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Definition: guitar from Philip's Encyclopedia

Plucked stringed musical instrument. The early guitar had four double strings and was similar to the lute. The modern guitar has six strings. The virtuoso playing of Andrés Segovia inspired compositions by Manuel de Falla and Villa-Lobos. In 1946, Les Paul invented the electric guitar, now a standard instrument in blues, pop and rock music. Acoustic and semi-acoustic guitars are used in folk and jazz.


guitar

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Plucked, fretted string instrument. It may be called the classical guitar, the Spanish guitar (because of its origins), or the acoustic guitar (to differentiate it from the electric guitar). The fingerboard has frets (strips of metal showing where to place the finger to obtain different notes), and the 6 or 12 strings are plucked or strummed with the fingers or a plectrum. The strings are tuned to E2, A3, D3, G3, B4, and E4. The Hawaiian guitar is laid across the player's lap, and uses a metal bar to produce a distinctive gliding tone. The solid-bodied electric guitar , was developed in the 1950s by Les Paul and Leo Fender. It mixes and amplifies vibrations from electromagnetic pickups (microphones which ‘pick up’ the vibration of the strings and convert them to electrical impulses) at different points to produce a range of tone qualities. The guitar is used widely in folk music, and its prominence in popular music can be traced from the traditions of the US Midwest; it played a…
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Full text Article guitar

From Word Origins
The Greek kithárā was a stringed musical instrument of the lyre family, which has bequeathed its name to a variety of successors. Via Latin cithara came English citole [14], a medieval stringed instrument, and German zither (borrowed by English in the 19th century), while Arabic took it over as…
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Full text Article guitar

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
musical instrument related to the lute , modern guitars normally having six strings that are plucked with the fingers or strummed with a pick. Earlier versions had pairs of strings like the lute. The guitar usually has a flat back, sides that curve inward to form a waist, and a fretted neck. Other…
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Full text Article guitar

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Plucked, fretted string instrument. It may be called the classical guitar, the Spanish guitar (because of its origins), or the acoustic guitar (to differentiate it from the electric guitar). The fingerboard has frets (strips of metal showing where to place the finger to obtain different notes), and…
| 271 words
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Full text Article guitar

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Features of a modern acoustic guitar. Credit:©...
Plucked stringed instrument . It normally has six strings, a fretted fingerboard, and a soundbox with a pronounced waist. It probably originated in Spain in the early 16th century. By 1800 it was being strung with six single strings; 19th-century innovations gave it its modern form. Modern classical…
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Full text Article guitar

From The New Penguin Dictionary of Music
String instrument of waisted shape, normally fretted, and played with a plectrum or the fingers. The regular modern guitar has six strings tuned in fourths (plus one third) upwards from the E on the bass stave: E-A-D-G-B-E. Its frets, usually 19 at chromatic junctures, provide a range of three…
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Full text Article Electric guitar

From The Harvard Dictionary of Music
A guitar or guitarlike instrument designed for electronic amplification. It is one component of a system that includes pickups to translate string vibrations into electrical impulses, an amplifier to modify these impulses, and loudspeakers that turn the electrical impulses back into sound. Most…
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Full text Article Guitar family

From The Harvard Dictionary of Music
A family of instruments that are variants of the guitar but adhere to its general shape [see Guitar ; see also Electric guitar , Steel guitar ]. The smaller four- and five-course guitars of the 16th through mid-18th centuries are considered the true ancestors of the modern instrument. Other early…
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Full text Article guitar

From Musical Terms, Symbols and Theory: An Illustrated Dictionary
guitar
a stringed, fretted instrument used in pop and folk music. Several variations of the instrument exist, including bass and tenor versions. The most widely known and used is the six-string guitar, whose strings are tuned to E, A, D, G, B and E, and called the Spanish, or classical guitar. In pop music…
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Full text Article Train Whistle Guitar

From Encyclopedia of African-American Literature
1974 Work Author: Albert Murray In 1974 Albert Murray introduced readers to Scooter, his sidekick Little Buddy Marshall, and Gasoline Point, Alabama, in his novel Train Whistle Guitar , which, published to wide acclaim, won the Lillian Smith Award for Southern Fiction. Departing from the traditional…
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Full text Article Dundee International Guitar Festival

From Cultural Studies: Holidays Around the World
The seaside town of Dundee, Scotland, is hardly a European epicenter; nonetheless, it has become the site of one of Europe's most prominent classical guitar festivals. Virtuosos come from the world's most prestigious conservatories to perform and lead master classes over the course of one weekend. …
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