Music is a necessity. After food, air, water and warmth, music is the next necessity of life
Keith Richards
When it comes to learning to play guitar, aspiring guitar players generally don't know which style to choose. If you're a beginner, maybe you're wondering if you should learn by playing rock, blues, jazz, funk or country? Blues guitar, jazz guitar, and rock guitar, whilst similar, are really completely different - and this is pretty much a difference of arpeggios and chord shapes, and chord progressions. Then there are those genres you might prefer to play on acoustic guitars, such as those genres based around rhythm guitar. So before you embark on the guitar-adventure, discover a selection of guitar styles!
| Genre | Best For | Key Techniques |
|---|---|---|
| Blues | Expressive solos and improvisation | String bending, vibrato, pentatonic scales |
| Rock | Powerful riffs and classic guitar playing | Power chords, palm muting, lead solos |
| Jazz | Advanced harmony and improvisation | Extended chords, chord melody, improvisation |
| Metal | Fast technical playing | Alternate picking, tapping, sweep picking |
| Country | Clean melodic lead guitar | Chicken picking, hybrid picking, bends |
| Funk | Tight rhythm and groove | Muted strumming, syncopation, chord stabs |
| Punk | High-energy rhythm guitar | Fast downstrokes, power chords |
| Pop | Catchy chord progressions | Clean strumming, melodic hooks |
| Indie | Creative textures and atmospheric sounds | Arpeggios, delay, reverb |
| Alternative Rock | Versatile modern guitar playing | Dynamic riffs, effects, open chords |
Exploring Electric Guitar Genres
If you were to bounce from one genre to the next, you’ll notice how each style has its own unique sound and approach, giving you plenty of opportunities to challenge yourself and discover what you enjoy playing most. You should think of trying out different genres as an exciting way to spice up your learning that will also work wonders when it comes to diversifying your skillset. Each style will actually teach you something new, whether that’s rhythm and timing or lead playing and improvisation.
Let’s explore some of the genres you can dive into as you learn the instrument.
Rock'n'Roll
Perhaps the single biggest influence that emerged back in the 1950s and had everyone and their cousin heading to the local music store to get their hands on their very own electric guitar was rock ‘n’ roll. This music style combines everything that was already so popular at the time, blending elements of blues, country, and rhythm and blues into a danceable style that felt fresh. Some the greatest Guitarists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bill Haley propelled it and brought music into a new era.
To learn this musical genre you need to equip yourself with a vintage semi-hollow guitar such as a Gibson ES or a solid body such as a Telecaster. Each sound must be sharp to favor fast and jerky rhythms. The amps are powerful, and there are practically no sound effects even though some reverb can be used.
There are a few unique techniques that you can expect to develop if you decide to practice this style. These include bends, slides, and double stops, which are cornerstones of the rock ‘n’ roll sound and techniques you’ll become more familiar with as you explore the genre further. “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry and “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley couldn’t be better examples of songs that embody these styles of guitar playing.
Rock
Rock is another major playing style that immediately comes to mind whenever you think about the electric guitar. It took what rock ‘n’ roll had established and transformed it into a broader genre with unmistakable guitar riffs, dynamic song structures, and memorable solos.
It opened the way for what we called the first "guitar heroes", such as Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Page, Clapton or Jeff Beck in the 60's. Open chords, power chords, palm muting, and melodic lead playing are all techniques you can expect to tackle as you spend time exploring this style. To play rock you need a minimalist spirit because it's built around powerful sound. Rock is played hard on a basis of chords mostly stemmed from blues.
Hard rock is a playing style that adds something entirely new and distinct to rock.
You can begin to see how music evolves over time as artists draw inspiration from those before them and craft their own sound.
Who knows what sound you might create once you’ve mastered hard rock?
The sound you’ll develop by putting in the hours with this style comes from heavier distortion, aggressive riffs, and high-energy performances that define the genre.
A guitar like Les Paul (Gibson) or a Stratocaster (Fender) is ideal. For sound effects just turn to a wha pedal or a fuzz for solos. For rock, it's better to learn to play the electric guitar. Rock is one of the simpler music styles to get started with and you can find some simple riffs and melodies for beginners. To start playing rock guitar, you should start by learning the names of the notes, useful advice for any style of music! Power chords (or fifth chords) are very popular in rock music.
Modern rock, metal, country, and even jazz guitar all trace many of their techniques back to the blues. Skills like string bending, vibrato, and pentatonic soloing became staples thanks to early blues guitarists.
They’re simple to learn and to play and are a blessing for any aspiring rocker! Have a look at the minor pentatonic scale which is very common in this style of music. There are countless iconic songs associated with the genre, but “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses and “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple are two of the biggest and are more than suitable for aspiring players.
