Great Guitarists.

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I love guitar music. I play myself. Started playing when I was ten years old. I'm not bad, actually, kind of average. But, I've always loved to sit and listen to great guitarists. When I was young, I thought that Jose Feliciano was the best I ever heard. His fingers danced across those frets like lightening. Then, there was Stevie Ray Vaughn. Unbelievable what he could do with a guitar.Jerry moss. Not famous, but also one of the best I've heard. He was a session player for years. Local fella down here in the Ozarks. Eric clapton was good, but even he had to admit he was not as proficient on the guitar as Stevie Ray was.

I have a question. Kind of a historical one. Where did stringed instruments like the guitar originate? Surely someone in here knows the answer to that one. I'm kind of curious to know.

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@Elmud,

Try this link, it's in 7 parts.

YouTube - The Story of the Guitar, Out of the Frying Pan (part 1)

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@Elmud,

Well, the guitar is a relatively recent invention from Spain around 1850 I believe, thus, the Spanish guitar. The guitar was developed in the Mediterranean over the course of many centuries. The first precursor to the guitar is believed to come from Egypt about 3500 ago.

Here is a video of my favorite guitarists playing--Erik Mongrain.

YouTube - AirTap!

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@Theaetetus,

Nice vid Theatetus, thanks.

Michael Hedges has always been a favorite of mine.

YouTube - Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries

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@Elmud,

Michael Hedges is great. I haven't heard this song before. Thanks Jay!

Here is another good guitarist that is a similar style--Andy McKee

Andy McKee - Drifting

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@Theaetetus,

Theaetetus;59104 wrote:

Well, the guitar is a relatively recent invention from Spain around 1850 I believe, thus, the Spanish guitar.

Vivaldi was composing for the guitar > 100 years before that, but I wonder if they were originally for the lute and transcribed.

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@Elmud,

The guitar dates back to the 1500s in spain.

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@Aedes,

What ever happened to Leo Kottke. Well, that was years ago. don't know if you all remember him.

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@Mr Fight the Power,

Mr. Fight the Power wrote:

The guitar dates back to the 1500s in spain.

The modern dimensions of the guitar were not set until around 1850 by Antonio Torres Jurado. What you are thinking of is the vihuela which used a lute tuning and had a similar body style to a guitar, which was one of the many precursors to the modern guitar.

Aedes wrote:

Vivaldi was composing for the guitar > 100 years before that, but I wonder if they were originally for the lute and transcribed.

They may have been composed on the Renaissance or Baroque guitar. They were also another example of similar instruments, but had very different dimensions than the classical guitar. The tuning would have probably been different as well because I don't think guitars back then could handle the stress of the standard tuning.

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@Elmud,

Here is a little back room duo with Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges, the early years.

YouTube - Kottke & Hedges

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@Theaetetus,

Theaetetus wrote:

Well, the guitar is a relatively recent invention from Spain around 1850 I believe, thus, the Spanish guitar. The guitar was developed in the Mediterranean over the course of many centuries. The first precursor to the guitar is believed to come from Egypt about 3500 ago.

Here is a video of my favorite guitarists playing--Erik Mongrain.

YouTube - AirTap!

It goes all the way back to ancient Greece, if you follow the name...Plato was talking and the town was rockin.
I liked Frank Zappa..He plays a couple of licks on 200 motels...I have not heard him on shut up and play your guitar; but I'll bet he could have been great if he had not been such a genius in other respects...Too much message and not enough music...

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@Fido,

Fido wrote:

It goes all the way back to ancient Greece, if you follow the name...Plato was talking and the town was rockin.
I liked Frank Zappa..He plays a couple of licks on 200 motels...I have not heard him on shut up and play your guitar; but I'll bet he could have been great if he had not been such a genius in other respects...Too much message and not enough music...

The history of the guitar goes all the way back to Egypt 3500 years ago, which is 1000 years before Plato. The thing with Plato though, is that he wrote in the Attic Greek dialect. Some translations of this may use the word guitar, but it was far from the guitar that 99.999% of the guitarists play today. That instrument played in Greece was either a lute or a lute like instrument that very few people would be able to recognize today.

As I said, the modern Spanish classical guitar that everyone is familiar with, was not constructed until about 1850. There were other versions of the guitar before then, but most had four strings, some had five, but all had more in common with the lute than the classical guitar.

