For this Christmas, I want a guitar!

Guide to why and how you should get a guitar for yourself, your kids or a special someone
who’s been thinking about learning it.

Let me tell you a story about myself: I have no musicians in my family. While in my country we
have musical education as an obligatory subject in middle school, the program fails, in my
opinion, its supposed goal of growing interest for music in kids, considering it focuses mainly
on classical music while giving less focus (and, back in my day, the teacher even created a
depreciative image) to contemporary music that the students would be more familiar with.
Therefore, I never had the incentive or the “kickstart” to get more into music and to learn an
instrument. In fact, I used to think that instruments were very expensive for the average
person, very difficult to learn and requiring lessons and full dedication to them.

It wasn’t until I entered high school that I’ve met many colleagues my age that played
instruments, in most cases the guitar. Not only I got a growing interest in music (namely Rock
and Metal music that, while I already knew a couple of bands that I enjoyed, again, nobody in
my family neither any of my friends until then listened to it), but I also found out the guitar
was a lot more affordable to get into and easier to learn than I ever thought. Finally, for my
16th anniversary, I got my very first guitar – a Squier Strat from a starter pack that I still have to
this day.

I’m glad I realized that and decided to try out to learn the instrument that, deep down, I’ve
always had a crush for, and it was one of the best gifts I’ve ever received to this day. Just like
me, I believe many people out there have some interest in learning how to play a musical
instrument but might never do it, either because, like me back in my teen years, are
misinformed about the subject, or because they keep delaying it for “later”. I hope I can make
you change your mind on the next paragraphs and convince you to make this Christmas the
perfect excuse to follow your dreams!

Guitars aren’t necessarily expensive

Surely a hand built instrument, made from the best-looking exotic woods and with the most
reputable brands of hardware will hold a 4-digit price tag, but did you know you can buy a
great guitar for $100-200, or less than $100 if you’re willing to buy used? Depending of the
type of guitar you want (more about that later), you have at your disposal many quality
brands, recognized and beloved by the guitar community for making affordable quality
instruments, such as Yamaha, Cort and even Squier and Epiphone (the subsidiary affordable
brands of the most recognized guitar brands, Fender and Gibson, respectively).

Amplifiers, tuners, straps, cables… what?

You need two things to learn how to play the guitar: a guitar and the will to learn. Even if you
want to play the electric guitar, nowadays an amplifier is totally unneeded for a student. You
can buy much cheaper adapters and use guitar rig emulators (many free) on your computer,
tablet or iPad that will serve you just fine or even better than a practice amp. Or, alternatively,
you can skip all of that completely, after all even a solid body electric guitar can resonate loud
enough for you to be able to hear yourself playing. As for the rest, while a tuner is important,
there are many reliable apps for your smartphone that can replace it. Any other accessories
aren’t required to play, but depending of your needs you can get later. The only ongoing
investment you have to do is regarding strings that can last for up to 3 months of use. Still,
these cost less than $10 a set.

Learning a musical instrument doesn’t require an inherent talent

While some people are naturally more apt to learning how to play an instrument and even
applying the knowledge to compose music than others, contrary to the popular belief, nobody
needs the “gift of music” to be able to learn it. The only capacities someone needs to are
persistence and the will to self-teach, as it requires time and patience – musical instruments
are not for someone who quits easily.

You don’t need to take lessons to learn

Nobody will deny the importance of having a guitar teacher to guide you, but that doesn’t
mean it’s necessary to take lessons. You can learn everything for free nowadays – thanks to
the Internet, you have gigantic directories of organized learning material (notably this exact
website) and even quality video lessons on YouTube from reputable guitar players, for
everything you want to learn.

The guitar is NOT dying

Contrary to what was claimed in a media article a few months ago, depicting a guitar in flames
and justifying that claim with arguments such as guitar makers reporting low sales and big
guitar retailers such as Guitar Center with high amounts of debt, the guitar isn’t dying. Sure, it
doesn’t have a predominant place in modern music anymore, but that doesn’t mean it was put
aside, considering the quantity of successful musical groups that predominantly play the
guitar, growing communities (such as this one, the UG family!) and successful creators on
other entertainment media, such as YouTube channels. No matter what, all these people have
in common the love for music and for this instrument, regardless what the industry might be
going through – which has a lot of room for debate, though – playing an instrument shouldn’t
depend of a media view about it, neither of any trends.

You won’t have forever to follow your dreams

Taking, again, myself as an example: as a college student, I’m currently living the last couple of
years of my life I have plenty of time to spare on activities and hobbies. Soon enough
(hopefully, for the better and for the worse) I’ll find myself working, dealing with my adulthood
problems and raising a family. Many college friends of mine want to learn an instrument, or
even quit learning it, for claiming not to have enough time due to studies. While I don’t want
to criticize others’ organization of their time, I can’t ignore that, in the future, even lesser time
they’ll have when they get a full-time job! Even if your current situation leaves you few time to
spare, is a life all around work and compromises that you want to continue living? You don’t
know how will be the day of tomorrow, but you know how is the day of today! Even if you only
have half an hour to spare daily, why not spending it on something you’ve always wanted to
do, rather than regretting in the future for not have taken that opportunity you ignore now?