Country Music Instruments

1. Country Music Instruments Instruments used in Country Music

2. A Guitar

3. The Guitar • Early guitars were first used in the 12th century in Europe, descendant from instruments in China and India • The oldest representation of a guitar is a 3,000 year old carving • Inspiration for the guitar could have come from a four stringed instrument called an oud brought to Europe by invading Moors in the 8th century, or the Scandinavian six stringed lute (800AD) • Two types of guitars were common by 1200AD (Moorish and Latin)

4. Latin Guitars A picture of Latin medieval guitars

5. The Guitar • The Spanish vihuela was created in the 15th century and was the main influence for our modern style of guitar • It had a body much like a modern guitar, larger than its contemporaries, with six strings and a system for tuning • In the late 15th century, some vihuelas were played with bows leading to the violin/viola. • The vihuela died out by the end of the 16th century • The five stringed Baroque guitar took over in popularity until modern guitars

6. Vihuela Painting depicting a viheula player from 1520

7. The Guitar • There are many, many different types of guitar in use today. • Types of guitars most commonly used today fall generally into three categories: • Acoustic • Electric • Classical

8. Classical Guitar • Also known as Spanish guitars • Nylon strings played with fingers • Wide, flat neck allows for ease of playing scales and arpeggios • Comes in different sizes (Flamenco guitars, requinto, guitarron)

9. Classical guitar

10. Electric Guitar • Invented in 1931, used first by jazz musicians • Can have hollow, semi-hollow, or solid bodies • Steel strings played with picks • Produce very little sound without amplification • Electromagnetic pickups transfer the vibrations of the strings into signals that are then fed through the amp via a cable • Sound can be modified through other electronic means • Usually have seven strings, though can have as few as one and as many as fourteen

11. Electric Guitar

12. Acoustic Guitar • A group of guitars that create sound without amplification • Uses an acoustic soundboard to project the sound • Strings vibrate against the soundboard, the soundboard resonates at the same frequency, creates a different timbre without changing pitch • Has a hollow body to increase resonance • Sound travels from string to soundboard to body cavity to outside air

13. Acoustic Guitar

14. Videos • Classical Guitar • Acoustic Folk • Electric Guitar

15. A Fiddle

16. The Fiddle • The Fiddle and the violin are technically the same instrument • Fiddle or fiddling refers to the style of playing, NOT the instrument itself • Fiddling is done on stringed instruments that are played with bows • Emerged in Europe in the 10th century • Two different lira (stringed instruments) developed in this time- one played sitting up and one played while being held up

17. The Fiddle • The instrument held sitting up was called the lira digambaand was held by the legs. It died out in the Renaissance, due to its inferior sound • The instrument held up by the arm was called the lira dibraccio. It became the violin. • Fiddling was normally done as solo work, because it was done in small dance settings where a group of instruments would be too loud • By the 20th century, groups of instrumentalists were more common

18. The Fiddle • Fiddlers could push their instruments harder than classical violinists • Violin playing is generally smoother and more classical in nature • Fiddling usually keeps a stronger beat, and is a harsher sound from pushing the bow harder onto the strings.

19. Video • Fiddling • Classical Violin

20. The Banjo

21. The Banjo • A four, five or six stringed instrument with a piece of animal skin or plastic stretched over a circular frame • Simpler forms of the instrument were fashioned by Africans in Colonial America, adapted from several African instruments of similar design. • Occupied a central place in African American traditional music, then became popular in the minstrel shows of the 19th century. • Slaves influenced early development of country and bluegrass, through the introduction of the banjo

22. The Banjo • Original African instruments did not have tuning or frets; those notions came from the Caribbean in the 17th century • Instruments in many other countries throughout the 15th and 16th centuries were very similar to the banjo, but were derived from the lute • In the 1830s, Joel Sweeney was the first white man to play the banjo on stage

23. The Banjo • Banjos usually have a wooden rim with a tightened animal skin or synthetic head, like a drum • Some banjos have resonator plates on the back, to give the instrument more volume • Two techniques are used to play the Banjo- drones and rolls • Drones play quick single melody notes • Rolls play accompaniment chord patterns

24. Banjo Videos • Banjo • Asian Big Band