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@Theaetetus,

Theaetetus wrote:

The history of the guitar goes all the way back to Egypt 3500 years ago, which is 1000 years before Plato. The thing with Plato though, is that he wrote in the Attic Greek dialect. Some translations of this may use the word guitar, but it was far from the guitar that 99.999% of the guitarists play today. That instrument played in Greece was either a lute or a lute like instrument that very few people would be able to recognize today.

As I said, the modern Spanish classical guitar that everyone is familiar with, was not constructed until about 1850. There were other versions of the guitar before then, but most had four strings, some had five, but all had more in common with the lute than the classical guitar.

I find it hard to argue a point not in evidence; but from my experience, when people make new, they name new, but when the same thing evolves slightly over time, no one can claim the invention, and no one does... The Africans had their stringed instraments and so did the Indians, who are more in that line, linguistically than the Egyptions... But then; why does it not have an eqyptian name???
And I am certain, that what you wanted to say in regard to Plato was that he wrote and spoke Ionian Greek, as opposed to Dorian Greek, which was the Greek of Sparta, and the Bible.. Those were the dialects....

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@Fido,

Fido wrote:

I find it hard to argue a point not in evidence; but from my experience, when people make new, they name new, but when the same thing evolves slightly over time, no one can claim the invention, and no one does... The Africans had their stringed instraments and so did the Indians, who are more in that line, linguistically than the Egyptions... But then; why does it not have an eqyptian name???
And I am certain, that what you wanted to say in regard to Plato was that he wrote and spoke Ionian Greek, as opposed to Dorian Greek, which was the Greek of Sparta, and the Bible.. Those were the dialects....

I am sure the Egyptians had a different name as did the Greeks as did the Romans. Modern translators often mistranslate things, because they don't know any better, and in some cases understanding. Previous to the 1850s most guitars did not have six strings, and the ones that did were not tuned EADGBE. The renaissance guitar had four courses of strings (4 sets of two--think like a mandolin), and was far smaller than the classical guitar.

And by the way, I study Attic Greek so I know what I am talking about. Plato, Aristotle, Aristophanes, and all of the others that we are familiar with all wrote in Attic Greek. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek (common Greek) which was a simplified version of the various dialects spoken in Greece, of which there were around twelve. But of course, that has nothing to with guitar. I was just making the point that just because we translate an Attic Greek word as guitar does not mean that it actually means guitar--rather a stringed instrument.

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@Elmud,

Join the club, The, because I am learning Greek too; but self taught, it is not progressing too fast...I did just buy a nice book: Elementary Greek Translation Book, by Hilliard, and Botting, 1950..I also have the new testament, Greek Above and English Below....But I am only repeating what my books said, and pretty certain, word for word... Much as we could say American is a dialect of English, you cannot say southern American English is a dialect, though I will grant there are differences... Just try to get some directions some distance off the highway between one and three in the morning in Georgia, and see what you understand...

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@Fido,

My dad was a good guitar player. I use to sit and watch him play when I was a youngster. He could play melody and harmony at the same time. Not an easy thing to do. My grandfather, could play the guitar, banjo, fiddle, accordian, actually anything he picked up he could play from what I am told. He was the Titus county fiddle champion back in the twenties. no one in my family ever became famous, but pretty much all of them could play guitar.

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@Elmud,

Oh how i envy you, to be able to entertain is a gift.I used to pretend to be a protest singer at parties and just strum and moan in a droning voice about the boss in a lyrical way,that's my limit.Peggy Sue..Buddy Holly was my first memory of guitar worship.

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@Fido,

Fido wrote:

I find it hard to argue a point not in evidence; but from my experience, when people make new, they name new, but when the same thing evolves slightly over time, no one can claim the invention, and no one does... The Africans had their stringed instraments and so did the Indians, who are more in that line, linguistically than the Egyptions... But then; why does it not have an eqyptian name???

Many stringed instruments evolved independently. The kora and the sitar did NOT evolve as far as anyone knows from some egyptian proto-guitar, just as drums and flutes have been independently invented by many cultures.

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@Aedes,

Elmud, being an Ozarks man - are you familiar with Earl Cate of the Cate Brothers?

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@Didymos Thomas,

Didymos Thomas wrote:

Elmud, being an Ozarks man - are you familiar with Earl Cate of the Cate Brothers?

No, Didymos, I am not familiar with that fella. Is he a good guitarist? I'll look him up. thanks.

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