If you are thinking about learning to play the guitar you should consider beginning on an acoustic guitar as opposed to an electric guitar. Here are three good reasons why:
An acoustic guitar will develop your right hand technique since you alone are producing the sound from your hand. The correct amount of strength needed to strum chords, for instance, will determine whether your chord is loud or soft.
This will allow the right hand to develop to have the capability of playing with dynamics. The right hand muscles develop properly. With an electric guitar the amplifier or volume knob on the guitar does that job for you.
Sounds great , but the right hand attack is not developed properly and there is a lack of control (and understanding) over picking attack and dynamics. Also,there is constant adjusting of the volume controls on both the electric guitar and the amplifier.
With an acoustic, the beginner will learn how to properly position the left hand fingers to the fretboard to produce both notes and chords. The correct hand angle, with fingertips perpendicular to the fretboard, is needed to produce the desired sound.
Also, the left hand is further developed by learning the correct amount of pressure to apply to the strings and fretboard to produce the desired sound. The left hand muscles develop properly. An electric guitarist, once again, relies on the amplifier to do the work.
Left hand technique is not developed properly since you only need to apply an approximate amount of pressure with the left hand fingers to produce the desired notes or chords. As for hand angle, the electric player’s left hand fingers are usually hitting the fretboard with the pads of the fingers, instead of the finger’s tips.
The combination of Reasons #1 and #2, will allow you to produce tone on the guitar. That full, well rounded note or lush chord that brings out all the poetry of what a guitar should sound like. You will know how to produce rich bright tones or mellow, darker tones… a entire pallet to tonal colours.
Again, with an electric guitar, there are tone knobs, pick-up switches, amplifier settings and outboard pedals that all constantly need to be adjusted to get the same effect.
From my many years of teaching guitar ( as well as being a student, at one time) I have seen the same end results from my students over the years:
The ones that started on acoustic guitar, when they play an electric guitar for the first time, their reactions is,”Wow, this is so easy to play!”
The ones that started on electric guitar, when they first play an acoustic for the first time, their reaction is “Ouch!..Wow this guitar is hard to play!”
The one thing I can’t figure out, is without all the developed hand strength, how is it the electric guitar players can lug around their heavy guitars and amps?
by Mark Harry
