TOP 10 GUITAR LESSONS MYTHS #3 | I Must Learn Acoustic before Electric | FALSE!

TOP 10 GUITAR LESSONS MYTHS #3 | “In order to learn electric guitar, I must first learn to play Acoustic guitar.” — FALSE!

I really don’t know who came up with this: maybe the outlaw devil music Wing of some fundamentalist church or classical conservatories stuck in the 19th century,  to steer people away from steel string guitar thereby not bastardizing nylon string I really don’t know.

But as you can see in the link to the Eddie Van Halen article I’ve included here, this is probably the dumbest thing in guitar lessons I’ve ever heard of.  You can start to appreciate the absurdity of this by putting blanks in that sentence and replacing guitar with other instruments:

“In order to play the saxophone I must first learn the Tuba. “

Well ummm… they’re both wind instruments, I’ll give them that so you do blow on them and so forth but I would think they’re going to diverge pretty quickly and so too is electric and acoustic guitar.  Yes they have similarities and I play both as many musicians to do, but that doesn’t mean that you should be browbeat into substituting one for the other just because someone doesn’t want to teach you hard rock and heavy metal.  Which let’s be honest: that’s usually what it’s all about: steering students away from that evil devil music right?!?!   Yes, you have Metallica and the Scorpions playing with classical symphonies now but at the local guitar lessons studio level, you STILL hear this… in the 21st century!  So what does Eddie Van Halen – one of the greatest musicians ever to pick up an electric guitar say:

“If you’re going to learn to play lead, get an electric guitar… Acoustic guitars aren’t good for learning lead, because you can’t play up very high on the neck and they take heavier-gauge strings, which makes it hard to bend notes.” — EDDIE VAN HALEN

I really can’t put it any simpler than that on and this is usually the direction of the Senetece:  you don’t really hear metal players trying to talk people out of playing acoustic; always the other way around!  I’m not sure where this guitar lessons urban legend started but I think we all have an idea here.  Certain techniques many of which are outlined in my video so please watch it… they just don’t translate from one instrument to the other, acoustic versus electric they have some similarity and it’s great play both.  But the best way to become a great electric player is to spend your time on electric; the best way to become a great acoustic player is to spend your time on acoustic.

Would you tell someone that was trying out for the Olympics for 400 meter sprint  that what they really should  do is spend their time in the gym power lifting  or running marathons all the time instead of running 400 m sprints?!?!   This is so obvious when you take it out of the guitar context that we’re so used to hearing.  Don’t be beat over the head with that.   Like the US Constitution says: “we hold these truths to be self evident.”And so my advice to all aspiring guitar players when you go to guitar lessons : do not be talked out of playing the instrument you want to play if someone tells you to play something else walk out and find somebody who will teach you what you want to know.

Play it your way.

The Cypher way.

Rock on.

Jimmy Cypher out!