String Brands and Tension

Before getting into how to change nylon strings, you should know a few facts about selecting the best classical guitar strings to suit your particular guitar and your playing. The top brands of classical strings include D’Addario, Savarez, La Bella and Hannabach.

Strings are available in high, normal and low tension. Tension governs how the strings feel to play as well as how they sound. High tension strings have more volume and sustain. Most classical guitar teachers recommend low tension strings for beginners. The conventional wisdom is that professional level classical guitarists use high tension strings but many prefer the sound produced by low tensions. Others mix the strings, using low tension for treble strings and high tension for the bass. When you are trying different strings, bear in mind that the tensions vary between manufacturers.

As a starting point, you could try D’Addario Pro Arte Dynacore strings. If your hands sweat a lot or are greasy, the D’Addario EXP Coated will help the strings to last longer. All the brands and mentioned can be bought online or in music stores. There are also cheaper strings available but they usually do not last as long as the better quality strings.

The Difference Between Classical and Acoustic Guitars

A classical guitar with nylon strings has a bridge with holes to take the ends of the strings. The ends must be looped through these holes, as they have no ball on the end to anchor them. The strings on a classical guitar will become dead with regular playing. Unlike steel acoustic guitar strings, they do not mellow or settle; they just get old and greasy. If you play for four hours a day, you will need to change classical guitar strings at least once a week. If you only play for 30 minutes or an hour, you could go for a month between string changes.

How to Change Your Strings

There are two ways to go about changing classical guitar strings. You can remove all the strings at once or change the strings one at a time. There are myths about which method to use, but as ther is no evidence to support any of them, so go ahead and do it the way you want to. Many guitarists prefer to remove all the strings as it makes keeping the guitar clean a much easier job.

To remove the strings, use wire cutters to snip the strings at the bridge end. Now you can simply pull the ends out of the holes in the bridge, and pull the rest of the strings off the tuning pegs.

While the strings are off is the ideal time to give the fretboard a clean. Usually a damp cloth is enough for all areas of the guitar but to rejuvenate the fretboard use boiled linseed oil. This will help loosen the buildup of oily deposits from your fingers, and keep the wood from drying out.

If you are new to changing strings, it might be an idea to arrange the strings in their packaging in the order in which you will be fitting them to the guitar. It is not easy for a beginner to tell some of the strings apart, so start with the sixth string on top of the pile and read the label as you remove each string from its packet.

Begin fitting a new string by sliding about 15 centimeters (six inches) through its hole in the bridge. Now you have that length sticking out of the bottom of the bridge.

To fasten the string, bend the short section around the long section, and loop it around four times, finishing with a loop on the underside of the bridge. You now have the short section anchored under the long section as in the picture.

Pull the long section of string up to the headstock and through the hole in the tuning peg. Pull the string tight. Now loop the string around itself just as you did on the bridge. Begin winding clockwise. As you wind the tuning peg, the string will anchor itself, but you can add extra security by passing the string through the hole in the peg once or twice. It is advisable to do it this way on the treble strings, as they are more prone to slipping and stretching.

You should trim the strings at the headstock and bridge so they do not get in your way or cause unnecessary vibrations.

How To Change Classical Guitar Strings

Which Strings are the Best?

Choosing the best strings for your guitar is also a matter of experience. For the first few times you change the strings, just buy the same brand and gauge as was already fitted to your guitar. As you grow as a guitar player, you will develop your own tastes in tone and playability.

Generally, the best acoustic guitar strings for a beginner are extra-lights because they need far less finger strength to produce a sound. When you are more experienced, you can choose heavier gauge strings that will give your guitar more volume.

There are other elements to acoustic guitar strings besides gauge. The sound produced by the strings varies according to what they are made of. Phosphor Bronze strings usually hold their bright tone as they age, while 80/20 bronze strings tend to sound warmer as they get older.

