Electric guitars questions. PDF

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questions about the electric guitars assignment. ...

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1. The website notes that “the electric guitar may be the most important and popular instrument of the last half-century in American music.” Why was it so important? Because it brought a major change to American musical technology and it shaped the sound and direction of modern musical styles.

2. What are some of the reasons performers in the late 19th century and early 20th century might have wanted their guitars to make louder sounds? Musical performances in the 19th century were characterized by ever-larger concert settings and ensembles.That is why musicians needed louder and more powerful instruments.

3. What were some of the techniques used to make guitars louder in the years before the invention of the electric guitar? Guitar makers increased their efforts to develop louder guitars by experimenting with large sizes and metal bodies. Other innovators started to focus on electricity as a possible aid.

4. How did the popularity of Big Band music in the 1920s impact the kinds of guitars musicians played? The quest for a louder guitar intensified during the 1920s with the advent of big band music, phonograph recordings, and commercial radio. The competition between these new markets led guitar makers to begin not only building larger flat top and archtop guitars, but increasingly experimenting with different materials and designs.

5. What is a “hollow-body” electric guitar? What were some of the problems associated with these instruments? By the late 1930s other makers and players adapted the new technology to the more traditional Spanish-style hollow-body wooden guitars, but were troubled with distortions, overtones, and feedback—the amplification of vibrations in the body of the instrument as well as in the strings.

6. The website notes that “during the early years of its existence, the electric guitar's viability as a ‘true’ instrument was frequently debated. The instrument's detractors often claimed it did not produce a pure, ‘authentic’ musical sound.” Why do you think they may

have felt this way? Do you think their objections were justified? Why or why not? I do not think their objections were justified because even though electric guitars might not produce a sound as the one that produces the acoustic guitar, that does not mean that the sound is not pure or authentic. As a new instrument, it was hard for some people to identify the sound as pure due to its different vibrations and frequencies of sound.

7. How did the electric guitar pioneers of the 1930s and 1940s influence the kinds of sounds a musician could make with a guitar? All experimented with the instrument's tonal and harmonic possibilities. In the process, other musicians, makers, and audiences started to pay attention to the new electric sound.

8. In what ways were electric guitars innovative? What could musicians do with them that they could not do with an acoustic guitar? The electric guitar initially met with skepticism from traditionalists—performers as well as makers and audiences. But country and blues players and jazz instrumentalists soon took to the variety of new tones and sounds that the electric guitar could produce, exploring innovative ways to alter, bend, and sustain notes.

9. Why was the electric guitar so important to the development of Rock and Roll? Because of the instrument's volume and tones proved particularly appealing to the enthusiasts of rock and roll.

10.What are the differences between how acoustic, electric-acoustic, solid body and Hawaiian/steel guitars make sounds? The sound of the acoustic guitar is produced by striking the strings and making them vibrate. Electric-acoustic guitars have pickups that are electromagnets mounted under the guitar strings. They sense the strings' vibrations and convert them into electrical signals that travel through a cable to the amplifier to increase the sound. When the solid-body guitar is plugged into an amplifier, the electrical impulses created by the pickups are converted into sound by the amplifier. Special-effects boxes, such as the fuzz box that creates a distorted sound, can change the signal from the pickups, which changes the sound that the amplifier produces. The Hawallan guitar was designed to be played horizontally with a sliding steel bar, a much easier technique than fingering the strings. The lap-steel and pedal-steel

are variations of this instrument.

11. Which type of electric guitar has had the greatest impact on Rock and Roll? Why? Gibson has had the greatest impact on Rock and Roll because it allowed teenagers across the country to reinvent themselves in terms of a vision of musical rebellion and independence. Even though Fender’s new style influenced other manufacturers to produce their own style, Gibson became Fender's major competitor in 1952.

12.Compare and contrast the sounds made by an acoustic guitar with those of amplified hollowbody and solid-body electric guitars. (Use the links found under “How Guitars Work.) How are these sounds different? How do they create different moods and different musical effects? The vibration of the sounds are different because solid-body guitars keep the sound vibrating longer after it has been played. Also solid-body guitar can create distortion in the sound kind of a radio sound. The hollowbody has a very legit and authentic sound similar to the acoustic guitar, but louder with electrical signals that amplify the sound....