um i need help with my senior project

well my topic is "how guitar can cover multiple styles of music"

but i dont know where in blazes im gonna start so im gonna leave it to you guys... and gals to decide where im gonna start ok thank you

You've got to be kidding us boys... and gals! :P Just kiddin'. Do you mean like a list of styles or a "reason" why guitar can do that?

you too eh? I'm also doing my senior project but not on the actual guitar(sadly) but on recording. I would say start from some of the roots you know, the lyre and such, then maybe move on to more modern styles such as jazz, blues, rock and roll, 50's rockabilly, 60's, etc.

I really don't know what else to say, except good luck and hope all goes smoothly. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go write a 3 page summary of research.

How about starting with the origin of guitar? Why was it initially invented? What style was it originally for? Why do we have nylon strings vs. steel (which is now phosphor bronze) guitars? What happened when electric guitar came along? Talk about Les Paul, one of the most influential people to electric guitar.

Talk about how culture evolves an instrument. Oh wow... um... there is your entire project... CULTURE influences music, which influences the instruments that make music.

Hope that helps :-P

Well, no offense, but you can't leave us to tell you what to do with your own career dude. It's your life and your interest - so dive into the styles YOU like. Absorb yourself in every style you like and understand everything about them, how they work, why these certain melodies/chord progressions and such work well together. Stuff like that... :D

ok, here's what you do
First fill a cooler with beer. Load up a sack with snacks.Next make an awesome mix tape with examples of all the styles of music played on guitar. (save the dance tunes for last). Leave the socks and sandals at home. wear boots! Crank it up, have a party, get a great grade!
On the other hand if you want to graduate listen to Jeff!
Phip

i think you should get high first

@Vince,
In all seriousness you must check this out. It may explain alot about strings, music and the human connection with music and especially stringed instruments. it's utterly fascinating stuff.


Good luck,
Phip

@ jazz i like all the way from metal to game music and thats a HUGE spectrum of music

and in that specrtum there is many extremes like drum n bass, techno, metal, deth metal(and yes i spelled that right),grunge, jazz
(no pun intended),funk, er.. what ever it is that jimi hendrix plays (i thinks its psychodelic rock), punk, rock, shred, prog rock, just plain bass( its where you have lead and rythm bass guitars and then a regg guitar takes the place of bass its funlol), soft rock, hard rock, percussion(blue man group), some metalcore, acoustic metal, bass metal, orchestral metal, orchestral symphonies, and finally bass shred(its REEALLY hard but i can do it)


@ phip .. are you refering to when i wore sanscocks .. well i where converses now and i where them everywere


@ everyone thank you and i have chosen to do it on how the guitars sound in that type of music lol

@ phip.. again... YOUR GETTING RUSTY YOU HAVENT PHIPED ME YET SINCE I GOT BACK IM STILL WAITING ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

sorry i meant to why and how they sound***

i graduated in 1983 .. lol .. no more senior projects in my future other than helping Phip remember his name.

lol

ahhhh youz guyz, you're asking for a good old fashioned "phipping"!
I'm gonna get Vince AND Carl.
Now go to your rooms and prepare yourselves!
LOL
Phineas J. Whoopee
(that's my name right?)

I would define the guitar. a brief history lesson like jeff said is all nice but the guitar is a 3,000 year old instrument(kind of hard huh). So i would base it off of the six string Spanish guitar(in standard tuning) which is what most guitars are based off of. Then go into flat top steel strings and the new braces "they used"(most importantly C.F. Martin). then archtop guitars( most important Orville Gibson and the Epiphone [family at this point] companies). Then to achtops with pickups(first electrics) then to solid-body.

That and the "styles" your talking about I'm going to assume(and know base of your last post) are really sub-genres of a larger musical style that is American pop. and to understand why that all used guitar is there all based of Blues and County(which arguably speaking are really/originally the same thing) and more importantly the blues progression(which really isn't about the blues if you study jazz you know what i mean[Joe pass has a good video put on you tube on this]). and through the evolution of this music/progression we get all these "styles".

Also as Jeff said the invention of the electric guitar(not solid body the importance is just that they have pickups)is very important to it's popularity

(however Les Paul had nothing to due with the electric guitar nor solid body, yes he invented one of the first soil bodies called "the log" but Gibson laughed at it. Later Gibson made a solid body to enter the new market and used Les Paul as a marketing tool(having his own tv show and being a popular artist at the time). He only change it to have a maple top and change there planed bridge to one he liked more. Les Paul has more to do with recording inventions then the invention of guitars. He however push technical guitar playing, but it was already on its way into are hearts by that time. he is diffidently a mention but i don't know how far you want to go into it or just stay with the original shakers and movers)

time is now 1920s or maybe earlier(I'm really bad with dates) and swing/big band is the music to be in this is jazzes hay day in the spot light. Now theses bands need a comping instrument(if you don't know what comping is look it up but for now it is like rhythm guitar). Now you need a instrument that can play chords(trumpet[most popular],trombone,violin,clarinet, and ect. can only play single notes). Now the king of these comping instruments would be the piano, but it has it's draw backs, one it's big, two hard to tune, three it's big(can't always play a good one subject to whatever "they have"). wouldn't it be nice to have a smaller instrument that plays chords.... the guitar?.....F*CK NO my blind deaf and dumb dead mother can make louder noises. you see this is before electric guitars are on the market

