Transition: Acoustic to Electric

[kidsmoke]

Did anyone else here begin there guitar journey on acoustic, then start electric - years - later?

When I struggle with dexterity related issues, I wonder what I can blame it on, and this reason is in my top two - the other being that I'm a lefty who plays righty. I'm fully cognizant that neither really holds water as a justification for my failure to evolve as quickly as I'd like.

My frustration now is right handed. I feel like my left hand learns its parts fast. But the right hand still struggles with up down picking of individual notes,(quickly, alternating strings) and I want to say that I never had to develop that as an acoustic strummer, then I watch an Andy Falco video and realize that's ALL that bluegrass is.

This is probably the thing that, when it happens, when my brain finally says, ok ok, I'll let you have it..... it's going to be huge. something like :happy

Anyone else's experience similar? How did you "push the envelope"?

[Jx2]

I first owned a electric but never learned much. Started learning alot on a acoustic, but I had traded for a electric shortly after. So to me there really was never a transition from one to the other. To me a acoustic isnt harder to play unless you try shredding on it.

As for you question in general, I think it comes down to the old saying. "Practice, practice, practice" and you cant pull a Allen Iverson here.

[t_ross33]

I learned to play on an acoustic first. To top it off, my "instrument of choice" for a great number of years was bass. I didn't even own an electric 6-string until about 5 years ago.

I'm now a pretty devoted guitar slinger... all I can say is practice, but most of all enjoy the time spent with your guitar. Take some lessons... it really helped me get a grasp on lead technique (of which I am still very much a novice).

Keep on rockin' in the free world! :rockya

[markb]

This left handed thing is all a bit odd imo. When we learn a complete new set of motor skills like playing the guitar we are equally incompetent with both hands (ambisinistrous, perhaps?). Choosing to play left handed just means you have no access to 99% of the world's instruments and you can more or less forget buying used.
Think about it, when did you ever see a left handed piano? :)

Playing nothing but acoustic for a while will help build hand strength and speed. Once you get back to those skinny electric strings you just fly. I find it also makes you listen to the way you're striking the strings when your tone really is all in the fingers.

FWIW I started with an electric guitar.

[Heywood Jablomie]

I've dealt with the same thing since three years ago when I got an electric after more than thirty years of not having one. I discovered that the best thing I could do was to pretty much ignore which type of guitar I was playing, and just concentrate on the playing itself.

[sumitomo]

Tio I'm a lefty plays righty and I know all about the right hand not moving like you want it to,I sometimes just lay on the couch watchin TV just pickin down up,up down,1 hit 2 hit 3 hit more ect.Get your hands on it! Sumi:D

[6stringdrug]

I also play righty even though I am lefty by nature. That has nothing to do with how I play. I started on electric when I was 12, quit quick when I couldn't learn randy rhoads parts in a couple weeks! A few years later i picked up an acoustic and pretty much all i played for about 18 years. when I decided to start playing electric again, there was definitley a learning curve. As you said, it was mostly with the picking hand. Acoustic parts are ususally fuller chords and not individual notes, even the lead lines tend to be more strummy (?). I spent weeks relearning my right hand technique trying to get "cleaner" on the strings. I had to play with a pick, something I have never done on acoustic, to accomplish that. With the strings amplified I started hearing the flaws in my technique that were just not audible or even really mistakes on the acoustic, even when I was plugged in or miked. It was a trying process but well worth it for me, because I play mostly acoustic and more than 1/2 my gigs are acoustic, I have exploded on my acoustic guitar! I spend 1-2 hours every day on each guitar and through that practice keep getting better at both. I have the most fun moving the same song from one instrument to the next, imagine crazy train on a mandolin!! I guess the point of my ramble is to say, I hear where you're comin from and practice will eventually solve the issue for you.

[markb]

imagine crazy train on a mandolin!!

sMrAbPSUhA4

Who needs imagination when you've got YouTube:)

[kidsmoke]

Thanks for the feedback folks. For sure, practice is the cure, but there can still be a method to it, and I'm open to suggestions. Thought perhaps one of you has been on the giving or receiving side of some

I've found a couple of blues licks and patterns that lend themselves to the right hand skill i NEED, but man, it is s - l - o - w in coming....


:beer:

[sunvalleylaw]

I started acoustic too, but not by too much. My first instructor was very acoustic/folk oriented though, so no matter what guitar I was playing, my right hand was basically just folk strumming, so I get what you are saying. Since then, with another instructor, I had to learn some bluegrass (also acoustic, just using it differently). That really helped my right hand and rhythm and picking. Check out Billy in the Low Ground, and Red Haired Boy here:

http://www.bluegrassguitar.com/top10.php

You need to download a little plug in to work the music, but it the site has good info.

They are good basic ones to learn, (with a metronome and discipline on picking down on down beats, up on up beats, and keeping it in time). It helps!

[Eric]

Hi Tio,

I was exclusively acoustic for my first 13 years of playing, and never had much intention of going electric. Obviously, things have changed, but I get what you're saying about the transition.

I know it's annoying to hear, but the only thing that has helped me (and I get the sense I'm not too far ahead of you, actually) is just playing and playing and playing some more. Not even practice necessarily, but just playing the guitar and pushing what you can do (e.g. don't just strum full chords and do things you already know).

As much as it seems like acoustic players are behind the learning curve on electric, what I've found is that acoustic has helped my rhythm sense immensely when it comes to electric guitar, and that when I don't play acoustic, my strumming goes downhill in a hurry or at least becomes a lot choppier. I'm actually trying to get back to the acoustic a little more so that I don't lose those valuable skills.

Regardless, keep on chipping away at it. I'm never going to learn electric at the pace of a 13-year-old at this point in my life, but I guess I'm OK with that.

[wingsdad]

Thanks for the feedback folks. For sure, practice is the cure, but there can still be a method to it, and I'm open to suggestions. Thought perhaps one of you has been on the giving or receiving side of some

I've found a couple of blues licks and patterns that lend themselves to the right hand skill i NEED, but man, it is s - l - o - w in coming....

Tio,
As one who returned to electric after learning on it but leaving it for several years, and who since then has played both about 50/50, here's 2 suggestions I can offer:
1) I see from your sig that you, like I, have an Ovation Celebrity. While most acoustic pickers swear by stringing with 12-56, a Celebrity favors 10-47. My CS257 has always 'felt' more like an electric with its slim, 'v-shaped' neck. Because I string all my electric 6's with 10-46, I found/find that I canplay/ practice at will on the Celebrity and the transition to the electric is virtually seamless.

2) If you prefer practicing licks as a method, then here's a book/cd combo I picked up to learn a few tricks myself when I went back to electric after my 5-year vacation from it ...The link to the book is on Amazon, so find your way to the Table of Contents and you'll see the variety of styles covered:
The Guitar Lick*Tionary (http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Lick%C2%A5tionary-Dave-Hill/dp/0634014714/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288014643&sr=1-1#_)

[sumitomo]

Keep your hands on it!!! It will come.Sumi:D