Whenever it is played, everyone is more than likely to sing along and to pluck at it.

Whether you take it out for family or friends or play it right here on campus, the sharp echoes and vibrations will linger in your memory long after your fingers have released its strings.

Blues, jazz, funk and rock can all be played on the guitar; this is the main reason one guitar student who liked various kinds of music decided to pick up the guitar in the first place.

“It’s cool to really get a feel of the guitar and to know what you can do with it,” beginning guitar student and psychology major Eric Wagreich, 20, said.

Guitar is played differently

” You can see how beautiful of an instrument it really is,” he said.

The natural beauty behind playing guitar lies in the difference of how it is played with respect to other instruments.

Learning to read music or the notes on the guitar while attempting to strum at the right places is what the guitar is all about.

Fred Kim, 18, who has played since seventh grade, said that taking the guitar class enhanced his ability to read and play notes.

“I taught myself at first; but I didn’t know how to read notes completely,” Kim said about the class giving him a chance to thoroughly learn about music.

The unique sound of the guitar

Wagreich, who also enjoyed playing the guitar at a young age, said that he first picked up a bass guitar after he saw someone playing it at a party.

From acoustic, steel-stringed to classical nylon-stringed guitars, current students are exposed to traditional Spanish music to classic pop rock, like The Beatles.

For more than 30 years, beginning guitar instructor Nicholas Chirinos has devoted himself to teaching students who have little or no experience to learn the techniques that produce the intricate sound only guitars can offer.

His classes are usually full and consist of 25 to 30 students per semester; but because of the rigorous discipline required of learning guitar, the number is reduced since some students do not have the time because of other classes, Chirinos said.

Chirinos said that handling the guitar, as it turns out, is one of the most difficult aspects in playing guitar; the guitar is placed on the left knee while the fingers in the right hand strike at the strings.

Although Chirinos said he admits that every instrument is complicated and attractive, the guitar remains to be one of the most fascinating and most time-consuming instruments to play.

Tuning of the guitar is essential

In order for someone to play the guitar properly, its strings have to be checked to see if they can produce the correct sound while monitoring the stability of the guitar and your arm placement all at the same time.

“In general, I think the guitar is very difficult since you have to make sure the tuning of the guitar is correct or else the sound of the guitar will sound awful,” Chirinos said.

“You have to learn how to position the guitar to make the sound come out as well as it can and it can be tiresome,” he said.

For others who have the desire to practice endlessly, time will pay off, Chirinos said, and they will perfect their methods.

“I love the guitar and I like seeing students apply themselves further with the intermediate class and the Applied Music program,” Chirinos said.

Intermediate guitar instructor Richard Hastings, along with USC professor John Deerman, assists students in the program to become part of the El Camino Guitar Ensemble.

In order to challenge himself, Kim said he decided to join forces with a fellow classmate, Wagreich, to learn more about rhythm by combining the sounds and the techniques of playing two guitars simultaneously.

“We just wanted to keep learning more than what we would normally learn in class,” Kim said about asking instructor Chirinos for a duet that was originally intended as a solo piece for the class.

Learning about counterpoint

Kim and Wagreich, who learned how to do exactly that, played the duet version of the traditional English song “Ash Grove,” while demonstrating the use of counterpoint in front of their class.

Counterpoint, which is the method of playing different rhythms while juxtaposing them against each other in the same session, involves a lot of discipline from two guitarists.

“It’s a little tough to be coordinated at first, but after that we got it down,” Wagreich said.

Both students plan on learning more about the guitar in the years to come.

“This is pretty much a hobby, but I’d like to keep learning more,” Wagreich said.