Instruments - Part 24

 Guitar

The guitar is one of two instruments that millions of people have at home and have learned to play (the other being the piano). Guitars are used in almost every kind of music. There are even classical guitar concertos.

But the guitar really comes into its own in solo performance and in small groups like rock bands.  Above, the band Lawson.

The guitar was developed in Spain in the Middle Ages, with the final form of the modern acoustic guitar perfected by Spanish guitar makers around 1850.  The guitar has a hollow body, or sound box, that resonates and amplifies the sound of the strings.

Guitars normally have six strings made of nylon or steel, tuned to E,A,D,G,B,E.  The fretboard, or neck, of the guitar has frets (metal strips) across it.  When the guitarist presses his finger above a fret, the string is effectively shortened and plays a higher pitch.  The frets are positioned so that each successive fret plays the next higher note on the musical scale, e.g. G, A-flat, A, B-flat, B, etc.

This guy seems to be trying to play a guitar with no strings.  Perhaps his audience isn't concentrating on his guitar playing.

The electric guitar, first developed in the 1930s, does not have a hollow body to amplify the sound.  Instead, pickups convert the string vibrations into an electric signal that is fed to an amplifier and speakers.

The bass guitar, sometimes just called a bass, has a longer neck and longer strings to play lower notes.  Normally it has four strings.  Above, Nick Oliveri in the band Queens of the Stone Age with his bass guitar.

Guitarists can pluck the strings with their fingers, or they can use a little triangular piece of plastic called a guitar pick or plectrum to pluck the strings.  Above, Nick Oliveri is playing his bass guitar with a guitar pick.

And then there's the "air guitar," as demonstrated above.

If you learn to play the guitar, you can serenade your grandmother like Justin Bieber did in 2012.  This really happened; it's not a Photoshop fake.  Reportedly, his grandma enjoyed the song, but then she asked him to get dressed.

Or, if you have a buddy who wants to learn, you can teach him how to play.  How to play the guitar.  Get your mind out of the gutter!