Who Invented the Guitar?
The earliest stringed instrument known may have been the bowl harp from nearly 4000 years ago. With a tortoise shell for the body and a curved stick for the neck, adding a few strings allowed the making of music.
The tanbur might have been next. A straight neck allowed pressing the strings down to produce a wider range of tones. A tanbur, dating from about 3500 years ago may be seen at the Archaeological Museum in Cairo.
From this somewhat crude design, a variety of instruments were developed over time. The first instrument to begin to resemble the modern guitar was the Moorish oud, which had no frets. These were added by the Europeans, who then called the instrument a lute.
Other variations included the dotar, a two-string instrument found in Turkistan. A three-string instrument found in Iran was known as a setar. from which the Indian sitar may have been developed. This, in turn, led to the Spanish four-string guitar. Now, we’re getting somewhere!
At this point, ancestors of the modern guitar came to Europe from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Most had four strings. In fact, the Old Persian word “chartar” means “four strings.” By the beginning of the Renaissance, such instruments used four sets of paired strings known as “courses,” with each course having both strings tuned in unison. The earliest known music for this instrument, known then as the “chitarra” was found in Spain in the 16th century. In 1680 Antonio Stradivarius – the same gentleman who became famous for his violins – made a five-course guitar. Early instruments had only eight frets, increased over time to ten and then twelve frets, giving the instrument a range of three octaves.
In the 17th century, Italians added a 6th course (pair of strings) to their “guitarra battente,” thus creating the first 12-string guitar. Over time, though, six-string instruments began to dominate.
At this point, guitar bodies were rather small, with narrow waists. The modern “classical guitar” began to look more like present-day instruments in 1859 when Antonio Torres made it larger, altered its proportions and modified the internal bracing. It has remained so to this day.
The introduction of steel strings around 1900 required instruments with stronger internal bracing, and produced more volume. Some of these early instruments had arched tops similar to those of cellos.
The Martin Guitar Company was founded in 1833 and, late in the 1800s, Orville Gibson began producing guitars and founded the company that bears his name today.
In the early 20th century, the acoustic guitar couldn’t be heard above big band sound. To fill the need, the first commercially viable electric guitar was developed by George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker.
The guitar is a hugely popular instrument today. To learn how to play one, call me at 610-647-4341.
The current Glenn Miller Orchestra is having an interesting career – this year is already booked solid, with concert dates all over the world! How did this all begin?
Born in 1904, Alton Glenn Miller dropped out of college to become a professional musician. After touring with many “name” bands of the day, he finally formed his own in 1938. He once said, “A band ought to have a sound of its own – it ought to have a personality.” His unique blend of instruments created that sound, and resulted in a long series of hit records making the Glenn Miller Band the best-selling recording artist from 1939 to 1943. That distinctive Miller sound continues to entertain music lovers to this day.
The recordings I’m working on, by the way, were made by trombone virtuoso Larry O’Brien, who served as the orchestra’s conductor for more than twenty years. During those years he and the orchestra toured both at home and abroad, being exceptionally well received in Japan.
With a little professional help, they’d been able to create colorful disk labels, detailed tray liners and covers to create a package that looked as good as it sounded. All copies were given away years ago, but there are still requests for the music. Making multiple CDs from their DAT (Digital Audio Tape) was a fairly straightforward process. More challenging was reproducing the original labels for the completed disks. With a combination of sophisticated software – and a lot of trial and error – I was able to recreate the original labels exactly. The leader of the chorale already had extra covers and tray liners on hand, and so they were able to complete final assembly on their own.
A request was called in from a client in a distant state who needed editing of a video from a previous session. The original video file had been deleted from the computer several years ago. Luckily, an archival DVD disk was available, so I used that to create a new digital video file suit-able for editing. Then, the four requested songs could be separated from each other with fades in/out applied where needed. Finally, the files were converted to an Internet-friendly format and emailed to the client in Nebraska who will then send individual songs to contacts in other states.
Due to the unusual combination of services available here, clients tend to remain loyal over the long term. More than thirty years ago, a client recorded an audio version of a specialized exercise program for seniors. A hundred audiocassette copies were made for distribution. Over the years, additional orders were called in from time to time. Eventually, following marketplace trends, the cassette format was discontinued and replaced by the compact disk.
Due to the unusually high-frequency content of the client’s voice, special care is required in preserving the original sound quality of the recording.
Although archival disks have been maintained for the clients’ convenience, digital files are also kept active. This allows completing orders more quickly.
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