Acoustic eyeopener - should I concentrate on acoustic or electric?

← looks at the beating my Maton has had this year

yeah acoustics never get you distracted…

I highly recommend to pick up electric guitar becoz you can learn some fantastic Blues guitar from Justin =)

It is really down to personal preference. And would say acoustic guitar has a really high learning curve in terms of technical stuff (Well I only play acoustic guitar so thats what I can comment on haha)

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Interesting discussion. Just my 2 cents regarding this:

It absolutely doesn’t have to be like that. I have a small modelling amp, my time researching tone has amounted to about 1 hour, total. I have 3 tones set up: clean, crunch, lead and when I sit down to practice, it takes 3 seconds to punch in the one I want. I have zero pedals (except for a looper) and I have no intention of getting any anytime soon. Can I replicate Brian May’s tone? Absolutely not, but hey I’m just trying to learn how to play a decent blues solo. That’s what I’m concerned about for now.

It’s true that lots of people go down the tone rabbit hole, constantly fiddling with their amp settings, researching (and buying) pedals, trying to understand what a compressor does ( :slight_smile:), but that’s their choice. You don’t have to do any of it.

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Of course we don’t HAVE to. But some of us aren’t strong enough, like me. I geek out on stuff like that.

you know what in your heart u love. could even be both. Follow ur best instincts right now. I figure you will come out alright. Glad to have u as part of this community. Me I’m going electric with some of my favorite heros.

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I’d imagine that taking 4 hours/day for 8 weeks to pass grade 1 is quite common for a complete beginner. I passed grade 1 within a month playing an average of 1.5 hours per day during that period. I learnt the open chords 10 years ago (couldn’t transition chords in time for any song, nor learnt to strum, before lapsing).

I’m now one and a half months into Justin’s course practising at least 2 hours/day. Currently in Grade 2 Module 10 - I can play along with Wonderwall now pretty decently and land the F Barre chord pretty consistently. Still struggling with the F chord changes though.

I guess my point is to keep going while consolidating at the same time since you are obviously loving the process. I know I am hooked - at least for now. And I’m glad I didn’t make sure I could play all 5 songs almost perfectly before moving on to grade 2. Learning new chords, riffs and strumming patterns in conjunction with Grade 2 practice has helped me learn to play more songs authentically.

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I was wondering the same thing but taking it 1 step further. I am switching back and forth between a Yamaha Pacifica electric and a 3/4 Hohner acoustic. At 8 weeks I am more than halfway through Module 3 of Grade 1. All combinations of A D & E chord changes are over 90 on both guitars, various changes including the Em & Am chords vary from 50 to 70 changes in a minute. My question is although I am happy with my progress so far, am I setting myself up for problems in upcoming lessons by switching between the two different sized guitars? Any insight would be appreciated.

It’ll certainly impact your muscle memory and playing ability a bit BUT its also developing a skill for you to be able to switch between guitars.

So its down to what you want to do, and you obviously already have 2+ guitars to play so keep on doing it.

You could just restrict yourself to one size and type of guitar but even then you have variations on fret width and radius etc.

Dealing with the instrument in front of you ( be it scale, fretboard, tuning, strings etc) is part of the larger aspect of playing

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I don’t think it matters much in the early days of your journey. At some point you will know how to continue, be this one, two guitars or many. Enjoy the discovery phase :slight_smile:.

I wouldn’t say you’re setting yourself up for problems at all here Joe. If anything, as Rob and Radek both say, you’re unconsciously expanding your ability which can’t be a bad thing! Only you’ll know or feel if it’s impacting the pace of your progression but for the moment I’d say crack on and enjoy!

Thanks for the replies. I kind of figured that as long as I continue improving that it wouldn’t be a bad thing, I guess I was looking for reassurance.