All acoustic guitars are the same. Isn’t that what most people think, especially if they aren’t that familiar with the guitar world? But even if you are eager to pick up and learn to play an acoustic guitar on your own, things may not be as simple as you anticipate. There are as many differences in these guitars, whether because of construction or style of play, as there are for any other sort of instrument. And these variations may make all the difference in whether you can teach yourself to play or will need an instructor.
Playing a classical style, for example, will involve a complex form of acoustic lessons, meaning you’ll be unlikely to succeed at teaching yourself. You would need to learn to read music, and the style involves learning an intricate way of finger picking. There are even rules about how to hold the guitar. On the other hand, when you use an acoustic guitar to play folk music, it means you can learn how to play it more easily, learning the chords so you can accompany songs quite successfully.
The general conception of classical acoustic guitars is pretty accurate: mid-sized, hollow instruments with a sound hole in the front, a fairly wide neck, and guitar strings of nylon. The deepest guitar string or two might be lightly wrapped in steel, but for the most part, the nylon strings create a rich, almost mellow sound as the vibrations are caught and magnified in the hollow body. This mellow quality is part of the richness of the classical style, as the strings are usually picked with fingers rather than guitar picks.
Acoustic guitars are obviously more complex and varied than most people realize. Some add more strings, like harp guitars in which any added guitar string is in a higher range than the standard ones, or extended-range guitars which add strings in the lower register. Others have differently shaped necks or bodies, or are tuned differently for particular music styles. If you’re thinking of trying to teach yourself acoustic guitar, then you clearly need to narrow things down first, and decide which style you want to learn, and even which guitar you want to play it on.