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Hard Rock
Hard rock is one of those styles of guitar playing that adds something entirely new and distinct to rock. You can begin to see how music evolves over time as artists draw inspiration from those before them and craft their own sound. Developed around rock and in a similar but more violent spirit of rebellion, hard-rock highlights guitars and their distortions with singing.
Who knows what sound you might create once you’ve mastered hard rock? The sound you’ll develop by putting in the hours with this style comes from those heavier distortions, aggressive riffs, and high-energy performances that define the genre. If you’re curious about some of the defining tracks in this space, try adding “Back in Black” by AC/DC and “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne to your practice playlist.
To play this extreme music style you have to push rock to its utmost. It's a muscular music: riffs are heavier, contain more distortion, singing is often perched in the treble, volume is impressive, guitars are often carried very low at the end of the strap. This is a guitar style that really resonates with new and seasoned learners alike.
Heavy Metal
Taking a bigger leap than in the previous styles, we arrive at heavy metal. You’ll recognize a heavy metal track immediately thanks to its speed, complexity, and technical precision. Heavy metal is also inspired by a classical music imprinted with blackness. Some guitarists even know how to play the guitar with one hand.
For those who like distorted loud sounds, who love music built around an extreme sense of rhythm, melodic charming songs, and death or underworld-inspired themes, then heavy metal meets your requirements. It wraps rapid palm-muted riffs, intricate solos, and advanced techniques all into one playing style, making it one of the more demanding styles to learn, and is generally better suited to players with a little more experience under their belt.
Metal Is One of the Fastest Genres
Many metal guitarists can play over 200 beats per minute (BPM) using advanced techniques like alternate picking and sweep picking. Some solos feature more than a dozen notes per second.
And yes, we're far from classical guitar lessons. Heavy metal is mainly syncopated rhythms, variations of a single piece and a multi-pedal system to multiply sound effects. If you asked any metalhead which songs they’d use to describe the genre, you could expect almost every response to include “Master of Puppets” by Metallica and “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden.
Funk
If you’re looking for a playing style that’ll really get you in the groove, then your search might just end with funk. In funk, it’s all about rhythm, with tight grooves taking center stage rather than the extended solos that define many of the genres we’ve discussed so far.
If you were to book a guitar lesson focused on funk, you could expect to spend your time playing short, syncopated chord stabs using clean tones, muted strings, and percussive strumming techniques that lock in with the bass and drums.
For Nile Rodgers, Bootsy Collins, Georges Clinton, but also Jamiroquai, James Brown, Earth, Wind and Fire fans, funk is the style of groovy rhythms. Basic notions are required, such as rhythmic flow, swing, accentuation, etc. If you don't know of these, ask your guitar teacher for help during your acoustic, electric or bass guitar lessons. To play funk, train with a metronome as often as possible to set your game on an accurate rhythm. Slow down the tempo of certain exercises to assimilate the right hand, and start your exercises with a clear sound, without effects. Once you master the rhythm, add on a wha-wha pedal or a Phaser.
Rhythm – the basis of funk – is mostly based on sixteenth notes: the left hand is placed entirely on the strings so as to smother them slightly, and the right hand makes back and forth movements (called strumming). Volume is constant, and one shouldn't be afraid to strike strings thoroughly to gain in sound and assurance. You’ve probably heard funk without even realizing it because of how influential it has been. Do songs like “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder and “Give Up the Funk” by Parliament-Funkadelic ring a bell? Get the best online guitar lessons here.
Reggae
There are few playing styles you can pull out on a guitar and please almost everyone around you. Reggae happens to be one of them. The upside is that reggae guitarists typically play short, clean chords on the laid-back off-beats, known as the “skank,” making the style highly accessible for players who are still in the early stages of learning.
With the right hand, notes are played with a pick (downstrokes) and the setbacks are made in return.
With the left hand, you obtain silences by suspending fingers while maintaining contact with the strings.
It's imperative to play "staccato" and not let the sound last.
Reggae regularly uses a technique that plays alternately the fundamental note in the bass and the acute notes of a chord (with fingers or a pick).
After you’ve put in the hours and your timing begins to improve, try playing with a metronome or backing track. This is a fife hack that’ll help you develop a consistent sense of groove, as precise rhythm is far more important than fast playing in reggae. You can also experiment with a clean amplifier setting and moderate reverb to capture the warm, bright tones that define many classic reggae recordings.
So, if you think you might gravitate toward consistent timing and relaxed rhythm over technical complexity, you may really enjoy developing your skills through this genre. We suggest starting with tracks like “Three Little Birds” and “No Woman, No Cry” by Bob Marley and the Wailers before branching out from there.
