First Guitar -Acoustic or Electric By Jake Lenhart

Every day I hear at least once from a well-meaning parent, “My child’s just starting, so we’re only interested in acoustics. It’s best to start on an acoustic.” I’m not certain where this conventional wisdom comes from, but it seems fairly wide-spread among those who are not professional guitar instructors. Few of the professional guitar teachers I talk to agree that it’s that simple.

There are advantages and disadvantages to starting on either an acoustic or an electric guitar. The two advantages I often hear cited as the reasons one must start on an acoustic guitar are: you’ll toughen up your calluses better making it easier to play electric guitar once you switch over, and electric guitars are too complicated.

Acoustic guitars will toughen up your calluses better, because they are physically more difficult to play. The string tension is higher on acoustic guitars than it is on electric guitars, meaning when you press a note with fingers that haven’t developed calluses yet, acoustic guitars hurt more!

We do have students quit shortly after starting because they weren’t prepared for guitar-playing to be physically painful. The pain is something all novice guitar players have to work through until they’ve built up their calluses. It’s a much less painful process on an electric guitar than on an acoustic guitar, and the calluses one develops on an electric guitar are sufficient to painlessly switch to an acoustic guitar later if you want.

As for electric guitars’ complexity, yes there are some knobs and switches on electric guitars that aren’t on acoustic guitars. But if we’re talking about kids, they can all seem to handle video games just fine, and those are significantly more complex than are electric guitars.

So what are the real advantages of each? For acoustics, they’re more portable, they weigh less, and all you really need is the guitar. With the disadvantage that they’re physically more challenging to play and they’re more limited in the styles of contemporary music they can play.

For electrics, they’re physically easier to play and they’re more musically versatile, with the disadvantage that you need an amplifier and an electrical outlet.

I also hear daily from well-meaning parents. “He wants to be playing electric. But we’re going to start him on acoustic. If he sticks with it, we’ll get him the electric he really wants.” As a parent myself, I understand how we need to use both carrots and sticks to motivate our children. In my experience, though, this particular carrot isn’t an effective one. If your child doesn’t like acoustic guitar, he won’t stick with it long enough to earn his electric guitar. “Sticking with it” in adult language often means six months to two years, which to a kid who can’t see past next week, is an eternity.

So which is best, acoustic or electric? Simple. Which one does the student want to play more? Which one are they going to pick up and practice every day because they like it more? That’s the right one.