Is Electric Guitar Easier Than Acoustic Guitar For Beginners?

For music lovers, each instrument brings an interesting and different feeling that they always want to experience once in their life. Suddenly, a music lover like you discovers that you have a passion for the guitar and want to learn how to become a real guitarist. However, you are wondering if you should start with an electric guitar or acoustic guitar? Is electric guitar easier than acoustic guitar for a beginner?

These two types of guitars each have their own strengths that make them suitable for different situations and guitarists. It is difficult to know which guitar will be easier and more suitable for you if you do not read the most accurate and objective information.

Therefore, in this article, we will help you somewhat define what is an electric guitar, what is an acoustic guitar and what characteristics they have. From there, you will consider whether the electric or acoustic guitar is easier for you!

What Are An Electric Guitar And An Acoustic Guitar?

Electric Guitar

The electric guitar is generally a type of guitar that when you play the guitar, the vibrations of the strings will be converted into electrical impulses by the sound sensor and sound transmitter. The sound sensors and transmitters are often referred to as pickups. The electrical signals will then be transmitted by the audio amplifier to the speakers to form characteristic melodies.

Also, as the name implies, electric guitars must be powered by a power jack.

Acoustic Guitar

An acoustic guitar is a type of guitar with a hollow body and the entire acoustic guitar is made entirely of wood.

Usually, people often confuse acoustic guitar with classical guitar. However, acoustic guitars have metal strings while classical guitars are made of nylon.

Additionally, acoustic guitars don’t need to use a power source, and regular acoustic guitars don’t need a pickup either. However, to make the sound of an acoustic guitar better, more impressive, and clearer, some professional guitarists will add pickups to the guitar.

Comparison Between Electric Guitar And Acoustic Guitar

Here are some comparisons of some aspects between electric and acoustic guitars to help you figure out which one you should learn first.

Construction Of All Parts Of These Two Types Of Guitars

In fact, just by looking at the appearance, you can already see it’s different. But in detail, what parts are the same and what parts are different, we will carefully analyze for you through the information below.

Same Details 

  • Strings: Both electric and acoustic guitars consist of six strings, and the strings of both are made of metal. Also, the thinness of the strings of these two guitars is almost the same.
  • Materials for making the guitar: Most electric and acoustic guitar parts such as the body, neck, etc. are all made of wood.

Different Details

  • Body: Electric guitars have a solid body, while an acoustic guitar will have a hollow body.
  • Pickup: The electric guitar will need to have a pickup to produce sound and usually each electric guitar will have about 3 pickups. On the other hand, an acoustic guitar doesn’t need a pickup because its hollow body helps it to sound. However, some professional guitarists will prefer to add a pickup to an acoustic guitar for a better sound. Usually, people will only need 1 pickup for an acoustic guitar.
  • Weight: Because of the solid wood body, the electric guitar will be a bit heavier than the acoustic guitar with a hollow body.
  • Size: Electric guitars’ bodies are smaller in size than acoustic guitars’ bodies. Also, the neck of an electric guitar is also slightly thinner than that of an acoustic guitar.
  • Guitar Action: Guitar action is the distance from the strings to the frets. Usually, the action of an electric guitar will be smaller (lower) than the action of an acoustic guitar. 

Sound Of Electric Guitar And Acoustic Guitar

The sound of these two guitars is completely different. 

The Sound Of An Electric Guitar

Because the action of the guitar is smaller (lower), so the sound of the electric guitar is very clear and not raspy.

Moreover, because they have pickups that are audio amplifiers, you can adjust the sound effects of electric guitars to suit each music genre. Also, if you don’t want your practice to affect those around you, you can use headphones to listen to your own electric guitar.

The Sound Of An Acoustic Guitar

Since the action of the electric guitar is slightly larger (higher), the sound is slightly raspier. But in return, the acoustic guitar does not use a pickup to produce sound. Thanks to the body and the sound holes, the sound of the acoustic guitar sound more “natural”.

Techniques For Playing Electric And Acoustic Guitar

Because there are some differences in the construction of the parts, each type of guitar will have its own playing technique.

In particular, electric guitars will allow guitarists to use techniques like string bending, vibrato, etc. String bending is simply understood as using force to push the string up or down for the purpose of changing the pitch or low of a musical note. The vibrato technique, also known as string vibration, is when you move the strings up and down by force at the wrist with a small amplitude to change the loudness, timbre, or prolong the sound. Usually, these techniques you will learn in electric guitar textbooks or in online learning videos on the Internet.

