Guitars One for Each Style
Guitar players cover a number of styles of music, from blues to jazz
to rock to pop to speed metal and on and on. And since every style
of music is different and every guitar is different, it would then
seem a natural conclusion that each style of music is going to have
a guitar that is more suited for that style. So, the question, for
those who are considering taking up the guitar and getting their first
one is, what guitar do you get? If you're interested in jazz do you
get the same kind of guitar as somebody who wants to play speed metal?
Well, it might be an interesting experiment, but most likely the answer
would be, no. So, what guitar should each person get, depending on
what kind of music they want to play? Hopefully this article will
try to answer that question.
Music is very diverse to say the least. Even within
each style there are variations. For example, in rock there is hard
rock, soft rock, metal, acid and a host of other sub categories. The
sounds and more specifically, the dynamics of each are quite different.
While The Eagles and the Allman Brothers might both be considered
country or southern rock, depending on which side of the fence you're
on, their sounds are quite different. So without nitpicking we're
going to take the broad approach over the specific.
If you're going to play music that is relatively soft
such as folk music, you probably don't want to get yourself a Rickenbacker
electric guitar. Most likely you'll want an acoustic guitar with a
nice mellow and round tone. Why acoustic? Well, by the nature of the
guitar itself it's a lot softer. Sure, you can turn down an electric
guitar's volume but it's more than just that. Acoustic guitars are
much easier to control dynamics on. The reason is because the sound
is not artificially amplified. If you pluck the string softly you're
going to get a soft tone. If you pluck it harder, you'll get a louder
tone. Of course an acoustic guitar is never going to get up to the
volume of an electric unless you mic it.
On the other side of the spectrum, if you're going
to be playing in a heavy metal band, your acoustic guitar, with all
the other instruments playing, such as keyboards, bass and drums,
won't even be heard. Plus the tone quality of the guitar itself just
won't fit into that kind of music. By their nature, electric guitars
have a sharper and harder sound. Add distortion effects to them, which
are hard to do with acoustics and you've got a sound that is quite
unique. That's why there are so many different electric guitar sounds.
Obviously, this is a very general overview of style
to guitar choice. You can get a lot more specific, such as what type
of acoustic do you get if you're a country guitar player as opposed
to somebody who plays jazz? John Denver based on lot of his patented
sound on 12 string guitars while Harry Chapin stayed more with the
traditional 6 strong acoustic.
Maybe for a future article we'll dive more deeply
into the finer points of picking a guitar based on the style of music
you play.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Guitars
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell
