I just had a thought.
I’m trying to learn a new song. It has a somewhat distorted guitar in it. The song is an electric guitar song.
But when I’m trying to learn it. I find myself going to do the learning on a acoustic guitar.
The song I’m doing I find hard to do and has at least one new to me chord in it. So I find that chord hard to grab at this point.
If I learn it on acoustic. All errors seem more exposed for me to hear where the error is at. Whether it’s muted strings that should be muted, or miss grabbed chords or other errors. The acoustic brings that to light more easy for me.
Does anyone else have a similar experience?
Do you learn your perspective song using distortion or effects as you learn the song?
Just wondering.
Maybe there’s a better way for me to learn a particular song that I’m not aware of.
I just find effects and distortion somewhat concealing as to how I’m playing a song. Hence I resort to acoustic to find the errors of my ways. The acoustic don’t lie.
In the end, after I’ve learned said song and it sounds good on acoustic. Then I’ll transfer over to elec. and start using effects. Plus, I personally find my acoustic harder to fret chords on. If I learn on my acoustic, when I transfer to elec. the song seems easier to play.
Just wondering and looking for further insight if there’s some better ways to be had for learning any song in general.
Wow Jim I am not sure I can help you there, but I get where you are coming from I remember only having an acoustic and when I played my friend’s electric it was always easier and it sounded better. so there is something about it Cheers Hec
Interesting question, Jim. Being an “advancing beginner” (I love that phrase!), I can’t offer insight on other/better ways of learning. I’m interested to see what others offer.
Like you, I often (maybe usually) start learning a new piece that I plan to play on electric, using my acoustic. I find playing on acoustic physically more demanding, and figure if I can get something under my fingers there, it’ll be much easier when I move to the electric. But: I’ve found especially when playing up the neck that some acoustics can present unnecessary challenges - again assuming the song will be played on an electric. Try forming a triad on frets 14 and 15 on an acoustic without a cutaway!
Easier I understand, better… Perhaps more like the song in question maybe since it’s an elec. song to start with.
I guess I’m wondering if your song sounded better because the effects were covering up errors, or because that’s the way the song was supposed to sound with the effects (distortion in my case) was supposed to sound. I’m thinking, if I can make it sound good on acoustic, it will sound stellar when I transfer to elec.
fwiw, I’m learning baby blue, badfinger.
straight up all barre chords. No open chords.
Strange ways of playing E chord (not really strange, just different than I’m used to). Basically a barred D up 2 frets above a D chord, with the rest of the C chord shape added. It is a good sounding chord.
The new chord is F#. Played up 2 frets above the strange E chord, but not playing the high E string. + adding C# on the A string, and F# on the D string. The other two notes are C# on the G string and F# on the B string. D shape, up 4 frets above D. This shape seems to yield a F# minus the third of the chord.
Agreed, acoustic I find more demanding too. That’s a good way to put it.
As for the 14 and 15th frets triads. For whatever reason I don’t generally get up that far. But, if I do. I’m fortunate. I got a cut away acoustic… If I ever get another acoustic, a cutaway will be a prefered. I got a 12 string that’s not cutaway. After playing both, I prefer the cutaway generally speaking. Whether I’m playing up that far on the fretboard or not.
Hi Paul,
Interesting.
I may have to give your idea a try.
But, while I generally play clean (or slight edge of breakup) elec. guitar, I near always have the reverb on. Not washed away, just subtle on.
When I play elec. I tend to use both pups. Then I dial away whatever I don’t want to hear either via vol. pots or tone pots, or both. I near never play with my tone at 10 on either pup. Not to say that I never play with tone on 10 though… I play a casino mostly for my electric and having the pups have separate vol./tone pots is something I desire on my elec. As opposed to one vol. one tone controlling both pups at the same time. I got a Reverand that has them type controls. While I like that guitar, I like the controls on the casino better.
I think the reason for me using the acoustic is that fact that it’s more challenging to play for me. I feel I have to be more accurate for lack of a better term.
I also don’t play at volume. Even when I’m home alone where there’s no one to care if I turn it up. I still play at generally reasonable volume. Can’t say I never turn it up, but surely not when I’m learning a song. Playing bad/poorly and loud are not a good mix for me… Then I don’t even want to hear it…
I will give your suggestion a try though with this new song I’m learning.
The distortion in this song to me is more slight tube overdrive than straight up distortion.
Thanks for your insight.
depends what it is for me. some songs, I will only play on my acoustic. some songs only on my electric, and some songs I’ll go either way. I do tend to keep my electric pretty clean most of the time, especially when I’m learning, so I can hear any mistakes more easily. once I know the song and want to make adjustments to make it sound better, then I’ll start using effects.
If I ever get another acoustic, a cutaway will be a prefered. I got a 12 string that’s not cutaway. After playing both, I prefer the cutaway generally speaking. Whether I’m playing up that far on the fretboard or not.