Guitar sales have slowly been on the rise since the 2008 recession and has recently seen a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This spike in guitar interest is largely due to the increased time spent indoors and the desire to occupy time by learning a new skill. For some, that meant learning a new language, baking, or even painting. For others, that meant learning how to play a musical instrument for the very first time.
The guitar has been a popular choice for consumers for a number of reasons. It can be fairly easy to learn and lessons, especially an online curriculum, can be found for relatively cheap with the ability complete on your time.
Guitar Sales Statistics
According to a recent survey conducted by Music Trades Association, global guitar sales soared to $17.2 billion in 2020 which is an increase of 9.5% from 2019. The good news is for retailers, such as Guitar Center and Sweetwater, that these numbers are only predicted rise. The global guitar market is projected to reach $19.9 billion by 2025.
So, what kind of guitars are people buying?
In the US, electric guitars lead the board with 58% of all sales. Coming in at 36%, acoustic guitars are the second most popular retail option. And finally, classical and flamenco guitars make up the remaining 6% of the market.
Benefits of playing guitar
The benefits of learning how to play an instrument can be a life-changing experience. Playing and learning a new instrument has the ability to stimulate creativity, activate the brain, and strengthen memory. Check out the other enhancing benefits of playing guitar:
- Improves discipline: Much like with anything, the more practice you give a sport or a skill, the better you will be. By simply getting consistent with it, you will strength your discipline for guitar and other areas of your life.
- Sharpens concentration: Learning a new skill like playing the guitar requires a lot of focus and concentration. Since most people are used to multi-tasking in their daily lives, it can be difficult to zero in on one task. Playing the guitar doesn’t allow for much multi-tasking which is a great way to bock the rest of the world out and focus.
- Helps with confidence: A case can be made that anything you master will automatically boost your confidence level. Once you get over the initial barrier of entry and become comfortable reading notes and playing cords, guitar has the ability to arm you with confidence you never had before.
- Eases stress and improves mental health: Music therapy is recognized as a clinical strategy to calm down and ease stress and anxiety levels.
Online Guitar Lessons
Online guitar lessons can be one of the best ways to begin mastering the skill. But it’s important that you do your research and find the best online instructor for you.
- Fender Play
Fender Play is a fairly new addition to the online guitar lesson landscape but has since dominated in sales and positive ratings. The company focuses on making lessons that are as easy and as entertaining as possible. Classes are split up between theory, chords, tone, and scale and the site offers chord diagrams, sheet music, and tabs to help simplify the learning process. They also offer a curriculum for newbies called My Path. From there, you’ll be able to customize your curriculum based on the type of guitar you’re learning to play and the type of genre you want to learn.
What’s unique about Fender Play is that many students want to play songs that are not necessarily guitar songs. They want to play songs they recognized on the radio. Fender Play offers an array of beginner conducive songs that range from popular hits to even the greatest hits.
- Jamplay
Jamplay launched in 2006 and has grown to be one of the largest online guitar lesson providers. They offer over 120 different instructors and have welcomed over 500,000 students since their inception.
In Jamplay, you have the ability to tailor your learning path based on instructor, genre and songs you wish to master. They also offer other opportunities to enhance your skill through an online guitar tuner and even a metronome to help improve your timing.
- Guitar Tricks
Much like Fender Play and Jamplay, Guitar Tricks offers an extensive library of video tutorials featuring real teachers that will walk you through each note. From a user experience perspective, Guitar Tricks offers an intuitive platform that requires little personal information to create a free trial account; from there, you have access to lessons ranging from beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
Guitar Tricks step-by-step instruction videos provide song breakdowns and multiple angle views to give you the best shot at mastering this new skill.
The bottom line
Driven by the love and connection to music, there will always be a demand for teachers and student portals for those eager to learn. Since apps and online offerings have increased accessibility to students across the globe, guitar sales will continue to rise well beyond 2022.
For some, the purchase of a new guitar may be a reintroduction. For others, it may be the very first time. But either way, the decision to master this new skill will not only improve your playing ability, it will improve your life.