There are also acoustic guitar strings that have a coating of plastic that helps prevent the damage inflicted by the oil and sweat from your fingers. These strings are more expensive than uncoated strings, and unless you sweat a lot, you probably will not benefit from them.

A steel string acoustic guitar has its strings wound onto posts in the headstock, and anchored by pins in the bridge. The first step in changing your strings is to remove the old strings and extract the bridge pins.

Clean up Your Axe

After you remove the strings and pins, and before you replace the strings, rub the frets with a microfiber cloth to get the gunk off. Give the area around the bridge a rub to clean off any accumulated dust.

Removing the Bridge Pins

The bridge pins sometimes get stuck in the bridge and there are several effective ways to loosen and remove them. The gentlest method is to unwind the tuning pegs until all the strings are loose, and you can get your hand into the sound hole. Pull the pins with one hand while pushing them from under the bridge with a flat screwdriver. Another way to remove the pins is to use the pin puller that is usually part of a string winder. String winders are available at music stores or online.

Once all the pins are out, place the end of the string which has a ball on it into its hole in the bridge. If the ball does not fit, push the other end of the string into bridge from inside the guitar. Next, replace the pin and pull the string through until the ball is up against the bridge pin.

Sometimes bridge pins tend to pop out during restringing. If you are sure that the string is secure in the bridge, you can push the pin further into the hole by hitting it with a rubber hammer. To do this without damaging the guitar body, put your hand inside the guitar and make sure the bridge is supported by your fingers.

Once the string is secure in the bridge hole, push the other end into the hole in the tuning post. Now turn the tuning peg until the slack in the string is taken up. The sixth, fifth and fourth strings are turned counterclockwise, and the third, second and first strings are turned clockwise.

When the string is no longer loose, gradually tune it to its correct pitch. New strings have a lot of stretch in them, so you will need to pull on the string after you have tuned it. This will put the string out of tune, so you will need to tune it again. Do this a few times until the string loses its tendency to go out of tune. Acoustic guitar tuning is a straightforward task once you get the hang of stretching the strings a few times.

Finally, use a wire cutter to trim any extra bits off the strings.

How To String An Acoustic Guitar

This lesson starts by assuming you do not know much about acoustic guitar music. We will start with the two basic types of acoustic guitar, and the kinds of music associated with them. We then move onto the challenges of holding the guitar while playing, with some exercises which will help you work on the best playing position for your individual needs.

The Types of Acoustic Guitar

There are two basic types of acoustic guitar:

Steel string guitars have a bright, ringing sound, while the sound produced by nylon strings is warmer and mellower. Nylon string guitars lend themselves easily to finger style playing, as the strings do not break the nails as much as steel strings do. The sound of a steel string guitar will carry slightly better than that of a nylon string but in a crowded room, both will need amplification.

Acoustic Guitar Styles

Learning how to play acoustic guitar will vary in approach according to the kind of music you are interested in playing. Nylon string guitars are usually associated with classical, flamenco, Latin American or folk music, while performers in the American genres such as blues, country, flatpicking and bluegrass favor steel string guitars. Two major exceptions to the rule, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed, often played nylon string guitars, and jazz player Charlie Byrd played on a classical guitar. You can play the nylon string guitar with a pick, fingernails or the flesh of the fingertips.

If you decide to try fingerpicking on a steel string acoustic, you can use your fingertips without nails. Alternatively, you can buy finger picks and a thumb pick which slide onto your fingers. These are easy to use but they do take a little practice. Pioneer acoustic blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis used a thumb pick with a finger pick on his index finger. Another early acoustic blues player, “Doc” Watson, often used finger picking but he was known for his intricate “flat picking” using only a plectrum.

A fingerpicking style made famous by Chet Atkins is “Travis Picking”. The style was invented by country artist Merle Travis who played his electric guitar using thumb and index finger. Chet Atkins expanded the style by adding the second and third fingers, and the style has been adopted by electric and acoustic guitarists such as Tommy Emmanuel.

