As centuries crawl by, the concept of music has remained largely a part of social and economic interactions within human culture. Of all instruments that contribute, the guitar is one of the most complex and most widely used across all genres of music. There are records that suggest that the guitar has even been played since the time of the Babylonians (Findlay 3). With that said, the guitar is also one of the most elaborate instruments to build, with the most factors and variables involved in construction. The most important variable is the materials chosen to create the instrument. Contrary to popular belief, the quality of said materials to construct a guitar affects its sound immensely. The subject of materials and components has been a matter of debate between stringed-instrument aficionados and luthiers for decades. The driving force that allows materials to affect the resonance of the guitar so immensely is the guitar’s design; it allows the physics of sound to create most of the instrument’s natural tone. It seems that just picking and choosing the most expensive parts for a guitar will make the most expensive sounding guitar, although that claim is rather incorrect. Prerequisite information that allows one to build a superior stringed instrument is an understanding of the physics of sound, rather than simply a fat wallet. First, one must ask, “What is sound?” Sound is a vibration that propagates as a mechanical wave of pressure and displacement, through some medium. For most purposes, wood and air are the principal mediums in a guitar (Hokin 1). Simply, sound is a wave that pushes (compression) and expands (rarefaction) the molecules around it. Each wave is different in shape and length, and thus makes a different tone.... ... middle of paper ... ...ut it proves to be inconclusive (Lamb par 2). The issue is that while attempting to isolate one variable of guitar aesthetics, all other variables are ignored, and behave differently than regularly. What type of wood did he use? Did he use Maple, Alder, Spruce, Basswood, or something else? All of the woods may have given different results. What type of pickups, strings, or neck, or bridge was being used? It is comparable to The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in Atomic Theory; one may know the location of an electron, but never its velocity, or vice versa. That is why guitar construction is such a troubleshooting craft; no singular part will make the difference, rather it is the relationship between all parts coalescing to create the voice of the instrument. That is why the quality of all components, not the price of one part, affects a guitar’s music immeasurably.
tuned in a similar way to the Renaissance guitarrilla (or small guitar): from the first
This was another one of Eddie's home built guitars. These pictures are a representation of the true musician that Eddie Van Halen is. Even expensive guitars would not give the sound Eddie was searching for, so he built his own.
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
As the increasing popularity of the guitar, guitar performance has been developed into a discipline, and is still being carried forward. At the beginning of the 1920s, a musician, a composer and the most important a guitarist, Andrés Segovia, was getting to be known as one of the greatest guitarists and the grandfather of the classical guitar. He spent his whole life learning, exploring and improving the classical guitar. Many people believe that, without his efforts, the charm of the guitar would still be covered, and the instrument would never appear in a concert stage.
As a musician one of the most frequent questions that I receive is, “What instrument do you play?” When I answer, the look on the persons face is a face of confusion. “What’s a euphonium?” they ask. This occurs not only to me, but to every euphoniumist who is ever asked this very question. Although the word euphonium is foreign to most people, the instrument is not. The euphonium, with its beautiful rich tone is the chief tenor soloist in the military and concert band. The euphonium is a conical-bore, baritone voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Greek word euphonos. When separated, eu means well or good, and phonos means of good sound. Therefore euphonos means well sounding. In this paper I will discuss the history of the euphonium and its use in the world of music today.
The electric guitar is a very simple instrument. It is just a nice combination of hardwoods. The body is a solid piece of alder with a quilt maple ply glued to the top. It could be made of any type of wood available, such as plywood. In some cases, I have seen guitars that are made out of plain metal, plastics, and even foam (like in surf boards). The neck is made usually from maple and sometimes has a fret board glued to it to change its tonal characteristics. A truss rod and sometimes graphite rods are installed inside the neck to counteract the tensions from the strings which could warp the guitar neck.
A timpani is one of the percussion instruments that has a definite pitch. They are also struck by a mallet on the surface of the drum, which is made out of calfskin and is stretched over a copper shell.(1) When analyzing the mallets many notice that they are home made. Timpani’s come in all different sizes, which determines the change in the pitch. They can come in sizes such as a thirty-two inch, twenty-nine inch, twenty-sixth inch, twenty-three inch and the smallest is a twenty inch, which is a higher pitch than the larger timpani’s.(2) Some sound characteristics of a timpani might be evaluated by words such as powerful, deep, booming, or hollow. Timpani’s also create their sound by a petal located at the bottom of the
"The Physics Of Guitar." The Physics Of Guitar. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2014. .
The guitar is one of the most famous instruments worldwide. It has been used for almost all types of music. The guitar has made many cultural impacts on society. There have also been drastic changes over history. They have changed looks, sounds, and overall style. How have guitars evolved over time?
Wolfe, Joe. "How Do Woodwind Instruments Work?." Music Acoustics. 1994. 2014. Web. April 13, 2014. .
Physics is all around us, and yet we always overlook it. We see, hear or feel something happen but never stop to question why. Physics will tell us why. Music plays a part in everyone's lives. So much so that it is often overlooked and the technicalities of it are unappreciated. Sure there are times when we listen carefully to the music behind the songs we hear, we may focus on the rhythm or the harmonies, but we never think of what it took to make the sounds that we are hearing. In this paper, I will explain the physics musical instruments. I will describe and define sound in psychics terms and then describe how different instruments create their unique sounds.
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.
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,...
Reason to listen: The guitar is an instrument that can be heard in all types of music, it would be nice to know some information about the guitar.
Playing guitar can expand an individual’s possibilities. Whether the person is going into business or engineering it is always a good idea to have a back-up plan. The guitar can also serve as way to release stress. A standard guitar has up to six strings. Other guitars can have up to seven or twelve strings. Guitars with additional strings are commonly used in folk music. The most popular form of guitars is acoustic. Acoustic means that a guitar uses the air to create sound within its body, opposed to an electric guitar that uses electrical impulses like an amplifier. However, the best guitar to start out with is a six string acoustic guitar. Acoustic guitars can be found at Guitar Center near a person’s location. Playing an instrument can