Everyone plays a bit of everything but that's where universality stops. Everyone usually has a preference they focus on.

Yes you can play an electric the same way as an acoustic and vice versa, but the beauty of it is that the good acoustic players play very differently from the good electric players.
And yes lead and rythm can be played by one person, but many people are much better at doing one of the two more than the other. Or maybe it's just their duty in the band to play one style while the other guitarist plays the other.


I think both questions are valid. They are asking what kind of guitar you have or use mostly and what you like to play on it.

It's similar to asking someone if they play keyboards or piano. They both have the same principles but the music styles and sounds for which they are used are different.



I have 2 acoustic guitars and one electric. By majority rule I play acoustic but when they ask me, I always reply electric. Because that's what I play 95% of the time. And honestly, my music style changes a lot depending on which guitar I play.

I agree with ibz.. Acoustic is VERY DIFFERENT in approach and touch and everything..

"at the end of the day, you don't go into a shop and ask for a lead guitar : You ask for a guitar"

by the same token you don't go into a shop and ask for just "a guitar". You specify electric - acoustic - 12 string - 6 string - 7 string - etc.. They are all different animals.

But sidd is also right. There is an uncontious hierarchy in the styles that is annoying. Personally I discard that because it is a mediocre-player syndrome. There is no easier or harder style. There is only more and less forgiving style. Electric is easier to sound like you are doing something when you really aren't. So people are more easily impressed with electric. Same thing played on acoustic will sound like crap. You can get away with rythm by hammering away at powerchords so it seems simpler than lead.

When I'm talking to non-musicians and they ask such questions, I don't think it's the rank they are thinking about. They're just being polite, doing small-talk etc I think. They have usually never seen a guitar up close or never cared for it, so rank is really not what they have in mind.

I like to think of myself as a guitarist, I have both electric and acoustic guitars. I seem to have a preference for acoustics and am a better rhythm player than lead. So while that seems to put me in the lesser half of the guitar world, I find acoustic to be harder than electric and anyone who thinks being a good rhythm player is easy, probably isn't

But the question about "lead or rhythm" is only asked by people who know nothing about guitars.

it doesn't bother me at all when people ask if I play guitar, what style or such. what is annoying is when they say "you don't look like the type to play guitar!"

I certainly wouldn't get angry or pissed off over it though

these questions are definately from people who know nothing about the instrument in my experience.

It's not that they are being polite, some may truly be interested in the fact you are a guitarist and don't know enough to about it to be able to ask the questions correctly.

Just like how someone who knows little about computers will call the tower for their desktop computer "the hard drive"... although the hard drive is usually housed here... the tower is not the hard drive... or how when calling for technical support because they can't get on the internet they say "MY internet isn't working"... being an internet tech support rep, I'm often biting my tongue trying not to correct them as in reality, it is not "THEIR internet", because nobody owns the internet as a whole... if you did, I'd like to see what your bank account looks like.

when I get the question "rhythm or lead" I reply "both" and when asked acoustic or electric, I reply "mostly electric, but I can play both". Hopefully if they ask these questions to enough guitarists who respond similarly they may eventually understand, although the approach is slightly different the fundamentals are the same and therefore a guitarist can do either instrument, and is capable of either lead or rhythm to varying degrees depending on their skill level.

I had a friend years back who was an excellent guitarist, but he was what I call a "Folkie" in that he mostly played James Taylor, (he had his repertoire down perfectly), as well as guys like Jackson Browne, (before "Running on Empty"), Gram Parsons, etc. He was really into the who hippie/country-rock thing. He hated metal and most hard rock bands. He didn't have much use for electrics. In his case, if you were to ask which do you play, he would have told you acoustic. He would say as far as hard rock, lead guitar "anybody can play that shit." To my way of thinking, like most of us, I don't like to limit myself to lead, or rhythm, acoustic, or electric, or even a six string for that matter. But there are guys who play only metal, and have little use for a Taylor Jumbo. Likewise, there are players who are into the folk, country, bluegrass scene who have very little use for an RG. I think when people ask you the acoustic/electric question they're just trying to get a handle on what type of music your into.