Electric vs Acoustic

It's a common question that a lot of students ask - "do you recommend I play electric or acoustic?"

And it's a very good question indeed. So, here's my answer on this age old question...

It is absolutely worth every guitarists times and effort to become fluent on both electric and acoustic guitar. If you only play electric, it can be surprising the degree to which executing the same songs, passages, licks, bends etc. on the acoustic can be.

Standard electric guitar strings are 10-gauge (i.e. string size) and acoustic 12-gauge which, all things being equal, makes just about everything more difficult on the acoustic - barring, sliding, hammer-ons, pull-offs and especially bending but if you can tough it out and get through the additional discomfort and muscle/tendon strain your electric playing will be all the better for it.

​If you only play acoustic you may tend to bend less, stay away from higher registers, utilize effects less and use less slides, pulls and hammers. While there are certainly acoustic players who frequently employ all said techniques, such as the great Tommy Emmanuel the history of the acoustic guitar leans more towards either the Paul Simon/James Tayor-esque fingerpicking or the Richie Havens/Gordon Lightfoot-esque strumming approach.

I'll be happy to talk to you in person about the direction you want to go in - whether it's electric, acoustic or (hopefully one day) both!

Eric

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