The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments today. Most of the music that you hear on the radio uses guitars in many different ways: pop, rock, reggae, blues, ballads and everything else is influenced by the guitar.
The guitar, together with the drums and the piano compose the modern music scene equipment set. The playability of the guitar has made it one popular instrument. A guitar can be played by a learning child or an experienced guitar player. It’s not “picky” about its players.
Today, the electric type of guitar is most often used in musical production. The guitar has been enhanced with a very good accompaniment in the form of the effects box. Today, guitars can emulate the sounds of a piano, a violin, even the sounds of the human voice and is continuously widening its horizons.
With the functions and features of the modern electric guitar, one can’t help thinking about the beginnings of the instrument. Where did the guitar come from? This article tries to give a brief history of the wonderful musical instrument, which is the guitar.
The creation of the guitar cannot be traced to a single person. The guitar came about through the evolution of its predecessors. Its image has also undergone change throughout the centuries. Today, playing the guitar is a symbol of talent and musical prowess, but during the early times, the guitar was actually a symbol of being poor and it was refuted by most classical musicians.
Predecessors
There have been many guitar-like musical instruments in the ancient times, up to as many as 5,000 years ago. Instruments which look like the guitar were seen in statues which were recovered in archeological expeditions in the Iranian region of Susa. However, the very first documented mention of the instrument dates back to the fourteenth century. At that time the guitar-ancestor had three pairs of strings (usually referred to as double courses) and a single string with the highest tone.
Some say that the word “guitar” came from the word “qitara”. Qitara is an Arabic name for the different kinds of lutes during the early times.
Evolution
The guitar, as we know it, is said to originate in Spain. It is believed that the people of Malaga invented the instrument. The guitar evolved from having three pairs of strings to four pairs of strings and eventually six single strings.
The guitar began to become popular in the 16th century. It was played by the lower and middle classes as a counterpart for the vihuela which was played by the aristocrats. The vihuela was tuned like a lute but had a body similar to that of the guitar.
The guitar made a serious evolution during the 18th century: the double strings where replaced by single strings and a sixth string was added. In the 1800s, Antonio Torres de Jurado gave birth to the classical guitar. Basically, he increased the size of the body of the guitar. The guitar still struggled because it was considered as an instrument for the taverns - an instrument which could not be used for classical music. In Spain, where people hated the piano, the guitar found refuge. However, it was also tainted by the views that guitars were for gypsies and for no-good bums who asked for loose change in bars.
Electric guitar
The modern electric guitar was invented in 1931. The electric guitar uses electronic “pick-ups” to enable it to produce sound. The pick-ups convert the vibrations from the strings into electric signals. The body of the electric guitar is semi-solid or solid, depending on the design. The structure of the guitar took a great leap when the electric guitar was born, no longer did its sound depend on the structure and construction of the body, but on the quality of the pick-ups and soundboard.
The sounds of the electric guitar can also be altered to be able to achieve a desired tone. The use of the guitar effects box has given the guitar a wide array of sounds. I is continuing to garner popularity in all fields of music, even in classical music.
The guitar is a very dynamic musical instrument. Through evolution, the guitar has made its mark on the modern music scene. From crude instruments with many variations, the guitar has become a real and much-sought after instrument.
A technical knowledge of harmony is not an absolute prerequisite to the enjoyment of music, but the amateur musician and listener alike should be aware of harmony as an element of guitar chord structure. He should be cognizant of certain basic principles, properties and uses of this element.
Harmony as an element is more sophisticated than rhythm and melody. It was virtually non-existent in primitive cultures. It is an element which appeared comparatively late in the history of music and was developed primarily in western civilization.
Harmony is a musical element based on the simultaneous combination of musical tones (as distinguished from the consecutive tones of a melody), or the accompaniment of a melody using chords.
A combination of three or more tones, played simultaneously and perceived as sounding as a whole is called a chord.
A few rudimentary principles will help you understand the nature of conventional chord construction. The simplest chord is the major triad, which consists of three tones. We can build a triad by selecting the tones of a certain major scale and by adding two or more tones above it in alternate degrees of the original scale. For example, if we start with the tone C as “do”, the tonic of the C-major scale, we get the triad do-mi-sol, 1-3-5, or using the letter names C-E-G.
The tones of any chord maybe arranged in different order, and they maybe duplicated an octave above or below without changing the essential nature of the chord. This is the reason why we often see chords such as C/E, (the first inversion of the C major triad using the chord tone E as the bass) or C/G (the second inversion of the same triad using the chord tone G as the bass)
Building chords in thirds (on alternate scale degrees as described) was the basis of all conventional harmony from 1700-1900.
In the twentieth century serious music composers expanded the chord vocabulary by additional means of construction for the sake of more colorful and complex effects. Although additional means of construction have been introduced, modern pop, rock and jazz music still follow the conventional way of chord construction – by thirds.
Going back to the major chord, you may be wondering why there are several fingerings for a certain major chord. This is possible because in the 12 frets of the guitar, the notes simply repeat themselves in increasing octaves, at their corresponding string. C, for example, is on the first fret at the B string, third fret at the A string, fifth fret at the G string, and on the eighth fret at the E string. For reference, here are the other notes and their possible fingerings:
D: 3rd fret at B, 5th fret at A, 7th at G and 10th at E;
E: 2nd at D, 5th at B, 7th at A, 9th at G and 12th at E;
F: 1st at E, 3rd at D, 6th at B, 8th at S and 10th at G;
G: 3rd at E, 5th at D, 8th at B, 10th at A and 12th at G;
A: 2nd at G, 5th at E, 7th at D, 10th at B and 12th at A;
B: 2nd at A, 4th at G, 7th at E, 9th at D and 12th at B.
Depending on how the melody of the song is arranged, the chord formation can assume any fingering position as long as the triad is formed and however it is conveniently played.
Now that you have an understanding of the major chord, let us investigate its parallel counterpart the minor chord. If the third of the major triad is altered by lowering it by one semitone (one fret on the guitar and two frets for each whole tone), the resulting triad will be C-E /flat-G, which is the minor triad.
Check the fret board and investigate all of the possible fingerings, for the minor chord. You may see that if comparing it with the major chord fingerings, only one string is lowered when forming the minor chord, unless there is a doubling of the minor third (E /flat).
If you are wondering why all the examples mentioned here are on the C chord, it is because it now your turn to apply the lesson. Chart down the major and minor chord triads for the rest of the notes and … start strummin’!