Country
Music can often be defined by the mood or feeling it creates. If you’re sitting around a campfire or out on the road, you’ll want the right songs for the occasion, and country music is the perfect choice. Country is an American style – especially in the southern regions of the US.
We recognize this musical genre by its sound, rhythms and chords. To play country on the guitar you must master pick strokes. Prefer metal strings (forget nylon ones) that are thicker and therefore sound louder, even if they're harder on your fingers. Country is played as follows: a bass accompaniment with alternating chord positions, low-string notes with a brushed chord on the acute strings.
Country musicians were among the first to embrace the electric guitar in the 1930s and 1940s, helping popularize it long before rock ‘n’ roll emerged.
When it comes to guitar playing in this genre, you’ll need a blend of melodic lead playing and strong rhythm work, often drawing inspiration from folk, blues, and rock. Once you feel confident in your playing ability, you can start performing classics like “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks and “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver to get everyone singing along. And yes! The guitar is good for your health and you can make a living off of it.
Jazz
Jazz is definitely an intimidating beast in the eyes of many newcomers and one of the most sophisticated guitar genres we’ve included in this article. The truth, however, is that it’s much more accessible than you might think. Unlike many other styles where precision is everything, jazz often embraces subtle imperfections and expressive interpretation. In jazz music, there’s no rush.
Yes! The secret to swing is being laid back, which means lagging behind and voluntarily playing on the offbeat on certain measures. Jazz guitar phrasing is also hugely important. It’s essential that you develop your ear by listening to other jazz guitarists like Pat Metheny, Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, George Benson, or Jim Hall before you start learning to play jazz guitar. It's this style that saw the birth of guitar microphones.
Solid body guitars such as a Rickenbacker will enable you to play as Birelli Lagrene, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin or Django Reinhardt did.
To play jazz you must use amps with powerful, clear and homogeneous sounds.
The guitars have deep tones with high sustain.
Note that you must master improvisation basics and be experienced.
It's required to know how to play the guitar well enough.
There are endless benefits to playing guitar that will have you excited to start lessons.
However, the guitar used for jazz isn’t very versatile when it comes to other styles so you should only really get one if you're certain you're going to be playing jazz music. If you can’t invest in a jazz guitar, invest in some roundwound strings rather than flat wound strings for that jazz sound. The pick also plays an important role in producing a jazzy tone, so you should opt for a very hard and beveled pick. Once you get comfortable with extended chords, improvisation, and complex rhythms, you’ll be ready to try your hand at jazz. “Take Five” by The Dave Brubeck Quartet and “So What” by Miles Davis both feature musical elements you can use to develop your jazz guitar skills.
Blues
Blues is a playing style that comes from the soul just as much as the guitar you’ll be playing. It's as old as jazz, although it precedes it in the specific guitar history. Blues is recognizable in its approach and emotion it releases: it's a music of rage, anger, hope, lamentation.
The basis of blues is the progression of 3 chords, 12 measures, and a characteristic tempo. Technically, you'll have to master bends, slides, and bottleneck game to render a generally clear and warm, slightly saturated sound. It forms the foundation of many modern guitar styles and is essential for developing expressive guitar music styles.
Even if it isn’t your cup of tea at first, the skills you gain from playing blues carry over into almost every other genre. Once you’re comfortable with string bending, vibrato, and slides, try tackling songs like “The Thrill Is Gone” by B.B. King and “Pride and Joy” by Stevie Ray Vaughan. BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert King Clapton and Hendrix knew how to master this style brilliantly. Hendrix was also a blues guitarist and was definitely a master when it comes to that style of guitar playing.
Pop
Pop is another crowd-pleasing style that works in front of almost any audience. If you can recreate those melodies that stay stuck in our heads long after we’ve heard them, you’ll be able to play music that truly captivates listeners. It was born from the Folk movement in the United States, inspired by revisited Irish ballads. Today, this style is somewhat overused, and pop is identified as "international variety".
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Yet great bands popularized it such as The Beatles, REM, U2, Dire Strait, Genesis, The Police or even Toto. It changed material needs, notably in terms of sound effects: multi-effects racks, endless pedals, extreme compression, and a guitar such as a Stratocaster or a Telecaster are enough to turn you into a pop guitarist.
The next time you head into a guitar lesson or practice in your bedroom, try learning some pop guitar parts that feature catchy chord progressions, arpeggios, and atmospheric effects that complement vocals so well. “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran and “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd are two chart-topping songs that are perfect for applying the techniques you’ve learned.
Did you know that there are actual proven health benefits to playing the guitar?
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