Journey of the Guitar
From Mod Mania
Music is a powerful media. It has the capacity to invoke a wide range of emotions and responses in people. Music will often affect our mood, thought patterns, learning capacities and can affect our perceptions. It is a form of communication that anyone can understand, whether or not you speak the same language. Music is used to convey thoughts, feelings, ideas and emotions. It can mimic the rhythm and pattern of our verbal communication, but it can also paint a image or scene. People will respond differently to the same piece of music, be it classical, rock, acoustic, metal or any other genre. A musician is able to transport people to different places, to let new thoughts enter their minds.
One of the most popular instruments that people learn or want to learn is the guitar. They are easy to learn (but difficult to master), portable and versatile. The same guitar, acoustic or electric, can be played in so many different ways, any genre or style, solo instrument, part of a band, orchestra or gig or just simply playing with no audience. It's almost as if instead of the individual owning the guitar, the guitar becomes part of who the musician is, an integral part of that person's pattern of life and personality. Perhaps the guitar changes who you are.
People start to learn guitar for many different reasons, needed to learn an instrument for school, to just “give it a go”, jealous of people who could, wanted to learn how to play a favourite song, to impress girls, or maybe it was a progression from another instrument, such as piano or bass. When someone first picks up a guitar it is often because they have a goal in mind, they have a linear view of what it will be like to play guitar, and what the final outcome will be. They are using this product as if it is simply just some timber and strings connected together to make pleasant sounds. What they don't realise is that as their skill develops, so does their ability to make not just sounds, but music. Once the musician-in-the-making has mastered notes, finger-picking, strumming and chords (whether taught through formal lessons, by a friend or through learning by ear), they are soon able to play songs. They are able to weave rhythm, and pitch, and dynamics together in an intricate pattern that can create an experience for anyone listening.
One of the next stages in the development of the guitarist is choosing a guitar. You only need to walk into a music store to see how many different types of guitars there are, steel string, nylon string; 6 string, 12 string; Yameha, Gibson, Maton, Fender and Alhambra amongst others. Each guitarist will look for different qualities in the guitar they want. Generally playing a few different guitars will help with finding something that sounds good and suits the type of style that they want to play. “Extras” are also worth considering though they range from nearly essential (e.g. acoustic with built in pick-up and cut-away) to handy add-ons (e.g. built in tuner). “Action” is also considered very important. The “action” is the the distance between the string and the fret, how far the string has to travel before it hits the fret. A guitar is easier to play when there is no fret buzz and the “action” is as low as possible.
After experimenting with different methods of playing guitar and different genres an individual “guitar personality” will develop, often similar to the music that they enjoy listening to the most. A guitarist will have the style that they enjoy playing the most and a situation that they prefer to play in. This may be worship music in a church band, acoustic music around a campfire, metal music for the challenge, writing songs for someone or jamming with friends. The path to finding this particular niche is quite varied, it can come through formal situations such as lessons and exams or it can come from jamming with friends and playing gigs or concerts. There is no right or wrong way to find this creative individual expression.
As with any other consumer product, the user will define the product, adapt it to suit their needs. But unlike many other consumer products, the guitar and the guitarist work together to create and define themselves. It is a much more abstract and delicate process of modification. The more a guitar is played, the more its tone and timbre change and develop. The more a guitarist plays, the more they change and develop. Being a musician is not a one way path, the instrument you play eventually becomes part of who you are and what you do, unlike a coffee machine or a desk chair. As one of my friends said , “It’s quite impossible to imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t learned guitar, and in fact it’s quite a futile and fruitless exercise to undertake. Music was always going to play a huge role in my life, and I guess that guitar just happened to be the most natural expression of that. It’s given me a lot of confidence in making myself available to serve in new groups or communities.”
Even though at the beginning of learning an instrument you may have had a linear path to a particular goal, somewhere along the way you and the instrument have become almost as one, and there is no longer one end goal, there are series of goals to aspire to. This process of modification is an on going journey, guitarists (as with other musicians) will continue to change and evolve their style and ideal playing situation, as their life changes and evolves around them. Music is almost alive in the fact that it never remains the same.
References
http://www.guitar-4u.com/types-of-guitars.html
http://www.hobby-hour.com/guitar/famous_guitar_brands.php
http://www.co-acoustic.com/2/all/brands.shtml
