Which guitar should I learn how to play?

iceblue2011: Which guitar should I learn how to play?
I already know how to play the Alto and Tenor saxophones and I want to learn how to play the guitar. Which one should I choose: ACOUSTIC, ELECTRIC, OR BASS. Im kind of leaning towards the Bass. Also whats the differences between the Bass and Electric guitars.

Answers and Views:

Answer by #R#
Accoustic

Answer by Remi K
learn the acoustic then go to electric or bass

Answer by jonnyblanch
i play alto sax. i say bass…its great because it makes songs have a “feeling”…you can feel the bass

Answer by CarKing1982
I would Choose the ACOUSTIC because that’s what I learned to play on and then you can go and play the electric,or bass.

Answer by confused
You need to start out with an Acoustic that way you can sort of learn your way through and know what you’re doing..plus they are alot cheaper and are good if you’re a beginner..then you can move on to the electric or bass. good luck!

Answer by beautifulybroken
bass has 4 strings electric has six strings. go with bass if thats what you feel like.

Answer by Haha, no I’m not Jesus
I would say acoustic, because it’s a little harder to play and if you then after some time go to electric it will be easyer for you 🙂

Answer by watchmyself
If you’re lookin’ for ease and a confidence booster, then learn on electric usin’ a distortion pedal. It’ll make it so you won’t be able to hear some of the minor mistakes you make and will sound good. But then when you switch to acoustic, it’ll seem like you aren’t as good as you thought and will hafta do some more learnin’.

If you’re lookin’ to learn all the bits and pieces and perfect those, then start on acoustic and go from there. It’s a lil tougher, but once you can play that, you can play anything (including bass).

Answer by DivaStar291
The Bass! Acoustic is pretty bomb but when I listen to music, I love to listen to the bass guitar, it really gives the song so much more!!! But the electric guitar is the one that people will know. If you play part of a song with the bass, people probably won’t know what song it is, but with the electric, everyone will know. The electric is also the main part of the song. So if you want to be the center of attention, I guess you should go with the electric. But I’d chose Bass!!!

Answer by jaymes_07
A bass is just that, a bass instrument, it has 4 or 5 stings and is not played like a traditional guitar in that you are strumming it. Bass guitars are played with your fingers, usually not a pick.

I would start with an acoustic. When you buy a bass or electric you have to buy cords, amps, ect which cost even more money, not something you want to do if you aren’t 100% sure you will enjoy playing. An acoustic is also a little tougher to play, which is actually a good thing, you will build finger strength and be able to get a feel for the instrument and how its played. With an electric you might be tempted to try things like looping pedals or effects when you aren’t ready for that yet.

Go with an acoustic guitar, you can get a decent one for under $ 300 and its something you can pick up and play whenever you want, no plugging it in.

Answer by Zach B
both instraments are easy to pick up and play but both are hard to master. it really depends on the music you listen to…i listen to alot of metal so i choose guitar becuase all really bass does in metal is back up the guitar. bass usually helps keep the band in sync

Answer by Kevin
It really depends on what you want to learn, but for beginners I really recommend the Acoustic guitar. They are cheaper, in case you are just seeing if you really want to play it or enjoy it, and they are the easiest to learn. Electric, is probably the same thing as Acoustic, except it is more for Rock and Blues music. Acoustic guitar is more like Rock, Pop, etc. Acoustic is easier because you just need to learn to tune it, change guitar strings, and play it. But Electric you need to know how to tune, change strings (dfiferent from acoustic), arrange the pegs (Like the pick-ups and tone/volume controls), and plug it into amp (you need an amp for Electric, which adds a bit of extra money). So I recommend playing the Acoustic first, and if you like it you can go into Electric, because it is easier if you start with the basics and then go into the advanced things and everything would be so much easier.

Bass and Electric, have many differences. First of all the bass have 4 strings and electric has 6 and people usually use picks to play electric, but you use your fingers for the bass, this sounds weird, but it is true, people usually slap the bass or pick it. The electric plays with part of the song while the bass is kind of doing some background plucking or slapping. It just adds some rhythm into the music and keeps the music in track kind of like the drummers do. The bass can be used for many different things, but this is probably the main. It is just a simple background bassline that keeps everything in track and it also kind of works with the drums to keep the rhythm flowing. It also helps hold down ending chords in a track while Electric plays part of the melody. And plus, bass has a lower/deeper sound than electric.

