Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Great Guitarist Essay -- essays research papers
     Through out history, music has played a big role. It has let people communicate and others release their creative minds. Throughout the life of music, instruments have made it happen. The guitar has become one of the most popular of all instruments. In fact, almost every band heard on the radio has a lead guitar accompanying the vocals. Thanks to the greats like B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Andres Segovia, and Eric Clapton the guitar has been made the lead instrument in much of music. With contributions from each one of these legendary players, the guitar is used in a variety of styles; heavy metal to classical.      Now a days, guitars are seen and heard everywhere. There are so many different types and styles. The two major categories are electric and acoustic. Electric guitars where first introduced in the 1940’s to enhance and amplify the sound of acoustic guitars. Acoustic guitars have hollow, wooden bodies. When the strings are played, the sound is amplified and echoes in the resonating body (New Grove 827).      Today the common guitars, acoustic and electric, have six strings and on average of nineteen frets that range 3  ½ octaves. An octave is a unit of measurement obtaining to tones. Each string has a name. The bottom and thinnest string is the high e, next is b, then g, onto d, then A, and finally low E. Sound is made by strumming or plucking these strings while placing the fingers of the opposite hand on the frets and strings to produce different notes (Turnbull 825).      The guitar is hard to trace back beyond the Renaissance period but it is known the guitar has roots in Spain. The first known guitar was small with four sets of strings; each set called a course. Later a fifth course was added. At the end of the Baroque period, single strings replaced the double strings and a sixth was added. Since then, the guitar was changed little until Manuel Torres worked with the design and body. First, he increased the overall size. Making the body bigger and the neck longer added more notes and more amplification. He was the first to use the fan brace design on the inside of the resonating body. This increased the sound quality that was produced by the echo. This design is still in use today (Some Guitar History 2).      B.B. K... ... his guitars. â€Å"Clapton’s rich, precise guitar work showed why he is worth seeing anytime, anywhere†(Fricke 2).      The history of the guitar is very broad but certain individuals have made it a very popular instrument. These same people have brought the guitar into the spotlight by using their own special styles. Thanks to them, the guitar has a spot in every type of music; heavy metal too classical. Biography Biography. [online] Available http://clapton.musicdot.com/biography.htm. Ewen, David, ed. Musicians Since 1900. New York: H.W. Wilson     Company, 1978. Fricke, David. â€Å"Clapton’s Crossroads Jam.†Rolling Stone 5 Aug. 1999:     24. Kerekes, Jim and Dennis O’Neill. King Of The Blues. [online] Available     http://www.worldblues.com/bbking/prairie/. Pesant, Steven C. James ‘Jimi’ Marshall Hendrix. [online] Available      http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/story/hendrix.asp. Some Guitar History. [online] Available     http://www.albany.net/~dowland/gtrhstry.html, December 7, 1999. Turnbull, Harvey. The New Grove. 1995 ed.
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