There were many acoustic guitar innovators amongst the big names of the British folk revival of the 1960′s. Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne and Martin Carthy are all artists you can catch up with in online videos.

Acoustic Guitar Songs

Many songs have become associated with the acoustic guitar even though they may not have started out that way. Layla by Eric Clapton and Light My Fire by Jose Feliciano are famous examples of acoustic guitar songs which began as rock songs.

Blackbird by The Beatles is in the repertoire of almost all acoustic guitarists, but other Beatles songs such as Revolution and When I’m Sixty-Four are also acoustic-friendly. The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals, Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton are easy acoustic guitar songs to start a repertoire, and when your confidence grows you can try Stairway to Heaven.

Holding the Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic guitars are more responsive than electrics which means you need to be careful how you place your left hand fingers and how you use your fingers or pick when you play. All this depends on how you sit or stand. An acoustic guitar player needs to find how to hold the guitar without restricting the movements of either hand, or causing back pain or other discomfort during practice sessions.

Many online videos of guitar players are made with the artist sitting on the side of his bed. It is much better to sit in a dining chair or on a stool. A good way to begin your daily guitar practice is to place yourself towards the front of your chair, so you are not tempted to lean back. With your body leaning forward slightly, gravity will tend to keep your back straight but you will need to check your posture from time to time.

There are various opinions on where to rest your guitar if you play in a sitting position. Some guitarists use a footstool, others cross either leg. Whatever position you choose, your body should support the guitar. If you take your hands away from your guitar and it falls down, you need to find another position. Your left arm should not be supporting the weight of the guitar because it needs to travel up and down the neck without having to stop the guitar from falling.

The right arm should also have plenty of freedom but it is needed to hold the instrument in position against your chest. Finding the ideal way of placing the right arm to support your guitar will possibly include changing the way you attack the strings with your fingers or plectrum. The basis for playing an acoustic guitar while sitting should be the classical guitarists’ position. Classical players often use a footstool but flamenco players who require just as much stability, have other ways of supporting the guitar.

In this video you can see that having a footstool to raise the left leg leaves John Williams’ right arm completely free of supporting the guitar. In other sections of the video, Williams, Paco Pena and the other flamenco players rest the right arm on the top of the guitar.

This position also requires some discipline because most beginners will tend to lift their right arm off the guitar from time to time.

Whenever you are adjusting the way you play guitar, it is always helpful to use material you have never played before so you do not bring any old habits into the new routine. I have used a video of classical and flamenco guitarists to illustrate some ways of holding the guitar. To eliminate the need for you to rush out and take classical or flamenco guitar lessons, I have included a Travis picking pattern, a folk guitar fingerpicking pattern and a crosspicking pattern to help you see what you need to do to keep your guitar stable while the left and right hands are busy playing. The Travis picking and fingerpicking patterns are played with the fingers, and the crosspicking pattern is played with the plectrum.

The chords you need for these patterns are A minor, C major, and D major.

Travis Picking

Play the A and D string notes with your thumb, the G string with your index finger and the B string with your middle finger. In the third measure you will need to transfer this pattern onto the D G B and e strings.

Fingerpicking

Play the bass string with your thumb. In the third measure, the bass is the D string; in the others it is the A string. Play the G string with your index finger, the B string with your middle finger and the e string with your ring finger.

Crosspicking

Crosspicking is the art of moving from one string to another while picking with your plectrum. For beginner guitarists a moment of tension arises as they move between strings. This can take all the fun out of single note picking. Crosspicking is the ideal way to learn how to jump between strings comfortably while at the same time learning an interesting style of playing. In bluegrass music, the aim of crosspicking is to thrill your audience with your ability to pick a repeating fast pattern of notes.

For the crosspicking pattern below you play only the A G B and e strings in the first, second and fourth measures. In the third measure, you play the D G B and e strings. You can play this exercise using alternate up and down strokes of the pick.