(WARNING this is not all true like said before the guitar is a base instrument in American pop due to the blues/country and it did show up. it just couldn't compete with these louder instruments but was a valuable instrument in the American peoples eyes. It was in popular show tunes at the time and other "things". The name that is coming to my mind is Nick Lucas who helped drive the acoustic guitar in the early non-electric/just beginning electric years even has his own models by Gibson which where very sought after up into the 60s(bob Dylan used one) these more guitarist but i don't know more names i just like nick Lucas and this is more about importance then who i like.)

so with no guitar being loud enough what Lute would do it for these swing/big bands. Well that would be the four string banjo soon to be six(tuned in standard) which would fit the needs of volume. But then the invention of pickups came about(And what u forgot to mention the guitar is a much more harmonically advanced instrument and beats the banjo but is too quite) and they where slapped onto the loudest gutar at the time. which is the Archtop. Well first well know eclectic guitar player In swing/big band is... I forget his name he was in Count Basie or Duke Ellington's band forget but I'm going with the Duke always go with the Duke LISTEN TO THE DUKE NOW!!!!!.... but he was just a compter(look at me just a compter, comping is awesome), but never the less he set the stage for the guitar's conquest. The first most important guitarist is defiantly Charlie christen, with his own electric guitar/pickup he proved to the world the electric guitar is not just a comping instrument but also a single not master. but most importantly he showed this to Wes Montgomery who put it into rock that the guitar is a kill all instrument. it has been said that all guitar licks originally come from him. An other key figure is Django Reinhardt in making the guitar a single note wonder. I just don't like him but is very important. next in line are your Les pauls, Chet atkins, joe pass(early,early,early).

-----sorry it messed up-------

joe pass(early,early,early), and other types.

next let's just talk about the guitar is self. There was a change in view of the instrument(in standard tuning) in the players eyes/hands at one point in American pop time line. and that was to look at the guitar like it is a piano, and in fact they are very close in nature. share many of the same choral voices. Now the is few major differences, I'm going to skip the obvious, but most importantly there both competent chordal instruments, but the guitar beats the piano hands down in single note soloing. it was expression or frequency(bending, it's version of sliding, ect), one can alter the timbre just by how one hits the strings(piano all you have is a quite hit to a loud hit), and guitar can change it's sound much easier with effects(i know now not so much but before yes). Now this is the most important fact of it's dominance, not the best single note soloer nor arguably best comping, but it is very competent in both leading to it being a major player.


Now there is much more artist that need to be spoken about and when i say American pop i like to think in includes Latin American(samba, Cuban music[so good]), but i only really talked about jazz. Blues artist need to be talk about the rise in popularity of country the bluegrass artists(merle Travis[a must], doc Watson[which leads to Clarence white/tony rice]) also what about European music!!!! flamenco was completely left out. it's new/resurgence role in classical music how can Andrés Segovia be left out! much more must be looked into but i hope this will give you some ideas as to where you want to go.

@phip I don't know if string theory is the best place to start, but if I'm god's music, is the music I'm making God, or I'm a god and making new universes and dimensions, and if that's true am I with my music making this universe effectively becoming my own God, or better yet I'm i in charge of making your universe better hope i don't hit a wrong note or all hell will break use(o wait it seems i did). thanks for all the pressure now how to you think i feel. then again i knew there was a reason i chose RA as my name.

/..... wow
it took me 20 min to read thru all that


course i was playin guitar and like got sidetreackeed when i was playin rising force by malmsteen lol

@ phip ,..,.... still waiting jeez i could be as good as jimmy page and you still wouldnt be done JK JK

yeah thanks. I generally post late at night due to insomnia and i can't make loud noise. so i get carried away a times if you couldn't put that to gather.

but any way, I have an interest in these sorts of things so i can try my best to point you in the right directions take away you want leave the rest. but i think a major part of your essay should be on the instrument it's self talk about standard tuning. That can be a whole essay it's self and the importance of six strings to harmony as to four. Perfect Fourth interval tuning with the 3rd leap. How tuning in prefect fourths would help melody but the add on helps the harmony

http://www.richardlloyd.com/

this man has the good part of the answers(why write what someone said better), he need to write a book. click on "ask Richard" and "the alchemical guitarist" to find the answers. it has changed since when i was reading it a bit ago i think it is in "ask Richard" (old part). look for the question about "why not tuning EADGCF?" but has many other answers to things on the topic.

@vince

btw what is your product going to be?

Very interesting thought! I've thought about that exact same thing,there are many possabilities.

RA, this is some other topic within the topic but - does your insomnia effect your playing? Because it hinders mine a fair amount when it gets really bad.

@ case umm product?