Another Musical Instrument Question

[A Thing of Eternity]

I'd say the opposite of your earlier advice freak - electric is much easier to play.

At the end of the day pick the one that suites the style you want to play though, keeping yourself interested is 90% of the process.

[Freakzilla]

I'd say the opposite of your earlier advice freak - electric is much easier to play.

At the end of the day pick the one that suites the style you want to play though, keeping yourself interested is 90% of the process.

Of course electric is easier to play.

I was not trying to point out the easiest path nor was I trying to encourage. Guitar is difficult.

[Freakzilla]

I found it discouraging, if I hadn't had prior music experience I'd never have gotten past my Hondo.

[Sandwurm88]

Yo, JustSomeGuy, if I were you, I'd try to start with lesson for a while, a great teacher is invaluable. I took bass lessons for four years, and I think that without them, I might've lost interest in guitar altogether, because all I would've been doing is looking up tabs online. Once you get good enough at an instrument to just sit down and play, and know what you're going to hear, and like it as well, it's the best, and practicing guitar will never be a chore like it can be sometimes in the first few months when you're just getting the chords down, and getting annoyed when you keep on messing up the F Major or the C # Minor.

I'd recommend getting a Peavey electric. Really cheap and decent quality, I got one at a pawn shop several months ago when I decided to broaden my horizons from bass to regular guitar, and its awesome for the price.

[JustSomeGuy]

All of you, I'm really liking what you're having to say. I'd really like to move on to electric, just to get the full range of whatever-the-fuck-it-is I'm looking to do on guitar- but at some point I would like to master the guitar. Time is not really an issue. Your responses have been very encouraging. Thank you.

[A Thing of Eternity]

I'd say the opposite of your earlier advice freak - electric is much easier to play.

At the end of the day pick the one that suites the style you want to play though, keeping yourself interested is 90% of the process.

Of course electric is easier to play.

I was not trying to point out the easiest path nor was I trying to encourage. Guitar is difficult.

Cool cool - I just always steer people towards electric unless they have some specific reason for wanting to start on acoustic.

[Omphalos]

I'd say the opposite of your earlier advice freak - electric is much easier to play.

At the end of the day pick the one that suites the style you want to play though, keeping yourself interested is 90% of the process.

Of course electric is easier to play.

I was not trying to point out the easiest path nor was I trying to encourage. Guitar is difficult.

Cool cool - I just always steer people towards electric unless they have some specific reason for wanting to start on acoustic.

You mean, something other than it sounds better?

[SandChigger]

Or it's low-tech and you don't need anything but the instrument itself to play.

I've been wondering about taking up something else, too. (Hence my oud question.)

I got out of practice playing the shamisen, even thought I break it out once in a while and stir up the neighborhood dogs. But it's such a bitch to mess with, just getting ready to play.

Hmmm...

[Crysknife]

Get a 3 string cigar box guitar tuned to open G and ill have you playing a rock shuffle song in 10 minutes. Easiest guitar ever, but not unsophisticated for even a professional. It can actually help you learn 6 string.

[A Thing of Eternity]

An electric sounds fine unplugged too, it's just not as loud - which can actually be nice for practicing because you're not worrying about other people hearing/being bothered etc.

They're both great ways to start - I just know that when I was a guitar teacher all the students on electrics took off way faster than those on acoustic (WAY faster), which is not surprising - it's already an extremely difficult instrument to start (compared to say piano which is super easy to start) and having such thick strings under so much tension just makes the task all that much more difficult, add on top of that most acoustics have a less ergonomic neck and it does add up to a much more difficult version of the instrument to play.

But - I was just thinking about this, a CLASSICAL acoustic would be perfect for a beginner. The strings are super pliable being nylon, and they're spaced out more (to allow for easier finger picking) which would make both the right and left hand learning easier for the beginner. EDIT: and they have very flat necks usually.

There, I'm an open person! My order of best to start on now goes - classical, electric, regular acoustic.

[Crysknife]

Here's a two string slide CBG.....one of the most basic CBGs but check out what you can do with it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRoGorgV ... r_embedded[/youtube]

[JustSomeGuy]

A classical acoustic? I thought an acoustic was an acoustic. I'll have to look into this. Thanks. And Crysknife, that was pretty cool.

[Freakzilla]

Classical guitars have a wider, flatter fret board and nylon strings.

[Freakzilla]

The classical guitar is distinguished by a number of characteristics:

It is an acoustic instrument. The sound of the plucked string is amplified by the soundboard and resonant cavity of the guitar.

It has six strings, though some classical guitars have seven or more strings.

All six strings are made from nylon, or nylon wrapped with metal, as opposed to the metal strings found on other acoustic guitars. Nylon strings also have a much lower tension than steel strings, as do the predecessors to nylon strings, gut strings (made from ox or sheep gut). The lower three strings ('bass strings') are wound with metal, commonly silver plated copper.

Because of the low string tension
The neck can be entirely of wood without a steel truss rod
The interior bracing can be lighter

Typical modern six-string classical guitars are 48–54 mm wide at the nut, compared to around 42 mm for electric guitars.