Another way of crosspicking is playing the up or down strokes according to the direction of your next string. In the first measure of this exercise you would start with a down stroke on the A string, then play another down stroke on the G string, down on the B string, up on the G string, down on the e string, up on the B string, up on the G string, finishing with a down stroke on the B string.

These exercises will only be useful for developing your acoustic guitar playing technique if you practice them slowly. Speed will come in its own time.

Learn How to Play the Acoustic Guitar Without Stressing Your Body

Covers or Originals?

Many booking managers will ask to see a list of songs before booking an artist. If you are a songwriter, you may need to explain your decision to include your original material in your list. The reason for this is that one of the elements of a successful acoustic solo act is familiarity. Patrons of a pub, cafe or outdoor venue will usually pay more attention if they hear songs that they know and love. This is regardless of the quality of your original material.

If you are just starting out, it will be best to test the waters by including a small selection of originals mixed in with a repertoire of strong covers. If you intend to play a number of your own songs, the person booking for the gig might want to check out your Facebook friends or reviews of past gigs to make sure your material is going to be well received. If you feel that playing covers stifles your creativity, you could follow the example of performers who play original arrangements of popular songs.

You might also find yourself faced with the question of whether to include material that is popular with audiences but you personally dislike. The obvious answer is to please the paying public but if you are unable to live with playing music you do not feel connected to, you will need to keep searching for quality songs that you enjoy performing.

Your choice of repertoire also depends on the venue. A crowd in a bar might enjoy an acoustic rendition of Highway to Hell, while cafe patrons might prefer 500 Miles. Of course, the advantage with playing pubs is that as the night wears on nobody cares what you are playing.

Vary Your Repertoire

When you are choosing songs, bear in mind that your audience will get bored if all the songs sound the same. Do not place a bunch of songs in the same key or tempo together. You should also vary the position you play your chords in. Another consideration is the mood of your songs. If you have a list of songs with varying degrees of introspection, comedy, tragedy, teenage angst or forbidden love, mix them up, then check out whether the songs smoothly flow from one to the next. Remember, a band does not have to be quite so careful with mixing moods or themes, but if a solo artist loses his audience’s attention, you can hear the coyote howling in the distance.

If you have a wide range of skills, show them off. Use strumming in some songs, fingerpicking in others, flatpicking in others. Acoustic blues guitar provides opportunities to highlight your guitar playing. One of the advantages of using blues songs in your performance is that the 12-bar blues progression can be used for hundreds of songs.

An acoustic solo artist will usually have at least three hours’ worth of good acoustic guitar songs to fill a four-hour gig. The night is usually 45 minutes of playing with 15-minute breaks. Your repertoire should have more songs than you think you need. Once you have your song list, play through it. You will probably be surprised at how little time it takes.

Good Guitar Songs

There are so many lists of acoustic guitar songs on the web, half an hour’s searching should give you more than enough songs for your set list.
The suggestions I have included are all tried and true songs that work well for an acoustic guitar player.

There are some songs that many people would regard as essential for an acoustic guitarist to know. These include Stairway to Heaven, House of the Rising Sun, Happy Birthday and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.

Some great acoustic guitar songs from the Beatles repertoire include Blackbird, Michelle, Girl, Across the Universe and Yesterday.
Emerson Lake and Palmer recorded two great songs that easily fit into an acoustic set list: From the Beginning and Still You Turn Me On. Hotel California by The Eagles, Dust in the Wind by Kansas, Stand by Me by John Lennon, and Wonderwall by Oasis are also great acoustic guitar songs.

Leo Kottke instrumentals are always popular with crowds as they provide a break from vocals, and give you a chance to show off your virtuosity. Of course, you would have to choose your material carefully so you will not be changing tunings too often.

If you want to build up your professional song list while you are still learning to play, some easy acoustic guitar tabs to look for on the internet include Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver, Horse With No Name by America, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton.

