Introduction to Guitar

Guitar lessons, you might think, are the furthest thing away from the history of the guitar, but it is good to know the origin of the instrument you are about to learn. It's realy quite interesteng for example, some experts say that the very first guitars began to appear in ancient times. There is said to be proof that the very first guitars were not only made from wood, they were actually made from clay, turtle shells and even melons. Also the early guitars served a double purpose, one as an instrument, and the other as a hunting bow. Now on the other hand, other expert’s say that Spain is where the guitar began, and that guitars can’t, with any credibility, be traced back any further than the 15th century. It is believed also, that the first guitar had only four strings instead of the traditional six. Back then the strings were referred to as a course. This early invention marks the early stages of what is now known as the introduction of the Ukulele, which is in the guitar family. Picture is on the top left. The bottom picture is from ancient times. From Mesopotamia, this clay Image was made near 1900 BC .

                                         Modern Steel String Guitar

 

It seems that most of the credit for the early development of the acoustic guitar is given to the Ertopian. When in actuality, the introduction of the steel string acoustic guitars, happened in America.The early 20th century was a time in history that the Europeans were migrating to the United States. Among the many European imagrants, there were a large number of skilled instrument makers. They provided the introduction of two types of guitars, and they are: The flat top guitar and the arch top guitar. These two world famous empires, Martin Guitars and Gibson Guitars, were two of the earliest and most influential American acoustic guitar makers.

                      The Electric Guitar

 The introduction of the electric guitar was a very welcome time because it came out of sheer necessity. You just couldn’t hear the acoustic over the drums and bass. The microphones and amplifiers had already been invented, so the only thing left to do was to figure out a way to amplify the guitar, so they tried to amplify the guitar by standing or sitting by a microphone, and letting the microphone pick up the sound, but that caused big time fed back problems. The musician had no freedom to move around being restricted to the microphones range.

To make a long story short, a well known man called Les Paul, through trial and error, came up with the introduction of the solid body guitar, with a magnetic pick-up built in. And there was yet another guitar giant back then, which was named Leo Fender.  He came up with volume controls right on the guitar, and also later introduced a bolt on neck, and took the guitar to the assembly lines, thanks for the introduction of  Henry Ford's assembly line. The Fender hasn’t changed much for over 50 years, and it still has the same spunky fender sound which is its trade mark. You just cant mistake the original sound of an electric Fender.