Is "Electric Guitar" A Style Or .................

[A McLeod III]

..........simply a musical tool of creation? Sounds crazy? Read on.

 

I'm sure the notion probably occurred in the 50's or before with the creation of mass produced "electric guitars". Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly and later; Hendrix, Townsend, Jimmy Page-guys like this defined the raucous, edginess of the "electric sound".

 

Segue to the sound-the tone. Every spin doctor-marketing specialist is keen on selling tone to guitar connissuers. We purchase an amp or a style of electric guitar based on a certain "tone". It's the difference in purchasing a Fender Deluxe Reverb or a Mesa Triple Rectifier; an ES 175 or a Jackson Pro Soloist. Most times, it even seems that the tonal descriptions are even blurred toward that edginess, that tonal break-up, that grindy sound. So many times , I listen to amp samples that give a description, "clean channel" AsI listen, I hear that right on the edge break up of sound or a harmonic jangle that I wouldn't consider "clean". Those are things that seem to define what has become that trademark "Electric Guitar" sound.

 

Then you walk into a guitar store and the first thing the sales guy ask is "What you play man? Electric or Acoustic?" What does that mean? Hell, I play the guitar. I play the same instrument that Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Peter Green or Jimi Hendrix played- the guitar!

 

The point in all my ranting (and I bring it up because I have a hard time getting my guitar students to make the relation) is that I feel playing a guitar; any guitar is fundamentally the same. I don't see that there is any special amplifier or special guitar that defines that. I can play a "power chord" just as easily on my acoustic as running a 16 note swing pattern in Locrian mode on a Schecter Omen 6-the fundamental music is going to be the same. The techniques used will transfer from one guitar to the next so what is "playing electric" that differentiates it from playing fingerstyle or jazz or folk? Has this actually become a style- a technique or is it still just a variation of the theme we call guitar?

 

I Play The Guitar!!!!! Listen

[doug osborne]

What we do know is that the first attempts at electric guitar (glueing a telephone pickup on the face of a guitar, Les Paul sticking a bamboo phono needle in the face, etc.) were simply to amplify the sound. It couldn't have been perfectly successful - making the exact acoustic sound of the guitar louder - but obviously, it led us somewhere.

 

Art has always followed technology (tempered-tuning hammer-hits-string pianos as opposed to clavichords, etc. changed keyboard playing and composition styles centuries ago). Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

 

I know that I can play a solid body electric just as I would a 000 acoustic and produce a third sound, not better or worse, just different.

[Chris.]

i agree, its interesting..

 

the techniques are esentially the same, but i couldn't think of a tune playable on acoustic that wasn't playable on electric, but there's a hella lot of tunes that are playable on electric but not acoustic .. obv.

 

there kinda is a whole different technique for electric that was created on electric, and really only discoverable with the increased amplification.. eg. overtones and tapping etc etc. but, yeah, these are just

a style of guitar, and doesn't define the 'electricness', so to speak.

[miroslav]

There are some differnces in the styles of music that an acoustic-only/mostly guitar player will tend to play....VS...what an electric-only/mostly will play.

 

Also, the instruments feel a bit different, sound a bit different, and sometimes, you have to adjust your technique a bit, depending on which you are playing.

 

So that would make sense to ask a guitar player what do you play...electric or acoustic?

 

But yeah...they are both guitars.

[stanner]

i play electric guitar. i love the sound of an electric guitar thru an amplifier. the sound, noise,and general grandness and db level has no rival.

i have *NO* interest in an acoustic guitar.

i dont like the sound of an acoustic guitar or how it feels in my hands.

to me they are completely different things-not comparable in any way.

my mileage will not vary!

s

[hard truth]

Many techniques are the same between acoustic and electric, but there are many techniques and sounds that work only on one or the other. In particular many electric techniques won't work, or just don't sound good, on an acoustic. For example, holding onto a signal note, giving it some vibrato by shaking your left hand and moving towards the amp to give it a little feedback.

[Guitarzan]

i play Guitar. i learned on an accoustic and electric. i agree with the different techniques involved with each type. but i find it strange when someone ( a friend ) rips on an electric yet can't handle some simple chord strumming on an accoustic.

they are both fun.

[Billster]

You know, this gets me thinkng how the sound can affect your playing.

 

On electric, a tweezy amp tone will make you play differently than if you had a rich amplifier sound.

 

So when you play acoustic, you hear things differently.

 

When I play an electric without plugging it in, I can hear in my head (mind's ear) what tone I want from an amp when I work up a part, or a riff, or song.

 

I also agree with Guitarzan, it's not exactly the same, but playing any instrument is a joy!

 

Mountain bike or road bike?

Sports car or Jeep?

 

Go over to the keyboard forum and start them in on piano vs. synth. It's all just a keyboard, right?

[Guitar55]

The difference here is about people. Some are locked into a style that may happen to be better represented on an acoustic or electric instrument. Some just play music.

[s mel gibson1642606968]

When the sales guy asked if you play electric or acoustic, I think all he wanted to know was what he could sell you. Like getting to the point quickly.

 

I think you think too much. Relax a little. Fry some brain cells or something.

[A McLeod III]

It's not always the "sales people" that always make the "stoopid" comments. It has always concerned me that persons who claim to be "real musicians" say things like that too often around the young and the impressionable. I know there will be a lot that disagree but I feel that whole "I play electric, I play rhythm, I play lead" garbage pigeon holes your talent curve so to speak. It gets potentially good players (especially the young ones) locked into a very limited scope. Maybe no one else cares but this old worn out music teacher, but the quality of performance is already suffering from the absorbance of mass-media, massive money-making perspective. Seems like the non-music playing public has become the "non music performing musician. " Music performance has become less art and more fad and the narrow minded thinking abounds.

 

I have to continue telling all that will hear-especially those that are in the formidable stages of learning that a guitar is a guitar-acoustic or electric. All the fundamental aspects that lead to good playing skills; hand/wrist position, posture, learning basic chord shapes and the extended chord library, scales, modes, ear-training, etc. are necessary to become a good guitarist and a good musician. Maybe it's just me but I find too many musicians taking a "simple bite" and running with it and not wanting to experience the whole pie. That seems all too limiting to me. "I simply play guitar." There are mechanical differences surely and yes an acoustic responds to some things differently than an electric will but fundamentally, they are all the same. I can finger-pick my electric just as easily as I can sweep pick my acoustic. Hell, people like Kaki King , Preston Reed and Stanley Jordan really even out the playing field when they introduce two-handed tapping on the fretboard into their technique but they still play GUITAR.

[Blue Strat]

I play music (or noise, depending on your perspective). I use an electric guitar most of the time, but I'm comfortable on my nylon stringed Yamaha too. Some would call the Nirvana song "Polly" an electric guitar tune, but it just sounds right on nylon strings. "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star is certainly an acoustic tune, even though it can be played on an electric.