Getting together a list of songs will tell you something about yourself as a musician. Take a look at your set list and think about what kind of venues would be ideal settings for playing your kind of music. Even if you are not quite ready to play professionally, it will be helpful to have some idea of the size and type of gig you want to play.

As a new solo artist you should approach small venues at first. Finding yourself at your first gig trying to entertain a large crowd or a small crowd in a large room will not do a lot for your confidence. Getting used to playing for small crowds will help you polish your act and attract a local following.

Choosing Acoustic Guitar Songs to Play For an Audience

This is a picture of the parts of an acoustic guitar.

The BODY of the acoustic guitar is the large part to which the bridge and neck are attached. An acoustic guitar body is hollow, and made from cedar or spruce – both of which possess the necessary acoustic and aesthetic qualities for guitar making.

The HEADSTOCK at the top of the neck, holds the MACHINE HEADS which change the tension of the strings to get them in tune.

The strings are anchored at the BRIDGE (which also transmits the sound to the body of the guitar) and are held at the required tension by the machine heads.

The part of the bridge that actually holds the strings is called the SADDLE. The saddle is made of bone or plastic and is the point where the sound is transferred from the strings to the body.

The SOUNDHOLE plays a role in producing of the sound of the acoustic guitar. Not a lot of sound actually comes out of the sound hole but the presence of the opening allows the wood in the body to vibrate without restriction.

The NECK – which is flat at the top and curved at the back – contains the machine heads, headstock, nut, fretboard and frets. The FRETBOARD is made of wood, and the FRETS are strips of metal set along the fretboard to divide it into the necessary lengths for the guitarist to produce musical notes. When a string is held by the fingers against a fret, the string’s vibrating length is made shorter to produce a higher sound. The NUT is a small strip of hard plastic, bone or metal with grooves cut into it to hold the strings in place on the fret board.

The guitarist has a choice between playing an acoustic guitar with a plectrum, fingernails or the flesh of the fingertips. Classical and flamenco guitars are always fitted with nylon strings, and played without a plectrum.

In an acoustic guitar, the sound is made by the strings triggering vibrations in the back, sides and front of the body, through the bridge. Many acoustic guitars can be heard clearly in a large concert hall without amplification. The quality of the sound depends on the quality of the instrument and the acoustics of the hall.

A microphone can be used to amplify an acoustic guitar, and this is the usual way to amplify an expensive classical or flamenco guitar. Many acoustic guitars are fitted with pickups when they are made, but pickups can be bought from a music store and installed on the guitar.

A Diagram of the Parts of the Acoustic Guitar

The Story of Packington’s Pound

An Easy Acoustic Guitar Solo
If you listen to some of the recordings of Packington’s Pound, you will find it has an interesting contrast between the lively rhythm and the dramatic melody. Once you get used to it you will be able to practice it at different speeds to give it the mood you most enjoy.

Here is a link to Packington’s Pound tabs

And here is a feisty performance of this easy acoustic guitar solo, so you can see how it should be played:

An Easy Acoustic Guitar Solo – Packington’s Pound

Many people confuse classical and flamenco guitar styles but in reality they are vastly different from each other. Flamenco is the music of Spanish gypsies. This music has been popular with American and European audiences since the early twentieth century, so in our minds it is often associated with the concert hall. The flamenco guitar also uses nylon strings but is made from wood that gives it a sharper tone than the classical guitar. Also the flamenco guitar has a tapping plate so the guitarist can incorporate percussive striking on the guitar body into his playing without damaging the guitar.

If you watch classical guitarists like John Williams or Julian Bream you will see that playing classical music on guitar involves plucking and strumming with the fingers of the right hand and shifting the right hand to different positions between the neck and the bridge to achieve variations in tone. The right hand and left hand techniques used by classical guitarists requires a great deal of precision that is best learnt under the guidance of a teacher.

