Having been a classical guitar teacher for many years (don’t make me count!), I’ve had the greatest of experiences working with guitarists of all standards, including amateurs and those who have gone on to play professionally. When I say amateur guitarists, I’m talking about those who play classical guitar for enjoyment and do not play professionally.

Since Classical Guitar Academy opened its guitar shop, I’ve been faced with a number of questions regarding concert guitars for amateur guitarists. One of the most frequently asked questions is “are concert guitars only for professional guitarists?”. I get a lot of similar questions around this theme too, so I wanted to write an article that helps to explain whether or not an amateur guitarist should consider buying a concert guitar.

Before getting into the debate about whether or not a non-professional guitarist should buy a concert guitar, I’d like to briefly outline what a concert guitar actually is as far as classical guitars go. We can then look at whether an instrument of this calibre would be suitable for a beginner, intermediate or advanced guitarist who simply wants to play for fun.

A concert guitar, quite simply, is an instrument that is of high enough standard to be used professionally in concert. You can expect these instruments to be extremely well made with pinpoint attention to detail. They often have much greater expressive capabilities than a student level guitar and can be pushed harder to produce a louder sound, often referred to as projection. (Note, there is a debate as to what ‘loud’ and ‘projection’ really mean, but I won’t go into it here because it doesn’t matter all that much for the purpose of this article).

You may also find that concert guitars come with a range of extra little features that are rarely seen on student models. These may include raised fingerboards, allowing better access to the higher register (beyond fret 12), as well as more progressive features such as ‘soundports’ which allow more of the sound to reach the ear of the player rather than just projecting forwards from the soundhole and built in arm rests. Not all concert guitars will have these features. In fact, traditional concert level guitars do not have soundports, arm rests or even raised fingerboards. It’s very much down to the choice of the luthier building the guitar or the person commissioning the instrument to be built. A good concert guitar may have none of these additional features and still be considered a top level concert instrument, and is often the case.

Back to the debate at hand, about whether concert guitars are only for professionals. Can or should an amateur guitarist buy a concert guitar? Let’s look at some of the sub-topics that have been raised whenever I’ve discussed this with my students or customers at our guitar shop.

One of the concerns that sometimes puts a non-professional player off purchasing a concert guitar is that they worry they will never reach a standard capable of fulfilling the potential of the guitar. In other words, they will never be able to explore everything the guitar has to offer.

I can understand why this line of thought exists, but the thing I’ll always remind them of is that the core tonal quality of a concert guitar is still superior to a student level guitar, even if the finer margins of the instrument’s potential are never touched. Even playing simpler pieces with a less than perfect technique will be much more pleasurable using a concert guitar than it will a student guitar.

Moreover, a concert guitar can give the player more confidence and encourage them to push their technical and musical boundaries further than they would dare on a student model guitar. So, although simply purchasing a concert guitar won’t instantly make you a better player, it can help you to improve more than you would on a student instrument.

If the fear of not fulfilling the potential of the guitar is the only obstacle stopping you from purchasing a beautiful concert guitar, I would strongly recommend you reconsider. You’re potentially capping your rate of progress with the instrument and denying yourself a much richer musical experience!

Another fear of some amateur classical guitarists is how they may be perceived by peers for purchasing a professional level instrument even though they are not professional players. Will people think they’re compensating for not being able to play to a professional standard?

I can debunk this one very quickly it with a little data from our studio. The vast majority, and by that, I mean well over 95% of our concert guitar sales are from amateur musicians. That is to say, only the smallest percentage of our concert guitars are sold to musicians who consider themselves to be professional players or aspiring professionals. The remaining instruments are sold to guitarists who want to play for their own enjoyment.

Remember, the term ‘concert’ guitar simply means it can be used in concert, it doesn’t mean the instrument can only be used by players in concert. Don’t let this particular fear stop you from buying your own concert guitar.

I can’t help but wonder if this particular concern comes from the world of electronic technology. Things such as cameras and other gadgets tend to become more complex and feature packed as you reach the professional range. A consequence is that those particular products tend to come with a steeper learning curve than the more basic models.

Fortunately, guitars don’t suffer from that same issue. The size, shape and configuration remains pretty much the same, meaning there is nothing extra to have to contend with as you reach the professional models.

If anything, concert guitars can be much easier to play than student models. The reason for this is that the guitar luthier spends more time and care in setting the instrument up to perfection. For a guitar builder, it is their duty to ensure the guitar plays wonderfully before it leaves their workshop. Their reputation is on the line with every guitar they produce, so you’ll be hard pushed to find a poorly set up concert guitar that’s hard to play.

In other words, a concert guitar is likely to be easier and more comfortable to play than a student level instrument.

By now, it should be pretty clear that as an amateur guitarist, you should feel as though you can go ahead with purchasing a concert guitar. Providing you have the budget, there’s no reason not to! So, is there anything in particular you should look for and consider before making a choice?