7-3-I-Search-Joshua

= Which is the better type of guitar:acoustic or electric? = by Joshua  [|Multimedia Artifact]

**Introduction**
I actually never was interested in guitars when I was just a growing boy. I always saw my dad play his acoustic guitar when he was away from working. He seemed to really like it and I always wondered what could be so fun about playing a guitar. Eventually, my sister became influenced by my dad and started to take lessons on acoustic guitar. It seemed hard for her at first since it made so many noises and was frustrating for me to read and study on my science tests. When she came home from school, the first thing she would do would be playing the acoustic guitar and practice. After months of practice she became an intermediate at playing acoustic guitar which made me feel bad, but at the same time would help me.

I then wanted to play guitar after about a year after my sister started to play guitar. Even though I could've asked my sister to teach me guitar, I didn't since I didn't want to show that I was jealous that she was better than me at playing guitar. I asked my dad what type of guitar I should learn first: electric or acoustic? He recommended that I should start out with acoustic guitar because it is like the most basic type of guitar there is. I followed his recommendations and decided to play acoustic guitar. I got my lessons at my church since it was //free.// I learned the basic chords there along with how to strum the strings. I quit eventually because I needed to learn more advanced things and stopped playing guitar for 2 months to think about what I should do. I started asking my dad to teach me how to play guitar during his free time and he agreed to teach me. I learned a lot of interesting techniques on how to play guitar. I then got a book on how to play classical guitar which was much different from just strumming all the strings at once since this book taught me how to play guitar by strumming one string at a time. After finishing half of the book, I started thinking if I should learn electric guitar.

Acoustic guitars have always interested me in the way it sounds when you strum the strings because it sounds so deep. Electric guitars got my attention because of its complex sounds and how it would always echo. I played acoustic guitar from the time I started playing guitar and I haven't regretted it but it got me wondering if I should've started with electric guitar. Would it be acoustic because it was around for about 1000 years and some of the most important people who helped shape our country played acoustic. Also, electric came out came out about 50 years ago. Most teenagers would favor electric guitars since they would be in rock bands and would prefer shredding on the guitar. I used to think ,when I was a young boy, that all kinds of guitars were stuck into one group, but now I realize that the main type of guitars nowadays are acoustic and electric. There is a big difference between an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar after seeing and comparing my acoustic guitar to my sister's electric guitar. I already know that the difference between the two groups is that the acoustic guitar is more hollow than the electric guitar and the electric guitar is heavier than the acoustic guitar. My I-search paper will help tell apart the difference between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar to finally decide which is better to play.

**Search**
I didn't know where to start at first besides looking at websites at first to find out some information for my research question. I then heard about [|YouthTwitter] after I heard Alan started a revolution in it and so, I just told myself //If Alan can do it, so can I//. I joined Youth Twitter and I was surprised at the fact that most of the posts I first saw revolved around Alan's research question. After announcing to the members of Youth Twitter my arrival, I posted my question. After a while, the responses mostly told me that it depends on your flavor, but some acoustic. I was still determined to find out which of two would be better to play.

I went back to my handy-dandy laptop and looked in Google for some websites to help tell the difference between an acoustic and an electric guitar so I can see which would be the better of the two. I found a //lot// of websites with those simple keywords. I checked some out and was rather disappointed because some only wanted me to buy the guitars. I wasn't too depressed on what I have seen as I also found some websites explaining the difference. I looked at them and saw much detail that was explained. They told me all about the good point as well as the bad points. when I compared the two, I saw that they were similar, but seeing that I was stubborn, the hunt would go on.

I needed more information and I was //desperate// for it. I now needed an interview, but who do I know knows something about guitar? I spent about 30 minutes on this question thinking of all the possible candidates. My electric guitarist friend who has been practicing guitar longer than me? He was a great choice to interview and even though we haven't talked for a long time, we were still good pals. The bad side was that he wouldn't have enough time to talk even through the telephone for couple of minutes. He had too many tutors and so, I was thinking about my sister, but only thought about it for about 10 seconds since she was almost on the same level of playing guitar as me. There was a couple of other friends, but all had some excuses and finally, when I saw my dad playing his favorite guitar, I said //no duh.// My dad was an expert at playing guitar and has been playing it for almost half his life. He was like a black belt 8th degree on it. I went up to my dad and asked if i could interview him and as always, he told me //okay//. I wrote down a couple of questions on what I should ask him that would give me the information I needed.

The first question I asked him was ,"When did you start playing guitar?" and I asked this because I also wanted to see if age affects what type of guitar you would play in the future. He told me he started playing guitar in his 20's (he forgot the specific age he started playing) and then told me that that time was around the 1970's. Next question was (no brainer) ,"Which type of guitar do you prefer, electric or acoustic guitar?" He told me electric guitar because of the size and the way it sounds. He told me that it was also good for singing or just humming because after you strike it down, the hollow hole will vibrate the sound you play which will result in a relaxing mood. After that, I asked him ,"Do you like electric guitar and explain why." He told me he really likes it because of the way the amplifier produces the sounds in a loud //voice//. I then asked him ,"What's bad about playing acoustic guitar?" since he plays it. He told me that there aren't many bad points on playing it to him, but some are that acoustic guitars can hurt your fingers when you press it and the strings may come off easily. Finally, the last question I asked him was ,"What are some well known differences between the two types?" He told me that the acoustic guitar have the big hollow hole to produce the sound that it makes while an electric guitar uses the amplifier to make the sounds. It's also known that acoustic guitars are harder to press down than electric guitars and that electric guitars are heavier than acoustic guitars even though acoustic guitars are bigger. I then thanked him for sparing 10 minutes, painstakingly, answering my questions. (Kim, David)