On the other hand, acoustic guitars have an empty body, so when playing, you will use one and more techniques such as palm, palm muting, or fingerstyle, etc. Palm or palm muting are techniques in which you use your hands to tap the body of the guitar to create distinctive sounds. Fingerstyle is when you use your fingers to tap the strings and also to create more distinctive sounds. In addition, there are many other types of techniques when playing acoustic guitar, these techniques are also detailed in a number of materials that you can search on the Internet.

Prices Of Electric And Acoustic Guitar 

Mid-range electric guitars are priced similarly to mid-range acoustic guitars. However, when buying an electric guitar you will need to equip more things such as a jack, a guitar pedal, a speaker, etc. These devices along with an electric guitar will cost you more than buying a regular acoustic guitar.

Is Electric Guitar Easier Than Acoustic?

The answer would probably be yes. Surely many people will think that acoustic guitar will make it easier for you to learn chords and you should start learning with acoustic guitar first and then move on to learning electric guitar. However, in reality, that is not the case.

The electric guitar will be an ideal choice to help you play chords and play the guitar at a faster speed. This is because the construction of the electric guitar has more advantages. Firstly, as I said above, the neck of an electric guitar is thinner than the neck of an acoustic guitar. Secondly, electric guitar strings are always lighter than acoustic guitar strings. Finally, the action of electric guitars is lower than that of acoustic guitars. The above will result in your hands playing the chords more smoothly because you don’t have to use as much hand force as when playing an acoustic guitar. Therefore, you will learn chords faster and play at a faster speed when playing electric guitar.

If you are a beginner learning guitar and playing guitar, you will not know this. If you play guitar for a long time, you will realize that playing an acoustic guitar takes a lot of hand strength.

However, depending on the purpose of your guitar learning, you will choose the appropriate type of guitar.

Specifically, if you want to learn guitar to become someone who both accompanies the guitar for others to sing at meetings with friends, you should start learning guitar with an acoustic guitar.

On the other hand, if you are a rock and metal person, you want to learn guitar for performance, to play in professional singing shows or become a famous guitarist like Steve Vai, you should start learning with electric guitar.

Each type of guitar has its own purpose, you don’t have to spend time and effort learning something you don’t want to do. It is your purpose for learning the piano that will motivate you to learn it faster.

In addition, no matter what type of guitar you learn, you must master the basic music theory and practice persistently. It is a fact that many electric guitar students do not master basic music theory, so they think that they have to learn acoustic guitar to be able to learn electric guitar or learn acoustic guitar more easily. Those are wrong thoughts due to being too eager to become a professional guitarist and liking shortcuts without mastering the basic music theory.

Best Electric Guitar And Acoustic Guitar For Beginners

Among many kinds of electric and acoustic guitars on the market that will confuse you as a beginner, here are the top two. The two guitars below are always recommended by instructors and guitarists. These two below guitars are considered both high quality and suitable for newbies just entering the guitar class.

Donner 39 Inch Electric Guitar DST-102S

The Donner 39 Inch Electric Guitar DST-102S has long been known as an affordable electric guitar. It is designed with the basic look and feel of modern electric guitars. It has an excellent timbre and is also extremely easy to play for newbies. This is an important point to convince motivated beginners to embrace the practice.

The guitar has a poplar body construction and 22 frets neck for improved finger speed. Also, it is equipped with two classic single-coil pickups and one power 203S Humbucker pickup for a powerful sound. It also has a customizable multi-position switch that gives you a variety of sound options.

This is a very worthwhile guitar, it not only has a thick and dull sound to suit heavy genres, but its clean sound is also very warm, meeting the rock & roll genre for enthusiasts.

Fender Squier Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar

The Fender Squier Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar is the best solution for those who are passionate about guitar accompaniment for everyone in meetings or travel. While on the go, an electric guitar can make people feel entangled and afraid to carry them because they have to carry power jacks and other things. However, with an acoustic guitar, all problems will be solved because if there is no power jack, you can still use it.

Fender Squier Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar since its launch has received a very enthusiastic reception from users. This acoustic guitar is great for beginners because it comes equipped with everything you need to get started with guitar, including a black gig bag, clip-on chromatic tuner, free trial of Fender playing lessons, etc. Its sound is standard and attractive with the excellent result of the body made of mahogany wood.

Conclusion

With all the information we mentioned above about acoustic and electric guitars, you must have realized what kind of guitar you should start learning with and easily answer the question that you are having in your mind: Is electric guitar easier than acoustic? However, depending on the purpose of your guitar learning, you will have a good decision of what kind of guitar you will begin with. Hope that you guys will have a good start in the process of learning guitar so that you can quickly become professional guitarists performing for friends and audiences.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate and comment below. We are always happy to answer any questions you have.

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