The History of the Guitar, part I
Written on 17 August 2007 by NewellThe 1950’s saw a great change in popular music. As music evolved from Big Band Music of the 40’s, and then the Delta Blues, the guitar became a much more prominent part of the instrumentation of popular music. When Elvis Presley entered the music kingdom, it was the birth of Rock and Roll. When this happened, the guitar became the featured instrument of the music. During the 1950’s, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, and many others made the guitar what it is today in popular music. It was used to carry the rhythm, to play solos, to accompany singers, and directed the way songs were written. The acoustic guitar was used, and of course, the electric guitar was what every teenager wanted to play.
This trend was accelerated even more in the ‘60’s when the Beatles appeared on the scene. Their music was guitar-based music. The lead guitar was developed as more and more bands, or “groups” as they were called back then, burst forth during the British Invasion. The Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Who, The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, and many other British bands and guitarists had a tremendous influence on guitar styles. American musicians and bands such as Bob Dylan, the Birds, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Jefferson Airplane also shaped the direction of the guitar.
The electric guitar became the supreme instrument, and the guitar industry saw an explosion like never before. Companies such as Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker, Martin, and Gretsch were selling guitars as fast as they could build them. Even Sears and Roebuck was a huge seller of guitars with the Silvertone products. More amplifiers were being developed, and companies were popping up right and left. Young musicians everywhere were trying to emulate the styles and sounds of their heroes. Little boxes, now called effect pedals, were beginning to be used to get distortion and other effects that helped guitarists get the sound they wanted, and the “garage band” was heard in every neighborhood. Young bands were forming and learning the songs of their favorite “groups” or bands. They were finding places to perform at the high school, at parties, and weddings, and such. Everyone wanted to learn the guitar!
Why is the Guitar So Popular?
Written on 19 July 2007 by NewellEver wonder why so many people play the guitar? The answer to that question has been tossed around, debated, discussed, analyzed, and hypothesized for many years. Although the guitar or guitar-like instruments have been in use for thousands of years, it is the modern guitar that has taken hold of society’s musical taste.
I think in order to understand the popularity of the guitar, it is necessary to learn some of its history. Since the guitar has become the dominant instrument in the last 50 to 100 years, I feel that many readers will be interested in knowing more of the history of the guitar, and you may appreciate some links to learn more if they are interested.
We can estimate that the first six string guitar was built in the late 1700’s. The guitar uses an unusual tuning compared to other stringed instruments that have been in the “classical family” for centuries. The family of” bowed” stringed instruments, namely the violin, viola, cello, and contra bass are tuned in fifths. That means if we were playing up a scale, it would be 5 whole tones from one string to the next. On the contrary, the guitar is tuned in 4ths, with the exception of the 3rd and 2nd string, which is tuned in 3rds. This means that when playing a scale from low to high, it will require 4 whole tones from one string to the next, with the exception of the 3rd to the 2nd string, which will be 3 whole tones. We will discuss what whole tones refer to in a later discussion. But it is interesting to see how different the guitar developed from the classical stringed instruments.
In the 20th century, jazz and blues began to develop in the United States. There are many articles available to us about the history of jazz and blues, and we could spend much time discussing this, but suffice it to say that the guitar “grew up” in the early 20th century as the early blues players from the Mississippi Delta began to use the guitar as their “choice of accompaniment.”
Next time I will go into more of the coming of age of the guitar, and how they came to sound as they do today…
A Great Blog about the Guitar
Written on 12 July 2007 by SamIn an effort to promote this blog I came in contact with another blogger who runs Jim’s Guitar Blog. I read through several of the posts and found it to be quite interesting - especially for those that share his passion for guitars. It is quite clear that Jim is a guitar enthusiast. You can see that by reading some of his posts, like Traded the Strat for a Dobro .
What I also like is that Jim shares a great deal of learning tips on how to learn to play the guitar. His post called Scales, Scales, and more Scales goes into a good bit of detail about some of the basics of learning the guitar. Also there is a post called More Free Guitar lessons where he links to some YouTube instructional videos that talk about learning the guitar as well.
So all in all it is a really good blog - I would like to see some content on his About page so that we can get to know a little more about the blogger, but otherwise it was very fun to read through his posts - go check it out, I think you’ll enjoy!
Learn to Play the Guitar
Written on 2 July 2007 by NewellAnother category of instruments that I mentioned briefly in an earlier post about instruments is the plectrum group of instruments. This group includes the familiar guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, and banjo. A plectrum is more commonly known as a pick. This is a small, usually triangle shaped, piece of plastic that is held between the thumb and forefinger. The pick is used to pick or strum the strings on the instruments in this group. According to Wikipedia:
Guitarists in the rock, blues, jazz, and bluegrass world tend to use a plectrum, partly because the use of steel strings tends to wear out the fingernails quickly, and also because using a plectrum allows for a more ‘focused’ and ‘aggressive’ sound.
