We all should know that the big three musical instruments in the world are: piano, violin and guitar. In fact, strictly speaking, the three major instruments in the world should be: piano, violin and classical guitar. The classical guitar is rarely seen in front of us, but the folk guitar is usually used for singing and fingerpicking. So what exactly is the difference between the folk guitar and the classical guitar? Let's take a look at the construction of a folk guitar and a classical guitar, and then slowly go through the differences between folk and classical guitars!
From the picture above we can see that the construction of the folk guitar and the classical guitar are basically the same, with only local differences. What are the specific differences? The historical background of both of them will not be introduced, it's as stinky and long as a shroud, if I have to say it, I'm afraid I won't be able to finish it for a long time, if you are interested, you can do it by yourself. The following directly into the main topic.
First, the differences in appearance and construction.
The first thing we can see from the diagram, the classical guitar body shape is more rounded, small, wide and short fingerboard (compared to folk guitar), this is from the diagram to see the most intuitive difference. Classical guitars generally have a 19-fret grade, whereas folk guitars have a 22-fret grade. Secondly, the neck and case of a folk guitar meet right at the 14th fret on the fingerboard, unlike a classical guitar, which is right at the 12th fret overtone point.
As folk is mainly used for backing vocals, we sometimes have to perform standing up, so a back strap is essential. For this reason, folk guitars have a strap closure at the bottom of the case. On some folk guitars, there is also a strap buckle on the side panel of the guitar for easy attachment. How do I fix the strap on a folk guitar with rounded corners and only one strap buckle? Usually there is a thin cord at the other end of the strap that goes through the gap at the back of the saddle to hold the strap in place.
The guard, which is usually found on folk guitars, is to prevent scratching or damage to the top when sweeping or using other strumming techniques, whereas classical guitars are played differently from folk, so there is no such thing on them.
One other difference is the strings. Classical guitars use softer nylon strings, whereas folk guitars use wire strings, which leads to many beginner folk guitarists often being tormented by wire strings, but these endure and get used to it. In the road of guitar learning, the difficulty is not only this one, must be persistent, persistence is victory.
Second, the playing style difference.
In terms of learning methods, the two have something in common, they both need to practice gradually and persistently. The difference is: classical guitar requires a period of time to set up their own posture and fingerings, after which is to learn a variety of classical aspects of playing skills; folk guitar is a little easier to start, practice the basic skills such as climbing, scales, mastering some basic techniques (strike, slide, hook, etc.), and then spend more time on the rhythmic patterns and accompaniment form to figure out.
However, the folk guitar is not as finger-training as the classical guitar, which limits your development. Generally speaking, if you learn folk guitar first, you will have to spend a lot of time correcting your fingering mistakes when you switch to classical, after all, it is very difficult to correct what is already set in stone, so it is best to learn classical guitar right from the start.
In general, the difference between classical and folk guitars is roughly the same.
The grade of acoustic guitar is not based on the brand, but on the quality of the wood used. Here is a brief introduction to the three different grades of guitars.
1. Triad Guitar
This is the lowest grade of acoustic guitar, no matter what brand of guitar it is, it is in a popular grade. The top of this type of guitar is made of plywood, the back and sides are generally made of harder wood plywood, the better back and sides such as: rosewood plywood, mahogany plywood, etc. This grade of guitar has an average tone and has little development, and is generally used for practice purposes. The price of a guitar ranges from 100 to 1000 RMB, some imported guitars even reach several thousand dollars, but by its very nature it is still a low grade guitar. To distinguish the grade of the guitar we can look at the sound hole of the guitar part of the wood, the general tricot guitar can be very obvious from the sound hole at the three laminated, no laminated is composed of wood board.
2. Topsheet guitars
This guitar is a mid-range guitar, it is much better than a triplet guitar in terms of sound quality, with a thick, well textured and developed tone. This means that after a period of playing, the wood is more sensitive to the sound and will sound better than a new guitar. Its top is usually made of spruce, and white pine, which is recognised as the best wood in the world for guitars. Its back and sides are generally made up of mahogany or rosewood tricot.
3. Full veneer guitars
This is the highest grade of acoustic guitar, usually for recital guitars. It is incomparable to the first two types of guitars in terms of sound quality, tone and volume. Its top is made up of white pine, and the tops of some high-grade famous guitars have to be naturally dried for more than ten years or even hundreds of years, and then the top woods are selected from a large number of woods out for the top, the back side is usually made up of rosewood or mahogany, the best back side recognized in the world is Brazilian rosewood, but it has been protected as a rare plant in Brazil.
