Adaptable and Popular Instruments: The Guitar

1124 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of the guitar

Guitar has become one of the most adaptable and popular instruments; it can be used in most genres of music. Guitar has been around since the 15th century. An instrument in Spain called the vihuela is the first guitar but it only had four strings and were very small if we compared it to a modern day instrument it would closely resemble a ukelele. Since then the instrument has advanced. From Jazz, to rock 'n' roll, and country guitar has the biggest impact on how music is today. There is a lot of history from electric guitars to acoustic guitars. The ancestor to the guitar is the lute. The lute is like an older version of the guitar but is a lot more complex considering it had 25-35 strings. The lute is made up entirely of wood. The body of the instrument looks almost like a teardrop. The neck of the lute is made up of a light wood with a hardwood cover. The pegbox was angled at a 90 degrees to hold the low tension strings so they are firm against the nut. During the times of the Renaissance an instrument called the lute was very popular. They were so popular that people like Henry VIII, Francois I, and the Pope in Rome would hire lutenists as their own personal musicians and would have competitions against other player. It would help impact on the status of that ruler. During the 17th century the lute started to lose its popularity. Pianos became the most popular since it was hard to maintain and play the lute. In the 16h century there was a five stringed guitar. The guitars had frets, frets are strips made from nickel or brass and are inserted into the guitars fretboard where you play chords. Later in the 18th century the five stringed guitar was made into the very popular six-stringed guitar. One of the earliest six stringe... ... middle of paper ... ...paying for the name of the guitar. The amplifier affects the way the guitar sounds just as much s the guitar pickups do. If you are playing in front of a crowd with an amp that is $50 the guitar will also sound bad. If you play on an amp that is $600 there will be a huge difference in sound. So the price and equipment matter for the guitar because the more expensive the equipment is the better material it will be made out of. Another thing that can affect the sound of the guitar is what chemicals you use to customize it with. For instance paints and lacquers can affect the sound of the guitar. The lacquer and paint serves a lot of purposes : it will improve the tone, protects the wood, ages the wood well, and makes the guitar look nice overall. But the lacquer is the most important because it can damage the tone of the guitar since the tone is made by the wood.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Andrés Segovia

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Peter E , his original program included transcriptions from Tárrega , as well as his own transcriptions of Bach and others. However, based on Clinton, George , many "serious" musicians believed that Segovia would be laughed off of the stage, because the guitar could not play classical music at that time. In order to refute their argument, Segovia astounded the audience with his perfect techniques and impressive performing skills. After that, Segovia shared the view he had of the guitar being a concert instrument. "First, no string instrument offers such complete harmonic potential; second, it is light and can be transported effortlessly from one place to another; and thirdly, its sound is naturally melancholic and beautiful." From that concert, he also found out the only problem with the concert guitar performance, which is that the guitar could not produce enough sound to fill the hall. So over the coming years, Segovia would supervise luthiers to experiment through thousands of new woods and designs for the body of the guitar, thereby increasing its natural amplification, and do more practice simultaneously, to make his performing technique go further. With the advent of nylon strings during the World War II, the guitar could produce more consistent tones, and also being able to project the sound much farther. The range of the sound transmission problem was solved gradually. In 1928, Andrés Segovia’s first concert in New York had been a huge success, which also led him to more offers for appearances in America and Europe, from then on, the great, meaningful journey of Andrés Segovia and his guitar was

    Read More

  • The Glorious Stradivari Revolution

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    Antonio Stradivari, a man known by many as on of the greatest luthiers of all time. The question at hand is why? From as early as the early 1700’s Stradivari was well known in the music world and still is. His instruments are reproduced in order to fool consumers into buying an instrument that has the same design as a Strad. There are also luthiers that try to replicate Stradivari’s beautiful design for their own satisfaction. Antonio Stradivari’s instruments have become socially and technically popular over time due to his superior craftsmanship, and for others, its large price tag. Stradivari’s life, affecting how his instruments were made, changed the perception of his instruments technically and socially.

    Read More

  • Evolution of the Keyboard

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the first person heard the wind whistle through the trees or the sea in a seashell humans have been drawn to sound. Being the oppressive and ingenious species that we are we felt the need to capture these sounds and any others that we could to keep for our own. Eventually people like Pythagoras and gods such as Apollo found that by stretching materials and picking/plucking them that they would produce sounds and that the tighter you stretched these strings the higher the sound would go. These were the early beginnings of the pianoforte.

    Read More

  • Essay On Appalachia Music

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is believed that the Irish brought to the region the fiddle and the pipes. It is believed that the first stringed instrument, the dulcimer was brought by the Germans, Norwegians, Swedish and French. The dulcimer became known as the 1“Hog Fiddle” or “Music Box”.

    Read More

  • The Physics of Acoustic Guitar

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before you can understand the physics of playing the guitar, you must first know the brief history of it. The guitars’ history can be traced back to over 4,000 years ago. This ancient instrument has many theories on how it came to be. The theory with the most evidence states that the guitar was a development from a Greek 4-stringed instrument, and then altered by the Romans to be called the cithara. Soon after, this cithara was then brought to Portugal and Spain where it was changed yet again to an instrument named the Oud. After this, it was combined with the vihuela. Throughout time, insignificant alterations where made to the vihuela. It was not until the end of the 1800’s that a man named Antonio Torres Jurado created what we known as the guitar. To start, he increased the size of the body and neck. He raised the neck and improved the fingerboard with ebony or rosewood. He replaced the tuning pegs with more efficient machine tuners. As a result, he made the guitar louder, more efficient, and he overall improved the sound (History of the Acoustic Guitar) (Guy).

