Why is Guitar the Best Instrument? Allow Me to Enlighten You

Okay, I know. It’s kind of a bold statement. Obviously, this is a personal opinion and many will agree and/or disagree. That’s cool, this is just for fun.

The guitar is the best instrument simply due to versatility, cost, and the fact that because it’s a polyphonic instrument it can be played solo or accompanied by others. The guitar is the second most popular instrument in America.

Reason 1: Versatility

The guitar is absolutely 100% insanely versatile. Take a second just to think of all the different styles of music you can play with the guitar? Mind-blowing when you really think about it. If you’re playing an electric guitar, that takes you into a whole new realm of possibilities.

Even on an acoustic guitar, I can sit down and play a classical piece, using fingerstyle picking. And yet with the exact same acoustic guitar, I could start playing blues, rock, jazz, funk, reggae, it’s literally endless when it comes to versatility.

If you really want to up your playing check out my just released September 2020 Top 50 Guitar Lessons on YouTube!

Reason 2: Gear

The second reason I have chosen the guitar to be the best instrument of all time is gear.

I love gear, and so does every other guitarist for that matter. It indeed becomes like a kid in a toy store.

You can literally take fender a Stratocaster, and with the push of a foot pedal have that guitar screaming.

This goes hand in hand naturally with reason 1 on versatility.

One of the coolest parts of being a guitar player is being able to choose what sounds YOU like.

Having the choice to pick your guitar, your amp, your effects, all of this combined you can indeed create your OWN tone and style of playing.

That is so awesome when you think about it. ( Can’t get thousands of different sounds out of the Tuba I’ll tell you that much!)

For my recommendations on gear for beginners check out my post here.

Reason 3: Patterns

Another reason that guitar is so much fun is that its very pattern based.

What I mean by this is that you can learn one guitar shape for one chord and move it around the neck to make different chords. Same goes with scales, they are all just shapes and patterns!

If you learn how to play a “B major” scale in 1 pattern, you can move that pattern all over the neck and play the exact same pattern but have it work for an entirely different key!

How cool is that, seriously?

Side note, in case you were wondering there are 5 patterns for everything on guitar.

So if you are in the key of B Major scale.

5 different patterns allow you to play a B major depending on where you are at on the fret board!

This also works with chords! Can you play an open B chord, and then move up the neck and play the other 4 shapes of a B chord? If not, learn it!

Understanding how these shapes and patterns move across the fret board will allow you to utilize the neck in a way that you never thought imaginable.

It does take some work, but it completely opens up endless doors to your playing.

Reason 4: Poly huh? Polyphonic!

The guitar is a polyphonic instrument. Just like the piano you can play more than one note at a time, and play a full chord.

This is fantastic, once again this goes into the versatility category.

Think about the saxophone for a minute.

That instrument is monophonic, meaning it can only produce one note at a time. This is why in say jazz music multiple saxophone players must play different notes simultaneously to create a chord.

Not on the guitar!

The creativity available for this instrument is never ending!

Reason 5: Speed

Let’s face it to become proficient at the guitar, you’re going to have to put some serious time in.

With that being said, it is also an instrument that allows you to learn a few basic open chords, and within that time frame, you can play tons of favorite songs.

There are so many songs that are only 3-4 chords total. When you think to yourself that if you can learn to play 3 chord shapes, you could play multiple different songs from them, that’s pretty impressive.

So for this reason, I’m saying the speed of getting going with the guitar and actually having it sound like music is another reason that the guitar is the best instrument in the world!

Muahahaha( old school Doctor evil laugh there)

Reason 6: Accessibility to learning

With having sites like YouTube nowadays in the palm of our hands, learning is limitless.

Check out my newly released Top 50 Best Guitar Lessons On YouTube!

Youtube alone could turn you into one of the best guitar players in your city, without paying for one lesson.

Not Kidding!

I don’t know if you have searched for guitar lessons on YouTube before or not, but the results are impeccable.

Literally thousands of videos of guitarists teaching everything from different styles, to practice tips, to songwriting, etc.

Anything you are curious about learning on the guitar is probably only one mouse click away, now that we have the good old YouTube.

(One word of warning about YouTube though. Not every guitarist has the best technique even if they believe that they do, so be cautious of who you are learning from)

It doesn’t have to end with YouTube either.

If you don’t mind spending as little as 19 bucks a month, you can sign up for an online guitar learning platform.

These guitarists are professional and will give you professional video quality lessons right to your home.

One of the benefits of this approach is you know the instructors are legit.

As well as that, you can go through programs, so you know where you left off and what you are working on.

This really cuts down on practice sessions being a bit all over the place.

Other than this you still have countless websites offering guitar tabs on how to play favorite music, as well as books!

There are just so many ways to learn the instrument itself nowadays that I have added accessibility to one of my top reasons for the guitar is incredible.

Reason 7: Muscle Memory

Much of learning guitar comes down to muscle memory. Muscle memory, in general, is the ability to do something without conscious thought.

This is due to the constant repetition of movement. So for example, if I know exactly how to play an F chord, I could literally go months without playing it, and would still be able to play it once I picked the guitar up again!

This is due to the muscle memory that develops when initially learning.

This is a huge plus in my book. I know instruments like the Piano are the same way, but I would say it’s a pretty safe bet to say that an instrument like the trumpet wouldn’t quite work the same.

Reason 8: It doesn’t require your breath

This one might seem a bit odd. Personally, though I think instruments are much more difficult when breathing is involved.

Think about how hard it would be to play the flute with a chest cold?
Having to learn how to breathe correctly to get just the right amount of air over the hole, to make a note actually sound like music, that has to be difficult.

I’m not saying guitar doesn’t have its own unique challenges.

( Like getting that damn pinky to work on its own.)But, the fact that I don’t have to worry about breathing while playing goes down as a ginormous plus for me.

Reason 9: Octave Range

The guitar is pretty impressive for the fact that it can reach nearly 4 octaves.

This goes hand in hand with versatility and is one of the reasons why you can create so many different unusual sounds and tones from the guitar.

Now some instruments have more than 4 octaves, for example, the piano has 7.

Last I checked rocking out on a baby grand just doesn’t quite have the same appeal. Kidding of course.

Reason 10: Therapeutic

The guitar is incredibly therapeutic.

That is of course if you aren’t pulling your hair out trying to master some crazy solo or something like that.
I personally have found the guitar to really help relieve anxiety and get my mind off of ‘life.’

I suppose its better for your health than many other alternatives.

There really is a personal joy once your playing is at a level that allows muscle memory to take over.

Reason 11: Welcome to the Club

I think one of the coolest things about playing the guitar is the ability to go into any social event and discover that there is someone else there that plays guitar.
Now, I’m not talking about some party where you play an out of tune version of ‘stairway’ together and think that people are into it.

I just mean having someone that is a complete stranger and having something in common to discuss.

This is a really cool thing.

Did you know that they estimate that 1 in 5 people in the world knows how to play the guitar at some level?

Now, this may just be a few chords or a full-on Eric Clapton level guitarist.

But one thing is correct, guitarists love to talk guitar.

Who wouldn’t really?

Reason 12: No one ever looked less attractive while holding a guitar.

Reason 12 has no explanation necessary.

Reason 13: Chicks dig it

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Another dork is telling me that chicks dig the guitar. I actually just ran out of other respectable reasons.

In Summary:

The guitar really is one of the most versatile, enjoyable instruments to learn to play. Is guitar the best instrument? I’m a guitarist, so of course, that’s what I think. The most important thing is to make it your own, and have fun!