An example of a classical guitar piece for beginners is etude in A minor by Dionisio Aguado and after a year or two practicing you could be attempting the Anonymous Romance or Espanoleta by Gaspar Sanz.

You can find free classical guitar tabs at classtab.org and free classical guitar sheet music at guitarpress.com

By contrast, flamenco guitar is about expression of feeling rather than precision of technique. From the late nineteenth century to the nineteen seventies flamenco guitar was taught by one-on-one lessons between friends and family with little or no reliance on tab or sheet music.

In the late nineteen sixties a new generation of flamenco guitar players emerged. They were led by Serranito, Paco de Lucia and Manolo Sanlucar:

The twenty-first century flamenco guitar player gets his inspiration from jazz, blues, rock, classical, middle eastern music or whatever else he can adapt to his guitar playing. Also technique has become more sophisticated as the new wave of flamenco guitarists explored the possibilities of the guitar fretboard.

There are also YouTube clips featuring guitarists from the pre-nineteen seventies era such as Sabicas, Nino Ricardo and Diego del Gastor.

And here is where you get free flamenco tabs

If you want to go further in studying classical or flamenco guitar, YouTube is a good place to start looking for free lessons. One resource for beginner classical guitarists is the classical guitar category at learnguitar2.com This site is updated by a guitar-lover named Carlos who also has lessons in electric, acoustic and blues guitar.

Learning To Play Flamenco Guitar And Classical Guitar Music

If you want to use a plectrum, go to a music store and buy a few different thicknesses and sizes. Whichever kind of plectrum you use, hold it between your thumb and the side of your index finger. When you start out try to relax the fingers that aren’t engaged in holding the plectrum. Keep your whole arm relaxed as you strum. Many guitarists keep the arm moving up and down even if the music doesn’t call for hitting the strings at every pass.

To some beginners strumming from the wrist feels right but you have a lot more freedom if you move your whole forearm from the elbow when you strum. You will probably need to work on your attack so that your up strokes sound out as loudly as your down strokes.

Learn Guitar Strumming

Bob Dylan wrote the songs. He had the feelings that connected with a generation of angry and discontented young people. But Peter, Paul And Mary brought the composer and the audience together. So a popular acoustic guitar song need not be one that people have heard of before. It could be a song that you MAKE popular. Maybe not to a worldwide audience, but your own circle of friends is a start.

The Doors recorded a song called Light My Fire. It was a loud driving rock song. It was re-worked by Jose Feliciano as a Latin ballad and reached number three on the pop charts. To many music fans Jose Feliciano’s version of Light My Fire is the definitive one. Now THAT is a popular acoustic guitar song. Eric Clapton’s acoustic version of Layla is another example of a popular acoustic guitar song that started life as something totally different.

Of course don’t go the other way and totally forget acoustic songs that everybody loves, like Hotel California. This version is by The Gipsy Kings

Just to get you into thinking outside the box, this video is Hotel California sung in French by an Australian group called The Cat Empire:

Finding And Learning How To Play Popular Acoustic Guitar Songs

Apparently the story that Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII is no more than a myth but that does not take away from the beauty of the tune. The song has been recorded by Elvis Presley, Odetta, John Coltrane, Mason Williams, Jeff Beck and Leonard Cohen to name a few. If you want to learn the words, here they are:

Alas my love you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously;
And I have loved you oh so long
Delighting in your company.

CHORUS:
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves my heart of gold
Greensleeves was my heart of joy
And who but my Lady Greensleeves.

I have been ready at your hand
To grant whatever thou would’st crave;
I have waged both life and land
Your love and goodwill for to have.

CHORUS

Thy petticoat of sendle white
With gold embroidered gorgeously;
Thy petticoat of silk and white
And these I bought thee gladly.

CHORUS

Here is a link to guitar tab for Greensleeves.

This video shows how Greensleeves sounds and you can get the tablature for this arrangement of Greensleeves here.

How To Play Greensleeves On The Guitar