The Guitar vs. The Piano
The guitar has become the most widely played instrument in the world. It has evolved over more than 5000 years. There is evidence of ancient instruments throughout history that were “guitar like.” Guitar has become extremely popular, surpassing the popularity of the piano, in the last four decades. For over one hundred and fifty years, the piano was the most popular instrument in the home. But as culture evolved over the last 50 years, the guitar became the dominant instrument in popular music. There are many types of guitars…again, from Wikipedia:
The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots, used in a wide variety of musical styles, and it is also a solo classical instrument. It is recognized as one of the primary instruments in blues, country, flamenco, rock music and many forms of pop. The guitar usually has six strings, but four, seven, eight, ten, and twelve string guitars also exist. Guitars are made and repaired by luthiers. Guitars may be played acoustically or they may rely on an amplifier that usually allows for electronic manipulation of tone. The electric guitar was introduced in the 20th century and continues to have a profound influence on popular culture.
What is your experience with the guitar? Is it something you play, or would like to play? If you already play, how easy was it for you to learn? Post a comment and let me know about your experiences …
Learn to Play Piano
Written on 23 June 2007 by SamToday I came accross a great blog that I wanted to share with you. It is called Pianologist - and the great thing about it is that they will give you a free piano lesson. One thing that the blog is doing at the moment is they are giving away a free CD plus a backlink to your blog (if you happen to have one), if you write a review about Pianologist.
By writing this review here, I figured it would hopefully help bring in some traffic to our blog so that we can have some more active discussions here. I do want to say that Pianologist is a great blog. For anyone that is wanting to learn more about playing the piano, and find some specific techniques - this blog will help out greatly. I think it really fits in nice with what we have been talking about on our blog recently. Pianologist talks a great deal about learning jazz, and has lessons for beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners. So check it out - I’ll be sure to post a link to it in our Related Links section as well so it is always accessible.
Learn Music = Greater Self Esteem
Written on 19 June 2007 by NewellA few days ago I posted some information on joining a school music program… I wanted to add to that by saying that joining the band or orchestra provides a student a great opportunity to develop self-esteem. As the student progresses, he or she gains the admiration and positive approval from other members of the band or orchestra, and the positive reinforcement of the teacher. These small rewards help to develop positive self-esteem in the student. The band or orchestra meets generally every day in junior high and high school. The common bond of playing music creates the basis for strong friendships. Many students in music make life long friendships.
Has anyone ever had an experience with students in band or orchestra? How was the camaraderie? In general, how effective were the music teachers in assisting you?
School Music Programs
Written on 14 June 2007 by NewellHave you ever considered school music programs for your child? This can have several benefits for your or your child. The first and foremost benefit is that you will have the chance to learn an instrument with constant coaching from the music director, usually called the band director or the orchestra conductor. These individuals are music educators and often have college degrees in music education or similar degrees. They continue to spend time keeping their skills sharp and up to date. Music teachers often are members of state and national organizations that promote continuing education. These organizations, such as MENC and MTNA , are national organizations. These and affiliated state conventions also provide opportunities for students to compete with their fellow musicians. Schools will compete with each other and give additional incentive for students to learn to express themselves better through their music.
Music teachers will become centers of influence for you or your children. They know music, they know their instrument of choice, and they know enough of all instruments to be able to coach you as you learn. They are someone for the student to look up to and often become very positive role models. It’s an excellent way to begin learning, and often times if our children learn first, it will motivate us to pick it up as well and play along with them…
What do you think?
What instrument to play? Part 2
Written on 12 June 2007 by NewellGetting back to our discussion of choosing the instrument that is right for you or your child… As I mentioned before, learning the piano is very valuable, but let’s face it, not everyone will be able to take piano lessons.
To begin with, you need a piano, and pianos are big and expensive. There are portable keyboards for much less money, but most of them don’t have 88 notes and the feel of the keys is a long ways away from the feel of a piano. The feel is important because of the expressive nature of playing loudly or softly on the piano. After all, the real name of a piano is a pianofortissimo. In Italian, piano means soft, and fortissimo means loud. I’ll talk about the history of the piano in another post. The point for now is that a keyboard does not really meet the demands of learning the piano because of the lack of expression in a keyboard. If you or your child decide to learn piano, then you must get them a piano. This could be a grand piano, an upright piano, or a digital piano. We will talk more about each of these choices in a later post.
