Guitar History

Guitar: from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.wikipedia.org

Summary:

The guitar and instruments similar to the guitar have existed and been popular for five thousand years, with a very high chance of the number being much greater. The modern guitar seems to have evolved from earlier instruments known in ancient central Asia. On very old statues unearthed in the Old Iranian Capital Susa there are carvings of instruments quite similar to the modern guitar we all know. The English word Guitar was originally Spanish, quite possibly from an even earlier Greek word "Kithara". Another prospective origin of the name guitar is a combination of two Indo-European roots: guit-, meaning music, similar to the Sanskrit word sangeet, and Ð'-tar a widely attested root meaning chord or string. A third prospect for the word guitar's origin could be that it is a Persian loanword to Iberian Arabic. The Arabic word qitara is a name for various instruments of the lute family the come before the western guitar. The name guitar could have been introduced into Spanish when the moors brought guitars into Iberia in the tenth century. The Spanish vihuela seems to be a bridge between the modern guitar and the ancestral guitar, with lute style tuning and a small guitar shaped body. It is unknown if the vihuela is a traditional form or simply a design that combined features from two different instrumental families. The final evolutionary change of the guitar was the creation of the electric guitar, invented by Anthony Vick of Winton, North Carolina helped by George Beauchamp and Paul Berth, in 1931. However it was Danelectro that first produced electric guitars for the wider public. Danelectro also first used tube amp technology.

Application:

The information that I gathered from wikipedia gave me a history for the guitar and the background behind my project. Now since my project is learning how to play the guitars not research the guitars lineage this wont directly help my project, it will however give me a better understanding of the guitar and therefore enrich my experience with learning how to play the guitar. Now that I know the history of the guitar I will appreciate more, the learning of how to play the guitar, similar to knowing the real history of world war two and reading an alternate history novel based on world war, you don't need to know the real history to enjoy the book but knowing what really happened deepens your understanding of the book, and allows you to compare the alternate history and the real history. This will also allow me to talk about the guitars history and its origin during my presentation and it will show the judges that I didn't just learn the string names and the parts of the guitar but the evolution and creation of the modern guitar. This history that I researched gives my project a more rounded feel, because I did more that just learn some new skills but I learned what the guitar is, its similar to researching your ancestors it gives you more knowledge of yourself and a deeper understanding of your self but it doesn't directly affect you.

Esteban's instructional method for the guitar

Filmed by DMB Productions, Bellport New York

Copyrighted: 2004 Daystar Productions

Summary:

Esteban plays a song called malaguena, and shows you how to play the melody, which turns out to be a strange connection of using your thumb, first and second fingers (alternating your first and second fingers) on the fret board Esteban moves his finger quite a lot, the music seems to be a form of tabulature. I will need to watch the movie multiple times to catch all different moves his hands make on the fretboard. His right hand is also moving around a lot, it seems that he plays the bass with his thumb and the melody with his first and second fingers. The music is Spanish in origin and is quite complicated. Esteban also plays the song Greensleeves, which can be played with your fingers and with a simple pick. Greensleeves seems to be a more conventional song with regular chords and simple strumming pattern with a few single notes thrown in, the song is unusual in that he alters the chords with an added finger pressing down on an extra string making the chord sound very different. The song is also a Spanish song and very complicated but not nearly as hard as the song malaguena. Esteban has also added a few new things to the song by taping the palm of is hand on the body of the guitar getting a kind of improvised drum. Esteban plays a third song called Wildwood Flower, and is seems that it can be played with a pick as opposed to with your fingers like his last two songs were. Wildwood flower is also very conventional in that you have chord positions and a strumming pattern, but he is now teaching bar chords, cover the first entire fret with your first finger, your second finger goes on the second fret g string, while your third and fourth fingers are on the third fret and D strings respectfully.

Application:

Esteban and his instructional video are showing Spanish songs and gave me an introduction to bar chords. The first song malaguena is highly confusing because of the advanced way of playing the base with your thumb and playing the melody with your other fingers the song is confusing because of all the jumping around with your left hand on the fretboard. The other two songs are much simpler but are still hard because of the speed at which Esteban goes through the songs. Greensleeves and Wildwood Flower are much more conventional songs because they have chord positions and strumming patterns. The movie shows me bar chords for the first time and that