3 Advantages Of Songwriting With The Electric Guitar

When you sit down to start writing a song, what instrument do you tend to grab?

Having a favorite is ok, but I hope you don’t rely on a single instrument. I definitely don’t.

Let’s talk about the incredible strengths of songwriting with an electric guitar.

Has Nearly Endless Tone Options 

The first massive advantage of writing with the electric guitar is its ability to produce a seemingly infinite amount of sounds.

You can get a deeper acoustic guitar or a lighter sounding one. You can down tune your guitar, or put nylon strings on it.

But, no matter what you do, it will sound like an acoustic guitar. 

But an electric guitar can create soundscapes of sweeping, reverberating tones. It can be made to not sound like a guitar at all. 

You also can have absolutely massive, distorted guitar. You can even just play it clean, overdriven, or with some digital effects. 

A part of the art of electric guitar is learning to use tones and pedals.  

These days, you don’t even need pedals. Just get some amp modulation software and a USB Audio Interface, and your computer can be your source of infinite guitar tones.  

This is very helpful for songwriting, as the tone of an instrument and music can heavily influence the sound of your song.  

You’re going to be inspired differently by playing a guitar with searing distortion and one that is clean with endless reverbs. 

One will probably turn into a sweet rock riff while the other will probably evolve into a more pensive, atmospheric tune.  

With an acoustic guitar or piano, you can play different styles and riffs, but the instruments still sound like an acoustic guitar and piano. With the electric guitar, you can easily get massive differences in sound from a single instrument.

Easier To Play Than Acoustic Guitar

We don’t want anything to get in the way of writing a song, right? So why not pick up the easier version of an instrument. 

It tends to be easier to play the same parts on the electric guitar than the acoustic.

 There are several reasons for this:

• Electric guitar strings tend to be lighter
• Electric guitar strings tend to be closer to the neck 
• The space between electric guitar strings is smaller 

Do you not believe me? 

 Well, try to play the hardest bar chord you know on an acoustic guitar. Now try that same chord on an electric. 

The beauty of an electric guitar being easier to play is that it won’t get in the way of the main thing you’re trying to do: Songwriting.

You’re not practicing guitar right now. When you’re practicing guitar, it makes sense to try it on the harder instrument.

But, while you’re songwriting, you don’t want your instrument to get in the way of you and your creativity. 

So grab the easier electric guitar and start writing your song. 

Easier To Think Melodically

I think lyrics and melody are the 2 most important aspects of the song.

And electric guitars are often used more melodically than acoustic guitars. 

Be honest, if you’re going to shred a solo, you’re probably grabbing your electric guitar, right?

The tendency is to grab the acoustic for strumming open chords and finger picking, while grabbing the electric for power chords and solos.  

A solo is inherently a melody. So utilize that for writing your song’s melody.  

If you write a great, singable “solo”, this can function as the melody for your song.  

If you already have a chord progression, record that and loop it. Now try soloing over that. If you can come up with an interesting solo that’s singable, you may have found your melody!  

While this melody won’t be inherently better or worse than the kind of melody you’d write by improvising vocally or with a piano, it will likely come out different. 

It will probably get you out of the melodic box you may have found yourself in if you always write your melodies another way. 

It’s important to change up how you write to take advantage of all the little inspirations different writing styles can contribute.