My playing and listening preferences have shifted massively over the last year or two. It's mainly acoustic music that I both listen to and play now. My electrics are great but are gathering dust. I'm almost 35 and have been a rabid electric lead player for 20 years (always did fingerstyle in the background but it was a back seat thing) so it's a hell of a change.
Not that I'd sell my electrics (despite lack of use recently, they are great electrics... And only two) but just wondered if anybody here has actually gone completely to the hollow side and has acoustics only?
I just can't get satisfaction from playing electric rhythm / lead when I need a band for the end product. I don't see the point anymore. With acoustic, I AM the band.
I'm finding it all so satisfying and a breath of fresh air. New techniques. Whole songs I can sing to (folk have preferred me playing acoustic as opposed to electric solos if they've been over) - just brilliant, really.
Heard Bert Jansch's version of "wild mountain thyme" yesterday and learned it by ear in a night, I was intent on getting it down. Celtic / traditional stuff I want to play. New artists for me like Stephen Wake, John Renbourn, Steve Tilston etc.
I'm loving it!
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On the electric side, I’ve been playing in the same covers band for 9 years, so I still play electric, but acoustic is where my heart lies.
The really great thing is that I spend much much more time playing now, than GASing:)
Then after moving to a different part of the country I met a guy who invited me to go along to an acoustic music session - mainly Americana stuff. I went along to listen but knew I couldn't play acoustic to their standard.
My missus encouraged me to go but, despite trying, I just couldn't play the Yammy to anything like the level of my electric playing. Perhaps if I had a better guitar? So my lovely missus, bless her, bought me a stunning Atkin guitar - telling me I now had no excuse!
It was so much easier to play the Atkin so I played it (finger style) a lot, went to that session and to others while getting better all the time. I now play acoustic at least as much as electric and really enjoy it.
Honestly it's like the electric stuff is a part of a previous life or something - I could move on from it completely (or that's how I feel right now).
Interestingly, I haven't been to many acoustic nights....! That is lovely of your wife @Jimbro66 !
@Andy79 we have a winner - no electrics!
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tbh I rarely like hearing other people playing electric-phrased solos on acoustics
It's great that 2 versions of the same basic instrument can have such widely different sounds and playing styles available
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IMO, playing acoustic guitar is a very satisfying way to play the guitar in a solo context. The acoustic guitar has more of a historical context for either occupy a singer or a solo instrument.
For a few years, I don't think I touched an electric guitar in the slightest bit in those times but I still had a few different types of guitar to keep me interested which were 6 & 12 string acoustic guitars, and flamenco as well.
In that time I was listening to a lot of acoustic guitar players in the 'primitive' genre (eg John Fahey) but over the last few years I've come across a solo players who play a similar style of music but with an electric guitar which inspired me to pick up the electric guitar again. IMO, the form of the guitar doesn't really matter, the only thing that matters is whether you're enjoying it at the time.
I think a lot of this goes back to when I was writing songs and being more interested in the whole piece of music rather just concentrating on stuff like guitar solos. Not that there is anything wrong with a good solo : >
Just listening to John Smith - great stuff!! Feel free to post stuff in here... I will!!
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Clive Carroll - Eliza's Eyes.
Stephen Wake - all his "loch" tunes and "Sleeping Tune"
John Renbourn - Lady Goes to Church.
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For simple noodling/riffing, I'll pick up an electric and plug it through my (recently acquired) ThorpyFX Gunshot, and enjoy 20mins of sub AC/DC, sub-sub ZZTop riffery.
No real end-product, and I'll generally get cries of "turn it down a bit" from Mrs TT.
But, for learning to play recognisable songs, it's acoustic every time. That probably started alongside my singing lessons - sorry, vocal coaching course - that I started a year or so ago. TBH, the backing tracks were pretty naff. so I started playing along with the singing along. Plus, it felt more comfortable standing in front of a mic with a guitar round my neck than without.
First one I did - publicly - was Behind Blue Eyes, which was fun and gave me the encouragement to do more. Neil Young, Eagles, Dire Straits, RHCP, Beatles, Clapton ... there's so much that you can do with just a voice and an acoustic guitar. No drummer required
And the wife never says "turn it down a bit" either!
I bought a box set of his early stuff (from Cherry Red) a couple of weeks ago.
6CDs, £24. Brilliant stuff.
I was in a couple of bands that didn't go anywhere much, really. One fizzled out and I was dumped from the other because they wanted to split any money four ways instead of five. (They only lasted another six months, so serves them right.)
I tried to get into others playing bass, but I found the pressure of looking after my Other Half, trying to work around that care AND learning enough songs to be in a gigging band simply impossible to manage. So I simply stopped playing for ages.
Then for reasons I don't quite get I found myself playing my acoustics a bit more often. Then I started looking for a folk-based singaround type thing. I went to a couple, wasn't impressed and then tried just the one more and loved it. Once a month (this coming Monday for this month), we get together and play all sorts of stuff. We go round the room once each, have a break and then do it again. I've heard everything from Corey Musgrave songs to Tom Waits to Turkish traditional music to Irish and Scottish folk songs, to the Beautiful South and Nick Drake and Jackson Brown and a bunch of others I've never heard of. I've found myself playing songs by 10cc, Richard Thompson, Richard Hawley, the Jacksons, Graham Parker, Ian Dury, James Taylor, Dylan, the Barenaked Ladies, the Kinks and other stuff besides.
And yes, a man who has been told 1000 times he can't sing is singing. A man who once was completely unable to breathe whilst playing (seriously) is now singing and playing, and in front of people, too.
Several things have done this for me. First, that I only need to learn two songs a month and I can promptly forget them has reduced the pressure to get a set list down pat enormously. However, that has been replaced with a new pressure, to find a song that I can do a reasonable justice to on a single acoustic guitar with just chords that is in my (bass) range as a singer. It's enormously satisfying when I succeed.
Second, the room is really supportive and friendly, but in a genuine way, and there are some seriously good musos in there who write their own stuff and do a bloody good job of it.
Third, as you can see from above, the range of music being played is about as wide as it gets, which means there's no restriction on what I can look for. In fact, the wider the taste the better, it seems.
And I'm really enjoying just banging out some chords and singing along, something I genuinely never thought I'd be able to do.
I'd still love to get up on a stage and make some proper noise with a band giving it large together, but for now I'm more than happy right where I am, thanks, just like you. (Though not nearly as well as you, obviously. And no, that's not false modesty, I've seen you play, kiddo. Gasfest 2003, was it?)