5.1 Guitars  (Page 4/5)

History

Guitar-like instruments are an ancient group. Because the guitar gradually developed from other, similar instruments in the lute family, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact beginnings of the instrument. It may have developed from an instrument used in Asia since ancient times; or it may have developed from an instrument in use in medieval Europe. Guitars were definitely being played in Spain and France by the middle of the 1500's. The modern guitar is based on the designs of Spaniard Antonio de Torres, and the guitar has historically been closely associated with Spain. Early instruments were smaller and quieter than the modern acoustic guitar.

In order to get a louder, richer tone, these early instruments almost always had doubled strings. The earliest guitars had four pairs of strings (four courses ), and later - by the early 1600's - guitars had five pairs. By the late 1700's, guitars with six pairs of strings or six single strings were being made.

Suggestions for beginners and parents of beginners

You must be near adult size to play a full-size guitar comfortably. Children under ten who want to play guitar will probably need a half-size or three-quarter-size guitar. Most "guitars" this size are toys, not musical instruments, so get the help of a guitar teacher or other knowledgeable musician in choosing an instrument.

There are many different types of guitar and styles of guitar playing. A student who wants to learn classical guitar will need a different instrument and probably a different teacher than a student who wants to learn jazz improvisation. If you're not sure what you want, talk to a guitar teacher about it and listen to recordings of guitars playing in different styles.

On the other hand, it's very useful to learn the basics of all the styles. It's a good idea to know how to read common notation (including classical guitar fingerings) and tablature notation as well as chord charts, no matter what style of guitar you normally play. If you can play a solo line and classical and jazz scales as well as chord strumming and picking, this will make you a much more versatile instrumentalist.

Repertoire

There is a huge and varied repertoire of music out there for guitar. Almost any radio station, whether it's playing pop, rock, jazz, country, even folk or classical, will feature plenty of guitar music. Recordings featuring guitar are also very easy to find.

Practical information for composers and arrangers

Written range of the guitar

Written range of bass guitar

The guitar sounds an octave lower than written. This need not concern you as an arranger, unless the specific octave of the note is very important to you. Guitar players prefer to read treble clef or guitar tablature (some may only read one or the other). Bass guitar players read bass clef. Some guitar players cannot usefully read either tablature or common notation, but will easily improvise an accompaniment using only the chord names written above the staff.