Why is the Guitar the Most Popular Instrument in the World?

There are many reasons why the guitar is the most popular instrument in the world. It’s portable, inexpensive to own and easy to play – at least in the early stages. It’s also massively versatile and above all – cool. Few would deny this.

No matter what age, guitar remains the symbol of cool, hip – whatever new adjective strikes you.

It’s musical potential is virtually unlimited since it’s capable of playing chords, notes and everything in between. It also dominates country, bluegrass, rock, pop, folk, blues etc. Even in the jazz and classical field, guitar continues to make inroads into territory formerly controlled by more traditional instruments.

The guitar is the instrument of choice for song writers and performers in all musical idioms. It can be strummed, finger picked or played with a combination of all of these techniques and more.

From very simple beginnings, the guitar can grow into an instrument of tremendous subtlety, sophistication and complexity. But only if you want it to. Like a faithful pet, it never complains and lets you decide how far you want to go with it. For many. the relationship they have with their guitar is longer lasting and deeper than any relationship they’ve ever had with a person.

There is always a new place to go with the guitar. The jazz guitar often offers the next plateau for players that have been involved with rock, pop, blues for many years but are looking for something more. That something more could be more advanced chords, scales and techniques than are typically available in contemporary music. Certainly, it was the instrument’s unlimited potential that drew me to it and kept me involved in it and with it for my entire career.

The guitar spans a huge range of musical styles from rock to country to flamenco music. Though each of these musical idioms use the it prominently, they all use the same instrument to create wildly different sounds. Though the guitar has been around since the 1500s, it has undergone several big transformations during its history. The development of the electric guitar is an obvious mutation and has had a huge effect on its popularity.

Guitar sales have doubled in the last four years and some research has shown that more children under the age of 11 are playing the guitar than any other instrument. In fact, in Britain, it may be the instrument of choice for more than 50% of all males that play an instrument (and 17% of all females).

Here are a just a few of the reasons that guitar playing is so popular all over the world.

• Guitar playing is typically relaxing for the player.
• Guitar music is equally relaxing and enjoyable for the listener.
• Many people begin to play in order to join a band. This is an ideal way to make friends and expand one’s social circle.
• Guitar playing is ideal for campouts, singalongs or for entertainment at a wide variety of functions.
• Guitar playing improves hand-eye coordination and motor skills in general.
• Guitar playing can also help you gain other skills such as reading music and listening skills. Most people don’t realize how many skills can be learned by playing the guitar – you would be surprised.

­MIA chief executive Paul McManus said: “The popularity of the guitar in the UK is clearly going from strength to strength.” The MIA figures are based on government statistics for UK guitar for UK guitar imports. The MIA is the UK trade association for the musical products industry.

Guitar Center, MTV Games (Rock Band) and Activision (Guitar Hero) have collaborated on a national survey of 7,000 respondents to see how the players of Rock Band and Guitar Hero felt about playing an actual guitar.

Here are some of the interesting findings in the study:

• 67% of Guitar Hero and Rock Band users who do not currently play an instrument say they are likely to start playing one in the next two years
• 72% of musicians that play Guitar Hero or Rock Band report using their own instruments more frequently
• 80% of Guitar Hero and Rock Band users would like to receive an instrument as a holiday gift this year

The last one might have been a bit of a loaded question from Guitar Center in the survey, but nonetheless this is definitely encouraging news for Guitar Center and other music retailers. Guitar Center reported spikes in sales of entry-level guitars in the last quarter of 2007 by 20.7% and in the first quarter of 2008 by 26.9%.

Many think games like Guitar Hero are making us lazy, giving us the instant satisfaction of a fake guitar rather then actually learning how to play it ourselves, but it seems quite the opposite is true, and more people are playing guitar more now then ever. Do you play the guitar? If so, what drew you to playing? And if you haven’t, is there any particular reason why?