What’s Easier- Electric Or Acoustic Guitar?

There seems to be a misconception floating around that starting your first lessons with an electric guitar is somehow more difficult than starting with an acoustic guitar. The opposite is actually more true.

The neck of an electric guitar is longer and thinner than an acoustic guitar. The action (space between string and top of fretboard) is generally lower on an electric guitar also. As a result, less strength is required to push the strings down onto the fretboard, thus making it easier to play.

The classical guitar would be next in line as far as ease of playing is concerned. This is because it has nylon strings which are more flexible than the wound steel strings of a dreadnaught acoustic guitar. The challenge with classical guitar, especially for those who have small hands, is playing a wider neck.

So, when rating guitars from 1. being the easiest to play, and 3. being the most difficult, my opinion is:

1. electric

2. classical

3. acoustic steel string (dreadnaught)

Now, when it comes to style, that’s another matter…

Each of the instruments I mentioned above are generally associated with a particular style of music. Electric guitars have a long history of association with rock and roll music. Likewise, classical guitars were developed to play classical music and acoustic steel string guitars are most often associated with country-western music. However, that does not mean they are restricted to these areas only.

Each style of guitar music has it’s own merit and unique level of difficulty. I doubt if it’s even possible to really compare such a thing as which style is the most difficult to play. We can all think of great musicians in each field… Eddie Van Halen, Segovia, Chet Atkins- all of whom were supurb guitarists in their particular style of choice.

The important thing to understand is that all the notes and all the chords are the same, regardless of the type of guitar you use. So when choosing a guitar for yourself, or your child, consider the style of music you (or they) want to learn and take it from there.

Acoustic Guitar Songs To Play: Best Sources

A lot of people associate acoustic guitar with being easier to play; they’d usually think the only tracks played on them are slowly strummed chords, which yes, is very popular. However this is not always the case. There are many different things you can do with an acoustic guitar. You will find there are many styles, techniques and genres within it that are oozing with the best guitar songs to play.

There is nothing wrong at all with learning the slowly strummed chords to chill out and relax with playing, everyone loves the acoustic guitar for that reason. You can find all these songs on the internet right now by typing into any search engine best acoustic guitar songs to play. Millions will pop up with classic records and you’ll probably find a few video tutorials come up too. You can also find easy tabs for these pieces if you put that into a search. Usually there will be indications on the tab sheet telling you the intricate details and then how to play them.

But every now and then you will want to test yourself into learning something a bit more difficult. It’s always a rewarding feeling when your brain finally clicks after you’ve been trying to learn something for weeks and get it.

With the more advanced techniques on acoustic guitar come slap, tapping, touch tapping, percussive guitar, flamenco guitar, classical guitar etc. Now I will not lie to you these are hard to learn the begin with. But like the old saying goes practice makes perfect. And it is so satisfying when it all starts to come together.

You will find many tutorials on YouTube for these genres, which are indeed very helpful, some videos aren’t too great of content as anyone can post a video nowadays there are no auditions to post a lesson online! Saying that if you do go through them I promise you’ll find some videos that are really helpful.