Duende Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 In my music dept at the school I work today in, it credits Iraq (as it is known now) as having the earliest relative of the guitar in circa 1800 BC. Anyway I have just been goggling about it and found this site very interesting site. http://www.onlineguitarlessonsfx.com/guitar-facts/ancient-guitar-history/ It is so easy to over look the amount of stuff the Arab world advanced for us in the world today; The academic degree, the number system being two huge things that were developed. The Spanish Flamenco style has very obvious Arabic and Indian musical ingredients in it's tonality and harmonic structure; the most obvious audible similarity is what in the west, we call the harmonic minor scale. All the guys like Randy Rhoads, Richie Blackmore, Yngwie all use (used in RR's case[crying]) this tonality in their work. (Jason Becker seemed to know no limits in the amount of different flavourings he gave his music). In fact the way way Yngwie improvises, evokes more of the sound and spirit of flamenco to me, than the Baroque composers he sites as influences, such as Bach and Vivaldi etc. Even our very own Slash (thinking of the all hail Slash thread LOL) uses the Arabian sound often in his music! It is easy to forget the importance of this, in what we love as the guitar and in popular music today! Any thoughts? Matt ps. Yes I am expecting a Milod response when I check this in the afternoon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeVeeWee Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Hey Matt, Love this history class! The Arab world's influence on western music today and in the past is huge. I will not ellaborate on the guitar part, I just wanted to cite some jazz icons from past century who introduced the 'modal' jazz, ...Miles Davis, John Coltrane with to the Arab music! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 The guitar was brought to earth on alien space crafts and back engineered and reproduced by humans and used to make music. The original use of the guitar was not to make music at all, it was a means of communication between celestial beings. As spoken language between creatures of different galaxies was difficult, the guitar using a tonal pitch as means of communication was much more universal. Why do you think they call music the "universal Language" Just sayin'..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAS44 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 There has been some form of the guitar around for over 5000 yrs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 Hey Matt' date='Love this history class! The Arab world's influence on western music today and in the past is huge. I will not ellaborate on the guitar part, I just wanted to cite some jazz icons from past century who introduced the 'modal' jazz, ...Miles Davis, John Coltrane with [blink] to the Arab music! Get back in your chair and put your hand up first! LMAO. Yes those guys, I wish we could talk about this over a beer, maybe one day! By the way Daveinspain, I know you are joking but that really appeals to me. I also loved the parallel universe thread about the Beatles here recently. I wonder how many Dr Who, Star Trek and X Men fans are on the Gibson forums. Join me my fellow geeks!! :) Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 OK, remember the movie Close Encounters? How did the scientists communicate with the aliens? Just sayin'...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundergod Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Cool, thanks for this thread Matt. I'm thinking I have an arab sounding song or two too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundergod Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 But hey... wasn't the real guitar solid bodied and build in 1959 only? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 But hey... wasn't the real guitar solid bodied and build in 1959 only? I think it was 52.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChanMan Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 The guitar was brought to earth on alien space crafts and back engineered and reproduced by humans and used to make music. The original use of the guitar was not to make music at all' date=' it was a means of communication between celestial beings. As spoken language between creatures of different galaxies was difficult, the guitar using a tonal pitch as means of communication was much more universal. Why do you think they call music the "universal Language" Just sayin'.....[/quote'] Love the theory. Documentation please. Matt- Excellent history! Coolest thing in there for me was learning that the lute was Scandinavian in origin! I had thought it more Southern European... I find it interesting, though, that they never mentioned the fretboard. Research I have done reveals the only thing keeping my mountain dulcimer from being similar to a medieval instrument is the raised fretboard... as most extant examples were flush from the body of the instrument to the neck... Thanks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeVeeWee Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 But hey... wasn't the real guitar solid bodied and build in 1959 only? LOL, though mine says 2007:-" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Good article Matt. Also to note is that the Bible mentions King David as playing a lyre (not sure that's spelled correct) which was most likely an instrument with a body, neck, and strings. So it coincides with the Iraq history mentioned in the article if you keep in mind that the height of his kingly reign was around 1086 B.C. and he was known for playing in king Saul's court prior so that would be right around 2000 B.C. as the article mentions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 Good article Matt. Also to note is that the Bible mentions King David as playing a lyre (not sure that's spelled correct) which was most likely an instrument with a body' date=' neck, and strings. So it coincides with the Iraq history mentioned in the article if you keep in mind that the height of his kingly reign was around 1086 B.C. and he was known for playing in king Saul's court prior so that would be right around 2000 B.C. as the article mentions.[/quote'] That really is interesting, I wish we could hear the music from then! I am certain that musical people from thousands of years ago, must have hummed all types of scales and even ventured into styles that later we termed as modern inventions genre wise. Drodge, I have a dulcimer too[biggrin] . I wold love a lute one day even though I ran into tremendous difficulty with the tuning pegs of the last one I played. There would be a world first; Gibson's first robot Lute!!! Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Cool read Sear! Thanks for posting that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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