Learning to play the guitar is a rewarding experience! Experienced guitarists know that to play with friends and show off diversity, you’ll need to expand your musical horizons.

We all know the guitar is capable of handling numerous musical styles. How do you select the best genre to learn next?

A lot depends on what's natural for you to bring true skill, authenticity, and emotion to your guitar playing.

Rock

While many people interested in learning guitar want to learn Rock first, maybe you didn't. You might have preferred learning a few pop songs to start.

Playing rock guitar is sometimes more challenging than what it appears. Even though you'll want to learn all the famous rock riffs, some songs require complex fingering patterns and approaches you can't learn quickly without guidance.

Everything from power chords to string skipping are some of the rock guitar techniques you'll want to master. Of course, listening to all the greatest rock songs will help you learn to train your ear.

Flatpick (or Bluegrass Acoustic)

Being able to play Bluegrass style will prove your musical diversity, especially on an acoustic guitar. Some may think this involves overly simple chords. In truth, it's just as complex as Rock and other genres.

When you listen to the great flatpickers, you'll notice how different the technique sounds compared to other guitar styles played with only with fingers. Flatpick style means playing with a pick, creating a brighter, crisper, and more metallic sound.

Blues

There isn't anything more satisfying than playing the blues on a guitar. Like Bluegrass, this takes you back to the roots of early American musical history to learn famous blues chords and riffs.

With the blues, you can play on an acoustic or electric guitar. First, you'll need to learn the blues scale, which stands alone from any other musical scale.

A good blues teacher will teach you techniques like the feel of swing, "vocalizing" on the guitar, and borrowing the best blues riffs from history's greatest blues guitar artists.

Electric Country

Even if Country originally started with acoustic guitar, Electric Country is going to take you to where country is today.

Some might call this Country Rock. Nevertheless, the sound is incredible and gives you a great sound to play with friends, or even in a band.

It pays to study with someone who's worked in the Nashville music business to truly learn the best type of licks. You'll want to learn how to bring emotion out of your guitar bends, though also play with attitude for the fun country songs.

Jazz

The sky's the limit when it comes to playing jazz guitar. Your freedom of expression here is huge and allows a wide palette of sounds and improvising.

A good jazz guitar teacher will teach you how to approach playing jazz by learning proper harmony and understanding the most essential jazz chords.

Electric guitar is the most common guitar used in jazz. However, it's certainly possible with acoustic guitars as well.

Classical

Playing classic guitar is going to become the most demanding musical genre to learn, though it's well worth it. One thing you'll discover about learning classical is how timeless it is. You can play any classical guitar piece and it fits any setting, whether performing privately or publicly.

Yet, with more technical demands, it's going to take more practice time. What makes classical so great is it connects to genres like Folk and even Celtic styles. This gives more possibility of you creatively blending styles in classical works when you become more advanced.

At ArtistWorks, we've become a leader in providing convenient guitar lessons to take your skills further. Check out our complimentary acoustic guitar lessons to get you started.

We invite you to join an ArtistWorks guitar school so you learn to play from an expert.