Music Info

GUITAR

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings. Some modern guitars are made of polycarbonate materials. Guitars are made and repaired byluthiers. There are two primary families of guitars: acoustic and electric.

Acoustic guitars (and similar instruments) with hollow bodies have been in use for over a thousand years. There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the classical guitar (nylon-string guitar), the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the vibration of the strings, which is amplified by the body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive fingerpicking technique.

Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, rely on an amplifier that can electronically manipulate tone. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but a solid body was found more suitable. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound influence on popular culture. Guitars are recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, jazz, jota, mariachi, ki/Reggae" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">reggae, rock, soul, and many forms of pop.

PIANO

The piano is founded on earlier technological innovations. The first string instruments with struck strings were the hammered dulcimers.^[2]During the Middle Ages, there were several attempts at creating stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings.^[3] By the 17th century, the mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well known. In a clavichord the strings are struck bytangents, while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard.

The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the previous body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. A friend of the family by the name of Sebastian LeBlanc suggested the idea to switch the black and white keys^{[citation needed]} The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.

BASS

The bass guitar^[1] (also called electric bass,^[2][3][4] or simply bass;  /ˈbeɪs/) is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers orthumb (by plucking, slapping, popping, tapping, or thumping), or by using a plectrum.

The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and four, five, or sixstrings. The four-string bass—by far the most common—is usually tuned the same as the double bass,^[5] which corresponds to pitches oneoctave lower than the four lower strings of a guitar (E, A, D, and G).^[6] The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds (as is the double bass) to avoid excessive ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the electric bass guitar is plugged into an amplifier and speaker for live performances.

Since the 1950s, the electric bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While the types of basslines performed by the bass guitarist vary widely from one style of music to another, the bass guitarist fulfills a similar role in most types of music: anchoring the harmonic framework and laying down the beat. The bass guitar is used in many styles of music including rock, metal, pop, punk rock, country, blues, and tial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">jazz. It is used as a soloing instrument in jazz, fusion, Latin, funk, and in some rock and heavy metal styles.

DRUM KIT

A drum kit (also drum set,^[1] or trap set) is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, darbukas, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person (drummer).

The individual instruments of a drum-set are hit by a variety of implements held in the hand, including sticks, brushes, and mallets. Two notable exceptions include the bass drum, played by a foot-operated pedal, and the hi-hat cymbals, which may be struck together using a foot pedal in addition to being played with sticks or brushes. Although other instruments can be played using a pedal, the feet are usually occupied by the bass drum and hi hat, and as a result the drummer often plays in a seated position. Percussion notation is often used by drummers to signify which drum set components are to be played. A full size drum set without any additional percussion instruments has a bass drum, floor tom, snare drum, tom-toms, and a variety of cymbals including hi-hat cymbals, ride cymbal and a crash cymbal. The Rev of Avenged Sevenfold used three bass drums as well as the drummer from Atreyu. Alex van Halen has used four bass drums in the past. Various music genres dictate the stylistically appropriate use of the drum kit's set-up. For example, in most forms of ial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">rock music, the bass drum, hi-hat and snare drum are the primary instruments used to create a drum beat, whereas in jazz, ride and snare patterns tend to be more prevalent and the hi-hat is played by the foot. In the 2000s, an increasing number of drummers have begun to use electronic drum pads which trigger synthesized or sampled drum sounds.