By Michael Hoag
Starting to learn to play the guitar can be a difficult experience both mentally and physically. You don’t know what a chord is, how to get there, how to get to the next chord, and on top of all that it hurts your fingers after seemingly two seconds. Considering many sacrifice their blood, sweat and tears trying to adapt to this odd expression of art, the least we can do is make our first days a little easier. Now, I won’t say there is a 100% right guitar for every beginner on this planet. But I will give you options. But what are the options?
Acoustic guitars vs. Electric guitars: What should I choose?
There’s sort of an age-old debate to the answer of this question. Okay that’s a bit dramatic, but my point still stands. But which is best? Let me give a quick rundown.
Acoustic:
- Needs little to no equipment to be used in a way considered performance worthy.
- A lot of stylistic diversity
- Hurts a lot at first and is hard to press the strings (especially if cheaply made), but makes building the callouses needed faster than playing the electric guitar
- It is easier to play if strings are nylon.
- Design can allow for beautiful resonance and acoustics (pun partially intended).
Electric guitar:
- Needs generally much more equipment to be used in a performance worthy manner.
- Also lots of stylistic diversity but only through amps. In other words, you have to buy more in order to reach the guitar’s full potential
- Easier to press the strings down at first when using, but makes building callouses take longer/not as effectively.
- Impressive acoustics are only available when using amplification technology, but generally have the ability to carry their sound much farther than acoustic when amplified, especially in open areas/stadiums.
Those are the facts most relevant to beginners. Personally, when I started learning how to play guitar, I chose acoustic because I knew the finger strength building naturally involved with the acoustic guitar would be beneficial for me in the long run (a notion I still stand by). However, that’s what worked for ME. It also helped a lot that I was forced to play guitar because I took guitar as a school course. I can certainly see why anyone would choose the electric guitar, especially if you are only half committed to playing in the first place, and some recommend it to kids who are first starting out. It’s easier to play overall, can carry pretty far, and it sounds however you want it to (if you have an amp that changes settings). There’s also a natural messiness that works with the electric guitar, hiding errors and all. Either way, no matter what guitar you choose, perseverance is what matters. Good luck!