COUNTRY MUSIC INSTRUMENTS

Instruments used in Country Music

A Guitar

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)

A picture of Latin medieval guitars

Latin Guitars

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

Painting depicting a viheula player from 1520

Vihuela

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

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)

Classical guitar

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

Electric Guitar

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

Acoustic Guitar

Videos

Classical Guitar Acoustic Folk Electric Guitar

A Fiddle

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

The Fiddle

The instrument held sitting up was called the lira di gamba and 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 di braccio. 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

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.

Video

Fiddling Classical Violin

The Banjo

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

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

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

Banjo Videos

Banjo Asian Big Band