Counts. Set a metronome to 60, as Tempo & the Metronome suggests, and change chord on beat 1. Luke Thomas, writing for Yamaha's music educators, calls G to Em to C to D "a very common chord progression": loop it with pattern 1.

For melody, start on the two thinnest strings, with one finger per fret: finger 1 for fret 1, finger 3 for fret 3.

B, C and D on string 2 and E, F and G on string 1: all the notes your first tune needs.

Five of those notes, C to G, play the theme of Beethoven's Ode to Joy from the finale of his Ninth Symphony (1824), here in C instead of Beethoven's D. Name the notes first with Name the notes: treble clef, then read the TAB under them. The chord symbols above the staff turn it into a small lead sheet (Reading a lead sheet).

Ode to Joy, bars 1–8, moved from Beethoven's D major to C. In bars 4 and 8 Beethoven writes a dotted quarter and an eighth where this version has two quarters. A friend can strum C and G. Play the full piano arrangement of Ode to Joy from our sheet music library.

Your first week

Fifteen minutes a day beats an hour on Sunday, and short sessions spare your fingertips: Martin advises frequent breaks while you build up playing time, and Yamaha suggests 15 to 30 minutes a day.

1. Day 1: tune up and play the open strings, saying their names.
2. Day 2: Em and Am, four downstrokes on each.
3. Day 3: switch Em to Am and back, one change per bar at 60 beats a minute.
4. Day 4: add C, G and D, or the three-string C and G.
5. Day 5: count and strum patterns 1 and 2 on G, Em, C and D.
6. Day 6: the six notes on strings 1 and 2, then Ode to Joy, slowly.
7. Day 7: play the chord loop and the tune through, and log the hard spots as How to practice shows.

The seven-day plan at a glance, about 15 minutes a day.

Free worksheets for this lesson

• The Staff & the Treble Clef — line and space notes, with two memory tricks
• Ledger Lines — notes off the staff, where the low strings live
• Name the notes: treble clef — 25 notes to name, none more than two ledger lines away
• Name the notes: ledger lines — notes on up to three ledger lines, in both clefs
• Octave Signs: 8va & 8vb — the same notes written an octave away
• Half steps & whole steps — half and whole steps on the keyboard, with audio
• The sharp: one half step up — F♯, C♯ and the black-key names
• Chord symbols — what each symbol means, plus the common chords in all 12 keys
• Build the chords — stack thirds on 12 roots, answers included
• Major & minor: two colors of home — the lowered third that turns major to minor
• The primary chords: I, IV & V — the three-chord family behind many songs
• The chords of a key — all seven chords of C, G, F and D major
• Reading a lead sheet — chord symbols over a melody, with Amazing Grace
• The quarter note — one beat, counted and tapped
• The eighth note — two notes to a beat: 1 & 2 &
• Time Signatures I: Simple Time — 4/4, 3/4 and 2/2, with audio
• Write the Counts — count two rhythms, then clap them
• Tempo & the Metronome — start at 60 and climb a few clicks at a time
• How to practice — the fix-it loop and a weekly practice log
• The Pentatonic & Blues Scales — C major pentatonic and the C blues scale, with audio

Pick the guitar you want to play tomorrow

There is no single best first guitar, only the one that suits your music, your hands and your budget, set up so the strings sit low. Play a few side by side, trust the one you keep reaching for, and give it 15 minutes a day. When the chords come together, play Ode to Joy while a friend strums C and G: your first duet. A Tissimo guitar teacher can watch your chord changes and strumming in a live lesson and tell you what to practice next.

Sources

• Nylon-String vs. Steel-String Guitars (Robbie Calvo, 2024) — Yamaha Music
• How to Choose Your First Guitar (Mike Levine, 2025) — Yamaha Music
• Tension charts: EJ16 Light 12-53 (EJ45, EXL120, EXL110 and EJ15 on their own product pages) — D'Addario
• The nylon string guitar: choosing a size — Valencia Guitars
• How to choose a guitar size — Ortega Guitars
• Support FAQ: steel strings on a nylon-string guitar — Cordoba Guitars
• Repairs and setups: services and prices — Guitar Center
• Fender forced to increase prices by ongoing tariff storm (2025) — Guitar World
• How to Get the Best Guitar Setup — Musician's Friend
• How to Buy Your First Classical Guitar — Classical Guitar Corner
• How to Read Guitar Sheet Music (Simon Powis, 2024) — Classical Guitar Corner
• Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, finale (Breitkopf & Härtel score, public domain) — Wikimedia Commons