Classical fingerboards are normally flat and without inlaid fret markers, or just have dot inlays on the side of the neck—steel string fingerboards usually have a slight radius and inlays.

Classical guitarists use their right hand to pluck the strings. Players shape their fingernails for ideal tone and feel against the strings.

Strumming is a less common technique in classical guitar, and is often referred to by the Spanish term "rasgueo," or for strumming patterns "rasgueado," and uses the backs of the fingernails. Rasgueado is integral to Flamenco guitar.

Machine heads at the headstock of a classical guitar point backwards—in contrast to most steel-string guitars, which have machine heads that point outward.
The overall design of a Classical Guitar is very similar to the slightly lighter and smaller Flamenco guitar.

[A Thing of Eternity]

Yup, Freak pretty thoroughly covered the subject! The only issue with classicals is that due to the wider fretboard/string spacing and lesser radius (or none at all apparently, I'd never noticed they were totally flat... learn something every day!) chording is more difficult from an ergonomics point of view - but not that much more difficult in my opinion that it becomes a more difficult instrument to play overall.

[Freakzilla]

The good thing about it though, if you can learn to play on a classical, a standard acoustic and much more so and electric will be a relative piece of cake.

[A Thing of Eternity]

The good thing about it though, if you can learn to play on a classical, a standard acoustic and much more so and electric will be a relative piece of cake.

I think the opposite, because I think classical is the easiest, though almost tied with electric really.

[MetaCugel8262]

It has been well established by musicians that classical is the most technically intricate and ultimately most difficult to master musical form. You could look at classical as a largely Apollian art, tied to rigid rules and traditions, taking years of practise to master and play correctly. Any deviation from a formalized mastery sounds off and unpleasant to the listener. The more popular musical styles are rythmic at its foundations, easily self taught and could be said to be rooted in the Dionysian, instinctive and primitive within us all, beginning with drums and group tribal dances and ending with the blues, rock and roll and hip hop. Of the two, it is understandable why the more primal speaks to more of us and is easier to enjoy. It comes from a deep and innate part of us all, and brings us together in a kind of reawakening of our natural togetherness and unity, while at the same time allowing us to let go of social conventions and conformity, the very things which classical music personify, and why classical is more of an acquired and socially conditioned taste.

[A Thing of Eternity]

Not sure what to make of this... it's definitely one of the most complex if not THE most complex in one specific way, but no it's not in any way more technical to play than Jazz or Indian Classical for example... amongst many other genres.There are many many genres that have pushed technical playing to the limits of human capability.

It's only the most complex in terms of stacking melodies and harmonies - from a purely melodic point of view classical Indian is FAR more complex (FAR) and from a rhythmic point of view there are numerous styles that are more complex, some from parts of Africa emply rhythms so far beyond those used in classical that it's almost silly to compare them.

Am I just arguing with a spammer? EDIT: Nope, your other post is Dune related in a very whacky way...

ANYWAYS my point was that of the three styles of guitar (not styles of PLAYING guitar, styles of guitars themselves) classical accoustic is in my opinion the easiest to play for a beginner, though electric is damned close.

[Crysknife]

I learned on an acoustic. Then I played electric and I was Fucking pissed that I had ever wasted my time with the acoustic. But i would still recommend learning on both at the same time. The acoustic will condition you and break in your fingers and give you strength.

[MetaCugel8262]

You have in some ways only affirmed my original point. Yes, Indian music such as sitar music, is the most complex and difficult to play...and it is also a perfect synthesis of the two polar aspects of music...technique and rules, combined with free flowing rythmn. This would make perfect sense, for not only is India the most ancient culture on earth, but it is the birth of the only religious systems and philosophies that are perfectly condusive and in line with modern quantum physics. Hinduism combines and unites polytheism and monotheism, they exist side by side, yet there is no contradiction, for all is Brahman...the many and the One. Whereas rythmic music is rooted in strict polytheism, and classical music is rooted in strict monotheism.

[Crysknife]

BTW, I can make you an electric two string slide CBG for $60.00 plus shipping

[MetaCugel8262]

Why would you think I'm a spammer? I don't get that one at all. Because you didn't like what I wrote?

[Crysknife]

You have in some ways only affirmed my original point. Yes, Indian music such as sitar music, is the most complex and difficult to play...and it is also a perfect synthesis of the two polar aspects of music...technique and rules, combined with free flowing rythmn. This would make perfect sense, for not only is India the most ancient culture on earth, but it is the birth of the only religious systems and philosophies that are perfectly condusive and in line with modern quantum physics. Hinduism combines and unites polytheism and monotheism, they exist side by side, yet there is no contradiction, for all is Brahman...the many and the One. Whereas rythmic music is rooted in strict polytheism, and classical music is rooted in strict monotheism.

RHN, is that u?

[MetaCugel8262]

I think it time for many of us to admit our roots are not in any way singular. It is almost certain that if you are African American or Native American, you carry within you a certain percentage of the European lines, and if you are from old European lines you are likely to have a least a small amount of Native American(like myself). And from a cultural point of view, that and it's American cousin, are the foundation of us all. We are what we are, admit it and move on, because without it, whatever the tragedies involved, none of us would be here now.