There are lots of reasons why learning classical guitar is the best place to start.

Apart from the fact that there is so much music written for it by great composers like 'Sor', 'Villa Lobos', 'Giuliani' and 'Aguado', it has many proven guitar methods meticulously designed by these great composers, that progressively and thoroughly guide students through all the guitar techniques needed to produce the guitar virtuoso - the complete musician.

My personal favourite guitar methods are those written by Fernando Sor, the legendary Spanish classical guitarist. However, the pieces I like to play most, are by pianist, Isaac Albeiniz, whose music was long ago beautifully transcribed for guitar by Francisco Tarrega.

One of the most useful skills you gain is the ability to read standard music notation. But why is this important when we have guitar tablature, which is arguably more accessible, easier to read and more versatile for the modern player?

Well, for a few very good reasons; Timing , Repertoire & Musicianship.

Musicianship? This is the skill that turns the bedroom guitarist into a musician who makes music with a guitar. The ears of a musician are different to that of a non-musician. As a guitarist, what you hear controls what you can and can't play.

For example, as a child you would have liked simple diatonic melody music like nursery rhymes. As you get older, this kind of simplistic childish melody becomes predictable and you need something more sophisticated. So, then you start enjoying pop and rock music on Radio 1.

Wind the clock forward 20 or 30 years and you're probably leaning towards even more sophisticated music like blues, jazz or classical music, having become a bit tired of formulaic pop music.

The point I am making is that the sooner you train your ears to appreciate sophisticated harmony, the better you'll be as a guitarist and the faster you'll improve.

So what about Timing? if you are already good at practising you'll appreciate the value of using a metronome or drum machine. Standard music notation is the simplest way to read rhythm and timing from a page - to really understand how what you play interacts with the beat of the music - the time-signature, the bar, the triplets (quarter note or 8th note), the note lengths, and so much more information written out clearly in the music.

What about Repertoire?

All the skills, theory and ear training you need to become a true guitar master are embedded within classical guitar repertoire. In fact, there is so much repertoire in this musical medium, that it might take more than one lifetime to learn it all. Thankfully, we don't have to sift through it all to find all the techniques and skills we need.

The repertoire has already been sorted into complete guitar methods by guitarists who have dedicated their lives to doing just that. Yes, we are very lucky to have them. It's a shame most guitarists will never see them or even consider them.