    Read More

  • The History of Country Music

    359 Words  | 1 Pages

    When country music bean in America, there were no professional musicians. The typical musician sang only to entertain himself, his family, or at local events. At first, most country music was sung unaided or played on a lone fiddle or banjo. At the turn of the century, Sears, Roebuck & Co. began advertising affordable guitars in its nationally available catalogs, as well as sheet music and songbooks. The mandolin also became available and soon string bands were being formed with different combinations of instruments.

    Read More

  • Music and Musicians in the Renaissance

    1611 Words  | 4 Pages

    The major classes of musical instruments used in the High and Late Renaissance include plucked strings, bowed strings, brass, double reeds, other winds, keyboards, and percussions (McGee, 1985). Lutes, drums, and trumpets were often used, but the instruments that were especially popular during the Renaissance include the bass viol, treble viol, viola, violin, tenor sackbut, cornetto, bass sackbut, curtal, tenor shawm, bass recorder, and harpsichord (McGee, 1985).

    Read More

  • History of the Electric Bass Guitar

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many manufactures began making electric bass guitars in the 1960s due to the explosion of rock music. The Fender Jazz Bass, also known as the Deluxe Bass,...

    Read More

  • The Physics of a Guitar

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    The guitar is a typical string instrument, whose physics are similar to many other string instruments. The main parts consist of the body, the neck, the bridge, the tuning pegs, the sound hole, and the strings. An electric guitar lacks the sound hole and instead relies on an amp for amplification. The physics of a guitar involves sound waves, how they are amplified, and how they travel.

    Read More

  • History of The Electric Guitar

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    The electric guitar has greatly impacted how music was played in the past, the present, or the future. Players can be creative and achieve a great sound from the wide variety of guitars, pickups, pedals, or amps. Whatever type of music you enjoy, everyone should appreciate the importance of the electric guitar.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of Guitars

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before the guitar was even thought of, there were instruments that showed some similarities. The first stringed instruments were around about 4000 years ago. The first few instruments were called tanburs and bowl harps. These instruments are made by taking a tortoise shell and attaching a stick to it, usually a bent one. After that, a few gut or silk strings were run from the stick to the middle of the shell. One of the oldest guitar-like instruments is about 3500 years old. This instrument belonged to an Egyptian singer named Har-Mose. He owned a tanbur, but his had three strings instead of just one or two. It was also made out of rawhide and cedar (Guy).

    Read More

  • The Origin of American Music

    310 Words  | 1 Pages

    Music is made with many different kinds of instruments and/or your voice. Some of those instruments are: guitars, violins, flutes, drums, and many new electrical instruments.

    Read More

  • Acoustics in Music

    508 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through out the history of music, acoustics have played a major role. After all if it were not for acoustics the quality of sound that we know today would not exist. The word acoustics comes from the Greek word akouein, which means, “to hear”(Encarta Encyclopedia). Since music has to be heard in most cases for enjoyment, acoustics obviously take on a very important role in the pleasure that music brings to the ear. Acoustical architecture and design are two key elements in the way music sounds. For example, an electric guitar played in a concert hall would sound very different compared to the sound produced in a small room. These differences can be explained by the acoustical design of the room and the reverb created by both the instrument and the room in which it is played. These differences signify the importance of acoustics in music.

    Read More

  • Jimi Hendrix

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    Widely recognized as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix pioneered the explosive possibilities of the electric guitar. Hendrix's innovative style of combining fuzz, feedback and controlled distortion created a new musical form. Because he was unable to read or write music, it is nothing short of remarkable that Jimi Hendrix's meteoric rise in the music took place in just four short years. His musical language continues to influence a host of modern musicians, from George Clinton to Miles Davis, and Steve Vai to Jonny Lang.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    I previously thought that Les Paul was a brand of guitar, not an actual person. Les Paul had a knack for inventing when he built his first crystal radio at age nine; which was about the time he started playing guitar. By age 13 he was performing as a country music guitarist and working diligently on sound-related inventions. It is safe to say that rock and roll as we all know and love it today would not be the same if not so for the invention of the electric guitar. In 1941, Paul built his first solid body electric guitar, and he continued to make improvements to the guitar throughout the decade. Les Paul would go on to redefine the technology of sound recording. The guitar that bears his name the “Gibson Les Paul” was his crowning achievement. He experimented with different designs until he had his non-vibrating guitar body, which he called “The Log.” Gibson Guitars initially turned him down, calling his invention “a broomstick with pickups”. He was beaten to the marketplace by Leo Fender, whose Fender Broadcaster was introduced in 1948. Over the ensuing decades Les Paul has remained active on all fronts. He recorded a Grammy-winning album of instrumental duets with Chet Atkins, Chester and Lester, in 1976. Les Paul was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in

    Read More

More about Adaptable and Popular Instruments: The Guitar

Open Document