Play acoustic guitar for any song?

Can I play an acoustic guitar for any song? I see that the instructors have electric guitars for some of the songs that I am trying to learn and want to make sure I should still be llearning them or if I should try others.

Hi Mark

Yes you can and I believe the greatest benefit will come by learning to play songs important to you with the instrument at hand.

Good luck

Originally Posted by: markrb

Can I play an acoustic guitar for any song? I see that the instructors have electric guitars for some of the songs that I am trying to learn and want to make sure I should still be llearning them or if I should try others.

Hey Mark -- you will of course run into limitations if you only have an acoustic. Some of the limitations are:

1 - Unless your acoustic has a cutaway it'll be tough to play anything above the 12th fret or so.

2 - Acoustic strings are heavier and harder to bend, so you might not be able to play solos with bending very easily, depending on the material. In general acoustic guitars are harder to play than electrics. The action is often much higher and harder to press down.

3 - You won't get the same tones an electric guitar has. For example, distortion.

Acoustic is totally fine for learning most basic rhythm guitar playing and open chords, but you'll eventually hit walls if trying to play songs meant for electric. Always good to learn a bit of both! Opens up more possibilities...

-Carl.