• Acustic or Electric guitar first?
    76 replies, posted
I almost decided to quit when I started with acoustic. Mainly cause I'm restricted to the same damn sound. I always wanted to play electric anyway. If you feel the same way, don't really bother with acoustic in my opinion. As for beginner tips, do not, EVER, stop playing. The more you play the better you get. Do the 1,2,3,4 on the frets until you can do it at the speed of light and without your fingers hurting. If you feel like you really need to stretch your fingers on your fretting hand, just put your index and middle finger between the neck ( As in, sticking the crease between your fingers to the neck ), and slide down, from top to bottom. Aside from that, practice rhythm, there's nothing worse than a guitarist with speed and no rhythm. Practice alternative picking ( Strumming up and down on a single string ) as much as you can, going from the low E to the high E in sucession. You'll be mastering songs and even making your own in no time.
[QUOTE=Big Bang;21945595]I almost decided to quit when I started with acoustic. Mainly cause I'm restricted to the same damn sound. I always wanted to play electric anyway. If you feel the same way, don't really bother with acoustic in my opinion. As for beginner tips, do not, EVER, stop playing. The more you play the better you get. Do the 1,2,3,4 on the frets until you can do it at the speed of light and without your fingers hurting. If you feel like you really need to stretch your fingers on your fretting hand, just put your index and middle finger between the neck ( As in, sticking the crease between your fingers to the neck ), and slide down, from top to bottom. Aside from that, practice rhythm, there's nothing worse than a guitarist with speed and no rhythm. Practice alternative picking ( Strumming up and down on a single string ) as much as you can, going from the low E to the high E in sucession. You'll be mastering songs and even making your own in no time.[/QUOTE] It's not my fingers that hurt, it's a section on my forearm. Thanks for the tips.
Actually you should stop playing if you're in pain. That probably means you're doing something wrong, or your guitar doesn't play nice with your hands. Sometimes I cramp up playing certain chords on my Ibanez, forcing me to stop. It's just best not to do any damage to your hands that you will regret later on so you should take it easy. Your forearm will be put under a lot of stress when you begin, because the muscles you use for playing guitar won't be used to doing much work.
In answer to your question Hmn30, yes, it will feel like your fingers can't stretch far enough at first, but after time, your fingers may not actually stretch much farther but it won't hurt to stretch them anymore. Also, since it's such a common chord, here's a totally random tip I learned from my instructional material: Don't play the G Major (or more commonly referred to as just G) chord like this: [img]http://www.justinguitar.com/images/BC_images/05_More%20Chords/Chord-G.gif[/img] With your index on the 5th string, middle on the 6th, and ring on the first. Play it like this: [img]http://www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com/images/g-major-chord01.gif[/img] With your middle on the 5th string, ring on the 6th, and pinky on the first. This way should build flexibility and strength in your pinky more, but additionally it's much easier to transition to other chords (namely C Major and similar formations) from this fingering. Of course, there will be particular songs where due to the chord progressions used you will want to finger it the first way; in most situations, however, use the second.
Great advice there, makes changing chords (especially bar chords further up the neck) easier. Also played acoustic first, Electric guitar is piss easy.
If you do acoustic first you will be able to breeze by when learning on an electric. Personally I prefer making songs up on my acoustic to play when i'm camping and stuff.
I'm now trying to learn Plug in Baby, it sounds a bit different but I guess I still have to practice more, and I think I read somewhere that Matt's guitar was connected to a fuzz pedal or something.
Go straight to electric, there is more to it, it's more complex, in the end it will most likely pay off more. Didn't read above that you already got an electric, but you made a good choice.
[QUOTE=Me0wmix;22056187]Go straight to electric, there is more to it, it's more complex, in the end it will most likely pay off more.[/QUOTE] I'm already learning electric, thanks.
Electric.
[QUOTE=Hmn30;22056152]I'm now trying to learn Plug in Baby, it sounds a bit different but I guess I still have to practice more, and I think I read somewhere that Matt's guitar was connected to a fuzz pedal or something.[/QUOTE] Always is. He has it built into the guitar now, a Fuzz Factory.
Play whatever you prefer... Whatever you think is cooler. Personally I hate playing acoustic. I much prefer electric. both the thinner body and it suits my kind of music better. Best thing is if you can eventually play both. But start with whatever you think is 'cooler' to keep yourself motivated.
[QUOTE=Big Bang;21945595][B]If you feel like you really need to stretch your fingers on your fretting hand, just put your index and middle finger between the neck ( As in, sticking the crease between your fingers to the neck ), and slide down, from top to bottom.[/B][/QUOTE] I still don't get what you mean by this.+ Care to explain?
[QUOTE=Hmn30;22106700]I still don't get what you mean by this.+ Care to explain?[/QUOTE] I think he means wrap your index and middle fingers around the side of the neck and slide up and down to push them apart, widening your grip. Also to answer your initial question, I feel it's more about preference. I got an electric to start out with but soon found out I like playing an acoustic more. Personally, I like the wider necks of the acoustic. I find it hard play the first three frets on my electric because the neck is narrow and the strings are close together. I don't get this issue with an acoustic though. I also never felt acoustic strings were harder to fret with than electrics, it only takes a little bit more pressure. All of this might be about hand size though, my hands are a bit larger than average and my fingers are long. Although my friend with even larger hands finds playing my electric guitar easy. Ah well, go figure. To be safe, try playing both at a music store before you decide.
Another question, where are the fingers usually placed when playing frets? In the middle or near the end/beginning of a fret?
Finger goes: [img]http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/3185/fingergoeshere.png[/img] Not quite on the fret, but just next to it.
You want to go as close to the fret as you can, without actually touching it. It's easier to hold down if your closer to the fret, But if your just starting just try keep it in the middle or so.. If your finger actually is on the fret you'll just kill the sound... The vibration of the strings makes the noise's, Actually holding the fret will limit the vibration, giving you a 'dun' sound.
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