After using Ms.Brownstone's way of narrowing down your search on search engines, I found a lot more websites on how to do find information. I found one website telling a whole lot about what I was craving for. It told me about the good and bad points about the two types of guitar and this would help me a great deal since I was trying to find this for about an hour. I didn't think much when it came to pricing and what it would cost for equipment. It first told me about the acoustic guitar. Acoustic guitars are usually played for folk music and other relaxing types, but the truth is that it can also be used for all styles of music including heavy metal. Classical guitars are different from acoustic guitars even though the look very similar, but it has a couple of differences. Acoustic guitar strings are all made of steel, but classical guitars have 3 that are made of nylon. The neck of an acoustic guitar is longer than a classical guitar. In summary, acoustic guitars would b your best bet for classical music.(About)

Electric guitars are much more different from acoustic guitars. Most electric guitar aren't hollow and doesn't produce the loud voice acoustic guitars can yell. Fortunately, electric guitars have amplifiers to help raise their voice. Electric guitars have more buttons to meddle around with so beginners may have difficulty when playing around with their amplifiers. Electric guitars are easier to press down to play the strings for beginners than acoustic guitars. Electric guitars are mainly used for rock songs and are lead guitarists in bands.(About)

Finally, in the last page, it talks about the differences of the two guitars to show which would be best for a person to play. The other websites I looked at had the same stuff and they talked about the differences instead of giving background information for each type of guitar. The websites told me one big difference you should notice is the sound it produces. An acoustic guitar has that deep vibration that would echo the sound while the electric guitar has a sound that can be described as more shallow and a little more //shy// without its amplifier. The acoustic guitar doesn't use electric equipment so it uses its natural vibrations to produce the sounds.The electric guitar with the amplifier can enhance and surpass the acoustic guitar since it can add effects to its sounds when playing thanks to the 21st century's technology.(About & Jamplay)

The ease of playing is another issue that could tell which would be better to play because it would easier for someone to play guitar. I already knew the answer before reading the articles that an acoustic guitar would be harder, but I really didn't know why the acoustic guitar was much harder. The strings on the electric guitar are actually closer to the frets and are easier to press down; you don't even have to really press down the strings to produce a clear, vibrant sound. An acoustic guitar is made of wood which is why you need those thick strings and it would hurt your fingers more than the electric guitar.

You should also think about the pricing of a guitar to determine if it would be best to risk your money for that type of guitar. An acoustic, in average, would cost $150 but don't worry electric guitars are //much worse//. An electric guitar most likely would cost, in average, $300 and that's not including the cables and amplifier. This shocked me too when I first learned of this so I thought that the cheaper type of guitar would be best and in this case, acoustic guitars.

Finally, the type of music could tell you which is the better type based on the variety of music it can play. Acoustic guitars are mostly used for playing classical music, but it can play all kinds of music such as the blues. Electric guitars are primarily used for rock music and you can notice that after listening to some rock songs. Electric guitars are not really used for the same purpose as the acoustic guitars since they don't really sound like the type for playing the relaxing, classical music but the type of guitar for the hard, and sometimes, cheery. I never knew that the type of music a guitar plays would determine what type of guitar is best to play for future guitarist. (About, Jamplay, EZineArticles, & GuitarNoise)

Conclusion
In conclusion, there really is no best type of guitar and it will depend on your preference of style. This is my answer because according to what others had to say to my question, it matters on what you like in a guitar. What type of music you like, what type of sound you want to hear on the guitar, how heavy it should be for you, and how much money you're willing to pay for the guitar will all affect on what type of guitar you'll play. At first, I thought that my father would like acoustic guitar over electric guitar because he always plays acoustic, but I was wrong, he actually prefers electric guitar. I don't think that it always matters if you have more preferences on one guitar and so that you must play that guitar. It also matters if you're comfortable on the guitar because you might like to play a guitar but it might be a bit too big for you so you would have to pick another guitar to play. According to the Jamplay article I saw,their conclusion is similar to mine because they also agree that there's no such thing as the best guitar in the world and that it should be your opinions that will decide the best type of guitar for //you.// To summarize the whole paragraph, there is no best type of guitar and it will depend on your preferences of the points why you like one guitar more than another.

**Works Cited**
Selvon, Mike. "The Difference Between Acoustic And Electric Guitar." //EzineArticles// 11 May 2007. 09 April 2008 <[|http://ezinearticles.com/?The- Difference- Between- Acoustic- And- Electric- Guitar&id=560659]>.

Ross, Dan. "Learning Guitar - Acoustic or Electric?" __About.Com__. 11 Apr. 2008 <[|http://guitar.about.com/od/commonbeginnerquestions/a/elec_vs_acoust.htm>.]

Lasley, Laura. "Acoustic Vs. Electric - Guitar Noise." __Guitar Noise__. 15 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=380>.]

"Choosing a Guitar: Acoustic Vs Electric." __Jamplay__. 15 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.jamplay.com/articles/choosing-a-guitar-acoustic-vs-electric.html>.]

Kim, David. Interview. 14 Apr. 2008.

YouthTwitter. Information. Apr. 2008.