But if you want it to go your way, you can stop by a local guitar shop (I recommend Guitar Center) and then try out all three, see which one you like the sound of best.

Good Luck with everything!
Kevin

P.S. If you need anymore help feel free to message me.

Answer by Chris F
I think this totally depends on what style you plan on playing and whether you want to play with others or not.

Acoustics and electrics are great for playing solo whereas bass is often used to accompany others. I don’t know what genre of music you play on saxophone but most of it can be composed with some effort on to electric and acoustic and will usually sounds more complete than on bass.

But if your already leaning towards bass by all means go for it it’s not to hard to switch over to another type guitar if you ever decide to.

As for major differences the thicker bass strings give it a lower tone but as for tunings, the base has the same tuning as the first four bass strings on a acoustic their fairly easily inter changeable.

Hope this helped, Good luck!!

Answer by ♫music rox♫
definitely acoustic

Answer by koi
acoustic and electric are played the same way and bass is basicly the same but easier. i suggest electric because you can do more with it

Answer by guitarflex001
There are a lot of new guitar players that wonder which guitar they should choose to learn on. I recommend you start off with an acoustic guitar. An acoustic guitar, in my opinion, is better for beginners.

An acoustic guitar generally has a stiffer action, meaning the strings are a little bit tougher to press down against the frets.
That makes it good for beginners, because it will build up your hand strength as soon as you start playing.

With electric guitars, they tend to have the problem of masking mistakes with feedback or other noises. Acoustic guitars offer a more clear sound, and you can more clearly hear any mistakes that you might make. I also think most of the songs that are played on an electric guitar still sound great on an acoustic guitar.

Regardless of which guitar you choose to start with, have fun, be patient and practice. Don’t forget to have a guitar guide that makes learning fun and easy too.

Good Luck!

Answer by pooryorrick
Hi Iceblue. If your leaning towards learning the bass, by all means.. thats the one you should learn. Time and time again ive seen where someone is forced to learn or chooses an instrument because someone else said they should learn it… then all it does is sit and collect dust.

Ok.. the differences between them. Well, guitars are more oriented towards playing chords and leads… where bass pretty much is the foundation of music along with the drums.
On a 4 string bass, the strings are tuned the same as the top 4 on a guitar, one octave lower. Top to bottom.. E,A,D,G. While guitar is primarily 6,7 or 12 strings….bass comes in 4,5,6,7,8,9… and ive seen a couple of 11 string basses in my lifetime. Necks on those things are like trying to play a telephone pole! If you do choose bass, I always recomend to new players to start out learning blues..with the music having a tempo of 60-70 beats per minute. A few reasons behind this….. not to fast… you can hear everything thats going on in the music, as well as yourself playing too if your playing along with it. Also, blues bass has some very strong fundamental playing, with a lot of runs and walking bass lines around the blues scale. I find for a new player to the instrument this works out better than trying to learn songs with a much faster tempo… harder to hear whats going on as a whole that way. After you’ve played for a while learning the blues, its much easier to progress to other styles of music, as the fundaments have been laid down.

Hopefully you have a pretty good ear by now…and if so.. bass should come relatively easy. While im a finger player, play what is comfortable to you on the bass if you choose it. A lot of people will say you HAVE to play with your fingers. Paul McCartney and Chris Squire from Yes,… right there are 2 of the greats in bass playing.. and they are primarily pick players. Another thing too.. most people can list a ton of great guitar players.. but when it comes to the masters on the bass.. a lot of people get stumped. Maybe to help you decide.. listen to players like Geddy Lee from Rush, Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Victor Wooten, Stu Hamm, John Myung from Dream Theatre….along with the 2 ive already mentioned.. as its players like these that have brought the bass to the forefront, and are truly masters in their own styles of playing.

Hope this has helped… and hope you pick an instrument that you can enjoy for years to come.. and then learn even another one!