I think the acoustic guitar has a bit of a bad rep and hopefully, this will fix that as well as get some more people interested in the acoustic guitar again. One of the reasons for this is probably because often the acoustic is your first guitar that you learn on, and just a stepping-stone to the electric guitar and all its amplified glory. Another reason might be that when you tell anyone you play acoustic they immediately picture you playing in front of a campfire. There are a number of advantages of playing acoustic guitar. It has quite a few advantages over it’s closely related electric guitar.

Let’s examine a few of these advantages:

You don’t need an amp

Okay so this is obvious, but one of the greatest things about playing acoustic guitar is you can take it anywhere and play. You don’t need to bring that heavy amp and all those cables, you just whip the acoustic out and you’re ready to jam, most even have built-in tuners so you don’t even have to carry a tuner with you.

Fingerpicking

This is one of the best techniques you could ever learn, and it just sounds that much better on an acoustic. Fingerpicking is such a diverse way to play your guitar; it can be soft and gentle or hard and abrasive, quiet or loud, Beethoven or Metallica’s ‘Nothing Else Matters’. Here is an example of fingerpicking: click here.

It will make you a better guitarist

This is true, because if you have ever played an acoustic and electric right after each other you will notice that the acoustic is a harder instrument to play. The strings are thicker and harder to press and your fingers get tired quicker because you have to physically play harder. Your mistakes are also heard more clearly because the true sound isn’t hiding behind distortion, delay and reverb. This means your technique has to be better and cleaner. When you do play an electric guitar you will have more control and have better technique, playing faster and clearer.

There are even a number of things you can try on acoustic that you wouldn’t normally try on your electric guitar.

Different tunings

Using different tunings is far more common on acoustic guitars than electric guitars, mostly because these tunings lend themselves more to strumming and a fingerpicking style of playing. A great tuning to try is D – A – D – G – A – D, or any open tuning like open E or open G.

Capo

Using a capo on an acoustic can be just as experimental as different tunings because you can now use open chords that you could never use before.

Here is an example of using different tunings and a capo: click here.

Slide

I always recommend that people try playing slide on acoustic before trying it on electric. The higher action on acoustics makes it easier to slide and you can hear if your technique needs work a lot easier than if it was through an amp and effects.

So I hope this restores some faith in the acoustic guitar and you put down your electric guitar every now and then and pick up the trusty old acoustic.

Finally, here is a video of one of the most innovative acoustic players in the world: click here.