The Acoustic Experience

I've been playing guitar for almost 30 years & been involved in worship ministry for almost as long. Unlike most people who learn on acoustic & switch to electric, I was the opposite.  I began learning on electric & once I could play well w/ others, I was asked to be in a Christian garage band, writing & performing all original songs & eventually was asked to play on the worship team at my fellowship, where it was the exact opposite of the band setting. For the first few years of worship ministry I was basically in a holy cover band, we covered everything by everyone! Eventually though, some original worship songs came forth & some really good recording projects were made.

Getting back to my original point… in the band, I was a rhythm guitarist, on the worship team I was forced to play lead as all the other guitarists were strictly rhythm players; so in worship ministry I focused on soloing & playing “around” the lead rhythm instrument(s). 

When I got a little bored w/ playing electric, I became interested in learning acoustic, so I picked it up & learned some acoustic rhythm skills & fingerpicking styles but because I had played lead for so long I naturally transferred that to acoustic guitar & developed a different playing style.

So 30 years later I still play & record electric guitar but for the last 7 months or so I've been really drawn to & focused on  acoustic playing, especially my 12-string but I do still love my 6-string, the effects are kinda heavy on it... 

Now, there's some acoustic purists out there: those who strongly believe that the acoustic guitar should be the most pure instrument & therefore have zero effects on it. Then there are others who believe in minimal acoustic effects: a slight compressor, a slight chorus/reverb & that's it. A third group are those who believe that the acoustic guitar is fair game for any & all effects, just create your sound & run w/ it; I'm a part of the last group :)

Now there's some great Christian acoustic players: Steven Curtis Chapman, Darrell Evans & Matthew West to name a few & there's also some great artists in the secular arena who have some impressive acoustic chops & I'm going to give you a sampler of some of my acoustic/acoustic driven favorites from both sides:

Note: All videos/songs are the properties of their respective owners, no copyright infringement intended!

Steven Curtis Chapman, “The Walk”
SCC is always a joy to listen to & also to watch,
I can learn alot from his playing style.

Guardian, “The Way Home Back”
Guardian's "Swing Swang Swung" psuedo-acoustic CD is still one of my
all time favorites: great lyrics, great riffs & rhythms & great stuff!

Guardian, “Like the Sun”

Andrew Ellis, “Joe”
Andrew Ellis from Ellis Guitars shows his acoustic chops!

Chris Daughtry, “It's Not Over”
I love Chris Daughtry's style & stuff, his acoustic versions are just as good as the originals!

Chris Daughtry, “Outta My Head”

Alice in Chains, “Your Decision”
'Not a huge fan of AIC but I do like this song & I do like the acoustic version of it;
'also digging the 12-string!

Chris Isaak, “Lie to Me”
MTV Unplugged was one of the better ideas & endeavors & this acoustic
performance by Chris Isaak is top notch.

Foreigner, Acoustic Concert in Germany
I grew up listening to Foreigner & watching these guys kick back
& flawlessly play acoustic versions of their hits still impresses me.

Craig Chaquico, Acoustic Guitar Lessons
I never knew how much of my playing style style is similar to Craig Chaquico's & in this video he not only plays some of his songs but goes behind the scenes in how he wrote them.

If you notice, all these artists are sitting down when they play acoustic & when I play acoustic, I'm sitting too; it's kinda natural & casual, people relate to that.

I hope you enjoyed these acoustic samplers, as you can see there's no one way or one correct way to play or add effects to acoustic guitar, it's all good!