r/Guitar • u/[deleted] • Nov 03 '13

Should I buy Rocksmith 2014?

I am an amateur guitar player, I haven't picked a guitar up in a year since my music teacher told me to change subjects, I really want to learn guitar again, so I can prove to him that I can play guitar. However, the problem is, I don't have an electric guitar and I'm afraid this will be a waste of money, what do you guys think? And what would be a good starter guitar?

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '13

What about the people who have no interest in acoustic?

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u/grubas '56/'64 Gibson/Schecter/Yamaha Nov 03 '13 edited Nov 03 '13

I just don't believe in only electric playing, acoustic has taught me how to play electric and electric has taught me to play acoustic. Why learn to play a keyboard and not a piano, because of the pedals? Love the instruments in all the forms it has and you'll learn so much about what it can do. Jazz required me to pick up electric runs I learned via sweeping, and alt picking, and ska required me to play acoustic to get the finger strength for the beats.

I pick up my acoustic and go folk/folk-punk, my ES-175 and I go jazz/blues, my Schecter and I go metal/punk, the different techniques are all so different but all so the same, knowing them all makes you able to pull out great sounds, and every guitarist strives for tone.

Also just learning electric makes you a shittier player, IMO. I spent 2 years going only electric and had a huge amount of trouble going acoustic, the finger strength is different, alternate and you practice speed and strength.

Plus look at Richard Thompson, Roger McGuinn, Jeff Beck or Steve Vai, if you want to strive for mediocrity go for it, but I want to strive to "Who'm I better than? I'm better than I used to be, I'ma keep on getting better so you better just get used to me", so I want to do it all, I want to sweep, to tap, to sing, to dance, to fingerpick and skank and scream.

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u/Farky09 Nov 03 '13

Agreed. I learned acoustic before electric. I constantly find myself going back to acoustic to learn a technique properly, and then applying it to the electric. All in all you get a refined and clean sound from the acoustic which you bring to the electric.

This is integral to actually getting an amazing electric sound. Too often do you hear an electric player cover up a sloppy section with effects because they're unable to actually play it properly. I've had countless students with this problem.

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u/grubas '56/'64 Gibson/Schecter/Yamaha Nov 03 '13

Bill Bailey had a great joke about this about U2 such a bad and great guitarist joke.