Do you practice on an acoustic?
- Thread starter newpedals
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I play both acoustic and electric casually, but for me practice is closely related to live performance. If I’m preparing for some live performance, I’ll practice on the guitar I’ll use live. I’m not a full time musician and am really slow at adapting and code switching to a different instrument. It’s a limitation but I’ve accepted and learned to work with my limitations, instead of fighting against them.
For some spontaneous noodling, or in the early stages of preparing for performing, I’ll sometimes pick up an acoustic, a steel or a nylon string, to work out melody or chords that will ultimately be performed on electric.
I recently did a live “Beatles Suite” on an electric, amped with pedals. Afterwards, I thought it’d be fun to play the suite on acoustic, maybe at an open mic, so changed some of parts to suit the different feel and acoustic tone.
Beside solo guitar performance, which I do 2-3 times s year, my main musical activity is performing at open jazz jam sessions at a variety of local venues that hold them on a regular basis. For those, I play an archtop, which sounds lovely acoustically. I won’t practice with an amp, since all the venues have backlines and I simply plug and play.
It’s a happy medium, I suppose, where I can practice acoustically but can perform electrically on the same guitar. That works best for jazz. But for doing the solo guitar performances I’ll use a solid with pedals, and the practice tone matters a lot more.
For some spontaneous noodling, or in the early stages of preparing for performing, I’ll sometimes pick up an acoustic, a steel or a nylon string, to work out melody or chords that will ultimately be performed on electric.
I recently did a live “Beatles Suite” on an electric, amped with pedals. Afterwards, I thought it’d be fun to play the suite on acoustic, maybe at an open mic, so changed some of parts to suit the different feel and acoustic tone.
Beside solo guitar performance, which I do 2-3 times s year, my main musical activity is performing at open jazz jam sessions at a variety of local venues that hold them on a regular basis. For those, I play an archtop, which sounds lovely acoustically. I won’t practice with an amp, since all the venues have backlines and I simply plug and play.
It’s a happy medium, I suppose, where I can practice acoustically but can perform electrically on the same guitar. That works best for jazz. But for doing the solo guitar performances I’ll use a solid with pedals, and the practice tone matters a lot more.
