Lindsay Ell Recalls Falling in Love With Playing Guitar at an Early Age (Exclusive)

She not only sings, and sings well, but Lindsay Ell is also a fierce guitar player. The Canadian has been playing since she was a child, after starting on the piano, and quickly fell in love with the way she could express herself with the stringed instrument.

"I was pretty young," Ell told PopCulture.com. "I was 8 years old when I first started playing. I started playing piano when I was 6, and I was just connected more to a guitar and what you could do with it. Especially when I started playing electric first, and it was just so expressive. Unlike other instruments you hit a note, that's kind of the note you get. You can hit it louder or softer, but that's kind of all you get. But with guitar, that's not the way at all. It's so much in your hands and you're in control of the sounds that you can make.

"I just fell in love with it from a really, really early age," she continued. "I think I fell in love with performing, and that was the thing that was, 'This is a pretty good way to go right here.' I was playing shows at 10 years old, being like, 'I love this.' You can walk into a room and inspire people and bring the energy level up a couple notches. It's just such an incredible feeling. Playing guitar and performing, it all was kind of wrapped up into one thing."

Ell has a new guitar to use when she is performing, thanks to a brand-new Fender American Acoustasonic Stratocaster, which Ell became a fan of as soon as she played it for the first time.

"Fender has been such an incredible supporter of mine for the past few years," Ell boasted." I just love working with them as a company ... When they first released the Acoustasonic, I was like, 'Hey, I want to check this thing out.' I do a lot of solo shows and I'm traveling all over the place and usually having to check multiple guitars for different things.

"The fact that they incorporated an acoustic and electric guitar in one unit was really intriguing to me," she continued. "A lot of companies have done this, and a lot of companies haven't done it well, to be honest. It just never ends up sounding like something that's fully usable."

As someone who enjoys playing both acoustic and electric on stage, the new Acoustasonic is perfect for the versatile performer.

"The acoustic is too not like an acoustic and the electric is too not like an electric," Ell explained. "When Fender did it, I was like, 'OK, if they're doing this, they're doing it intentionally and it has to be fairly good or else they wouldn't release something, because they're Fender and they are the best."

Ell just received two ACM Awards nominations. She is nominated for both Music Event of the Year, for her "What Happens in a Small Town" collaboration with Brantley Gilbert, and New Female Artist of the Year.

Photo Credit: Getty / Burak Cingi