Secondly, some will not have any interest at all in a piano or keyboard instrument. Choosing the instrument that is right for you or your child means finding the one that you have a liking for.
If your child is thinking about taking band or orchestra in school, or if you have an opportunity to do this yourself, there are many instruments to choose from.
When it comes to band, there exists the choice of learning woodwind or brass wind instruments, or even percussion instruments. There are two main categories of wind instruments: woodwinds and brass. Woodwinds include instruments such as clarinet, oboe, saxophone, flute, and piccolo. Brass winds include instruments such as trumpet, coronet, trombone, baritone, and sousaphone. Percussion instruments include instruments such as marching drums, bass drum, snare drum, kettle drums, or more correctly called timpani, xylophone, tubular bells, chimes, and cymbals. Your choice should be based first, on your interest, and second, your abilities.
Some instruments are easier to learn than others, but you must have a personal liking to the instrument you choose. For example if you don’t like the sound of a clarinet, then you should not attempt to learn it. In this instance, maybe a saxophone would be a better choice. In school bands or orchestras, the music director has needs to fill to create his band or orchestra. Sometimes, he or she will ask a student to play a particular instrument based on the school’s need. You should be prepared to be flexible in that situation, or you will need to switch to another program. Sometimes, you can switch instruments after a year or two. This is most easy if you stay within the family of instruments where you started, i.e. woodwinds, brass, or percussion. These are just a few of the things one needs to think about as you select your instrument of choice.
Another family of instruments is string instruments. These include violin, viola, cello, and the string bass. These are fundamental in the classical orchestra. In the orchestra, one will also find woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments. String instruments are played with a bow. Generally speaking, stringed instruments which are picked or plucked, such as the guitar, mandolin, lyre, or banjo are not included in the string instrument family. These instruments are called plectrum instruments. The classical guitar, which uses nylon strings, and the harp are two plectrum instruments that are sometimes included in the orchestra.
It seems that some people gravitate more toward string instruments, while others have preference for woodwind or brass instruments, and others will have a disposition towards percussion.
So there you have it - a breakdown of some of the different instruments you can choose from… does anyone currently play one or more of these instruments? If not, do you have any interest based on what you’ve read?
Teaching music to kids
Written on 5 June 2007 by SamMany times people will ask or wonder: at what age should I introduce my kids to music? When is it too soon? When is it too late? Many times we wonder if our kids need to be mature enough to “grasp” the concept of reading music and playing a series of notes on whatever instrument it might be…not to mention the self-discipline it requires to practice. In my opinion, it’s never really too soon. My oldest daughter started playing the piano very young, and started having formal lessons when she was about 4 or 5 years old. One thing to remember is - they don’t have to be Mozart. It’s okay if they start out a little slow, make mistakes, even if they have a hard time staying on a regular practice schedule. These are things that will improve as they get older, but there is no reason why they can’t start the routine at a young age. Aren’t things usually easier when we learn them young and are used to them, rather than trying to “teach a dog new tricks?”
Now having said that - I don’t want anyone to think I’m saying that if you are already a teenager, or an adult, that it’s too late for you and you can’t learn to play a musical instrument. This is not the case at all. Anyone with a desire and a passion for music can learn it - no matter the age. As an adult, it may be more difficult to find the time, because of all the extra responsibilities that come with being an adult … but it can be done. As a matter of fact, that’s a topic for another day…
Comments?
Start learning with piano
Written on 1 June 2007 by NewellI’d like to recommend that everyone have some musical training. This will be explained even more later when I talk about something called the Mozart Effect. One of the best ways to develop an understanding of music is to study the piano. Take piano, or keyboard lessons. You will never regret it. No matter what instrument you end up playing, piano lessons will benefit you as you study music. As you learn piano, you learn all the fundamentals of music. This is true of the serious study of any instrument, but piano is singular in one aspect – all of the notes available to us as musicians are laid out in front of us. We can easily see the range of notes, from low to high, which on the keyboard or piano is from left to right. We can visualize before us the relationship of one note to another. We can see how octaves are made up. We can easily learn how different types of scales are made up, such as minor or major scales. We can see how chords are formed from the different tones of the scale. For example, we can understand straightforwardly the difference between major and minor chords. These types of subjects are considered music theory. There is no easier way to learn music theory than to study piano.
What do you think? Anyone have any experience with starting with the piano and moving onto another instrument? Did the piano lessons help you?
Coming up I want to get more into the discussion of choosing a musical instrument. It is important to choose a musical instrument that matches your tastes and preferences in music…
