The Guitar

The Chambers Dictionary of Music (page 271, 2006, Edinburgh, Chambers Harrap) describes the guitar as a “plucked, fretted string instrument” which “may be called the classical guitar, the Spanish guitar (because of its origins) or the acoustic guitar (to differentiate it from the electric guitar)”. The guitar is one of only a few stringed instruments which have bridged the gap between classical music and popular music successfully.

Here are some interesting facts from Den Hardy regarding The History of the Guitar.        http://www.viasacra.com/den/Articles/History%20of%20the%20guitar/The%20History%20of%20the%20Guitar.html

“The evidence that supports the history of the guitar dates from 2500 BC and takes a journey from ancient Sumer, Mesopotamia and Babylonia, through Egypt and Anatolia where it reaches its destination in Europe to become a worldwide instrument. The early stringed instruments from which the guitar has developed are the harps and lyres. There are two distinct types, the Sumerians developed a vertical harp and the Egyptians, at approximately the same time, developed a bow-shaped harp. Over time, the guitar as we know it has transformed many times, beginning with the lyre or harp like instrument known as Queen Shub-Ad's Harp, which had a vertical neck and rectangular sound board. This beautiful instrument was inlaid with mosaic and lapis-lazuli and sported a golden bull's head stock. During this early period the Egyptians were playing a bow-shaped harp which had a bowl-like sound box. By the beginning of the second millennium B.C, the Babylonians were playing stringed instruments that had horizontal necks. By 1900BC the instrument had developed a shorter neck so that the soundbox could be played in a vertical position. As we know, the harp survived as an instrument, and therefore the development of the guitar was a divergence from the harp rather than a transformation.”

 “It is worth mentioning that the Spanish instrument took a slightly different developmental route. The Spanish were reluctant Lute players because this instrument was regarded as an instrument of the Moors, who had invaded and oppressed the Spanish people. This reluctance gave rise to the development of the Spanish 4 string instrument, into a 6 string instrument known as the Vihuela. This transformation enabled the playing of Lute music on the Vihuela. The Lute, although very popular in Europe, proved to be somewhat inaccessible due to the complexity of the instrument, and therefore a shift towards the single 6 string instrument emerged.”

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has some more interesting facts: http://www.themomi.org/museum/mfa/index.html

This week I constructed a Bottle Guitar using a pine plank for the neck, a piece of dowel, fishing line, eye-screws, nails and a large (milk) plastic bottle. Here are the photos. I have included frets. The strings can be tuned according to the desired pitch relationship required. Moving the fingers along the board neck and holding down the strings allows different notes to be played. I discovered that the guitar is amplified if played in a carpeted room as opposed to on a lino floor. Tuning was difficult, as the eye-screws can only go so far. Thus, rather than the conventional E, A, D, G string tuning, I selected to tune the guitar to E, G, B, E which worked most satisfactorily.

Enjoy some jazz music played on the Hawaiian guitar :