History of the Guitar
The guitar is a fretted, stringed instrument, and is a member of the lute family. It originated in Persia and reached Spain during the twelth-century, where itıs versatility as both a solo and accompanying instrument were established. The theory of the guitar was discovered in the early centuries. They found that the sound of a bowstring could be enhanced by attaching a resonating chamber -most like a tortiseshell- to the bow. From the bow came essentially three main types of stringed instruments: the Harp family, which was the sound of plucked strings indirectly transmitted to an attached sound box. The second was the Lyre family, which was strings of a fixed pitch are attached to the directly to a sound chamber. And the third was the Lute family, this was were the pitch of strings was altered by pressing them against a neck that is attached directly to a sound chamber. Within the Lute family came two groups. The lutes proper which had rounded backs and the guitar type instruments with their flat backs. Guitar-shaped instruments appear in stone bas-relief sculptures of the hittites in northern Syria and Asia Minor from as far back as 1350 B.C. The word guitar also has origins in th
But in the 1920ıs a demand for greater volume began to revolutionize the banjo and continued to be the strongest driving force for new fretted instrument design for the next three decades. At the same time two new innovations in related fields were changing the musical instrument dramatically. The first advance the phonograph, actually dates back to the late 1800ıs, but did not gather full force until after World War I. Recordings made all kinds of music available to people who had no access to any other music except for local and touring bands. The second advance was the radio. From 1920 to 1925 the two were in heated competition, with radio forbidding itıs artists to make records and vice versa. The music industry began and many different styles became popular, such as popular music from Broadway and ³Tin Pan Alley² in New York. Such styles as ³race² or ³blues², and early jazz later revived as ³Dixieland², and country music gained footholds in the music marketplace. In the 1920ıs the guitar began to emerge as the common denominator- the most versatile and portable instrument, best able to fill a role in an ensemble or accompany a solo performance. Players with different styles on every type of music appeared, among them Eddie Lang in jazz, Lonnie Johnson in blues and Jimmie Rodgers and Maybelle Carter in country. course is a pair of strings tuned in unison. These early guitars were distinguished from lutes by body sides that curved inward to form a waist and by four courses of strings. Some but not all early guitars had a flat back, while lutes always had a flat back. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the lute was the dominant fretted instrument. The lute with was pear-shaped and had five or more courses of strings was generally regarded as a higher class of instrument. By 1546 the guitar had gained enough popularity to merit the publication of a book of guitar music. By this time guitars had added another course, and modern tuning had come into existence. Chord positions were the same as they are today. The frets of the early guitars were made of gut and tied around the neck. This made placement of frets very difficult. The early guitars were also much shorter in length than todays guitars. guitar was evolutionary. This Gibson model made the electric guitar acceptable.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ages Renaissance, HISTORY GUITAR, Maybelle Carter, Eddie Durhams, CF Martinıs, Europe Inlaid, Torres Spain, Asia Minor, Johann Ertel, Rock Roll, electric guitar, top guitar, popular music, lute family, parlor guitar, attached directly sound, 20th century, american parlor, sound chamber, flat top, directly sound, american parlor guitar, directly sound chamber, stevie ray vaughn,
Approximate Word count = 2226
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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