So you want to learn the guitar. That’s a fantastic decision to make! The guitar is an extremely fun, expressive, and versatile instrument that you will love playing. Now you must be wondering – should I learn acoustic or electric guitar? While either choice is a good one, we will discuss the benefits and disadvantages between them to help you make your choice.
Acoustic Guitars
Benefits Of Acoustic Guitar
Starting with an acoustic guitar has many benefits, including:
- Cost-effectiveness: Acoustic guitars tend to be more budget-friendly than their electric counterparts. With an acoustic guitar, all you need is your guitar and a few other accessories; however, you need an amplifier and other accessories that add up quickly with an electric guitar.
- Focus on the basics: With an acoustic guitar, you do not have volume knobs, pedals, and distortion. This helps you stay focused on learning the guitar basics and lets you easily hear your mistakes.
- Mobility: With no cords required, you can easily take your acoustic guitar with you anywhere. Just throw your guitar in its case, and you’re good to go! The same can’t be said for an electric guitar, which needs an amp and a power source.
Overall, starting with an acoustic guitar provides numerous benefits, including lower costs, helping you focus on learning the basics, and providing better mobility.
Disadvantages Of Acoustic Guitars
There are only a few disadvantages of starting with an acoustic guitar, namely:
- Heavy strings: As a novice player, your fingers will not have the dexterity required to perform with the heavy strings that acoustic guitars have comfortably. As such, the strings will hurt your fingers until you play enough to get used to them. However, your fingers will gain strength over time.
- Harder to fret: Since they have heavier strings, it is harder to fret notes with an acoustic guitar. Unlike you establish a firm fingering style, you may find it difficult and frustrating to navigate the fretboard. However, this is another skill you will develop as you practice.
While starting with an acoustic guitar has a few drawbacks, you will overcome these with time. These guitars are overall great for beginners.
Acoustic Guitar Genres
You’ll likely be interested in an acoustic guitar if you enjoy the following genres:
- Acoustic music
- Bluegrass
- Country
- Folk
- Singer-songwriter
So, think an acoustic guitar is the right choice for you? Shop our wide selection of acoustic guitars!
Electric Guitars
Benefits of Electric Guitar
Although acoustic guitars are a great option, there are benefits to going with electric guitars, including:
- Ease of playing: Electric guitars tend to have lighter strings, narrower necks, and lightweight bodies. This means that your hand can make more chord and scale shapes with ease. So, a beginner would play an electric guitar for hours versus an acoustic guitar, which would tire their fingers.
- Volume adjustment: Unlike acoustic guitars, which have a set volume, electric guitars can have their volume adjusted. So, whether you want to turn the volume up, down, or plug in your headphones, you have options you don’t have with acoustics.
- Guitar effects: Electric guitars have a wide variety of sounds available to them through guitar effects. So, they are more versatile than acoustic, and that may be appealing to you.
Therefore, electric guitars provide ease of playing, allow for volume control, and produce an assortment of sounds through guitar effects.
Disadvantages of Electric Guitar
Electric guitars are fun and expressive instruments, but they come with certain disadvantages, namely:
- Price: Electric guitars are more expensive than their acoustic counterparts, and then factoring other necessities such as amps makes them even more pricy. So, electric guitars may not be the choice for you if the price is a big factor. To minimize costs, you may be interested in picking up a beginner-friendly Jumpstart Package that comes with the guitar and any accessories you need!
- Covers your mistakes: While having a guitar that covers up your mistakes may seem like a benefit, if you genuinely want to learn to play the instruments, you should properly learn the basics. As the sound you produce is augmented with electricity, your mistakes become less obvious, meaning you may not correct them like you would on an acoustic.
So, while electric guitars are fun and beginner-friendly, these drawbacks may turn you away from starting with the electric guitar.
Electric Guitar Genres
You’ll probably want an electric guitar if you picture yourself jamming out to the following genres:
- Blues
- Jazz
- Metal
- Punk
- Rock music
Decided an electric guitar is what you want to try? Check out our selection!
Which Guitar Should I Choose?
Overall, choosing your guitar comes down to your preferences. If you’re more interested in rock-‘n’-roll, you’ll likely be inclined towards the electric guitar. Likewise, if you are more of a country person, you will probably want to pick up an acoustic guitar. However, just because you decide to go with an acoustic guitar doesn’t mean you can’t pick up an electric guitar in the future, and vice versa. So, pick a guitar that inspires you and makes you want to play and practice. In time, you will master the basics and develop an original style like those of your idols.