This flies in the face of the goal of music literacy in music education - a goal which I wholeheartedly support.
The contemporary guitarist performing blues, jazz, country, rock, and all of their subgenres does not need to be able to read music to be proficient and successful. I offer my commentary and recommendations to improve the performance of the electric guitar student. A lack of informed decisions by the student and band director can in fact have a negative impact on the school jazz band. This rich and diverse history of guitar styles and techniques present a variety of challenges and choices for today’s guitar student. King, Rock and Roll of Chuck Berry, and all their guitar descendants of today. The 20 th century explosion of interest in the electric guitar, invented by Adolph Rickenbacher and advanced by Les Paul and Leo Fender, is found in virtually all styles of popular music, from the jazz guitar of Charlie Christian, electric blues of B.B. By the early 1900’s the steel string acoustic guitar had crossed stylistic and social boundaries, as found in the country blues of Robert Johnson and the early bluegrass music of Maybelle Carter. The modern guitar with 6 gut (now nylon) strings, as played by maestro Andres Segovia in the 20 th century through modern day classical guitarists, was created in the 1800’s. The plucked string instrument of various numbers of strings first called the guitar appeared in Spain around 1400. Plucked string instruments of a variety of shapes precede it, dating back to 3000 B.C. This article will attempt to provide information to help guitar players make a positive contribution to the jazz band and to the sanity and happiness of the band director.įew if any other musical instruments have a history as long and varied as the guitar. There are several reasons, but the main ones are a lack of information about the electric guitar and its technique, sound, and function in the jazz band rhythm section. But could this happen? The answer is yes, through no intended fault of the student or band director. I was not sure if his comment was serious. He wanted to make sure that having a guitarist would not “ruin” his jazz band. He was considering admitting this student into his jazz band, which would be a first in his 25-year teaching career. Many years ago, an esteemed and respected band director asked that I provide private lessons for his student guitarist.