ADateZ Inc.

You're at: Front Page

Culture

Gear Histories

History of Music Instruments

Bagpipe History

Bagpipe

Bagpipes are thought to have been used in ancient Egypt. The bagpipe was the instrument of the Roman infantry while the trumpet was used by the cavalry. Bagpipes existed in many forms in many places around the world. In each country the basic instrument was the same, a bag with a chanter and one or more drones. Some of these were mouth blown while others used a bellows attachment to supply the air. The bag provided a sustained tone while the musician took a breath and allowed several tones to be played at once.

Ukulele History

Mahalo Ukulele

In 1879, the Portuguese master craftsman and instrument maker Manuel Nunes arrived in the Hawaiian Islands with Joao Fernandes and Augustine Dias. They were immigrants who came to work in the sugar cane fields. Together they invented and developed the ukulele taking basic designs of instruments from their native home.

Hawaiian's were not only impressed with the beautiful sounds these instruments could make, but also with the speed these musicians' fingers flew on the fingerboard. It is said, they in turn began calling this instrument the Ukulele, which roughly translates as "Jumping Fleas".

Harp History

Harp

Five thousand years ago the first harp was made. Primitive harps were found in the tombs of the Egypt Pharaohs. The Biblical references, also bow shaped artifacts from Ancient Greece.

Some harps and lyres dating from 2800 BC have been found in Ur near Mesopotamia. The Claireach, a more elongated shape, was introduced to Ireland before the Christian era from Spain. With the coming of St. Patrick to Ireland in 432 AD it became very popular. Wales received the harp from Ireland and changed the strings from metal, to horse hair and gut. It then became popular in England and Scotland.

Bass History

Ibanez ATK300 Electric Bass

Considering the lengthy history of the guitar, it is surprising that it took until the 1950s for the bass guitar to reach its full potential. The upright bass was what bands had to work with for the first half of the twentieth century. While this acoustic instrument worked well in jazz, it was unsatisfactory for modern pop music—due to its low amplification, the fact that it is an instrument that requires extensive technique to play properly, and due to its large size as simply getting it to the gig was problematic. It became evident to guitar makers that new type of bass guitar was necessary if the bass was to be a prominent instrument in modern bands.

Harmonica History

Big John Chromatic Harmonica

The history of the harmonica, as we know it today, is an amazing tale which begins in the year 1821. It was then that sixteen-year-old Christian Friedrich Buschmann registered the first European patents for his new musical invention. His so called "aura" was a free-reed instrument consisting of a series of steel reeds arranged together horizontally in small channels. An awkward design, it offered only blow notes arranged chromatically.

Electric Guitar History

"Bon Jovi" Karera Electric Guitar

Engineers began experimenting with electrically powered instruments, such as music boxes and player pianos, in the 1800s. But the first attempts at an amplified instrument did not come until the development of electrical amplification by the radio industry in the 1920s.

One of the earliest innovators was Lloyd Loar, an engineer at Gibson Guitar Company. In 1924, Loar developed an electric pickup for the viola and the string bass. In Loar's pickup design, the strings passed vibrations through the bridge to the magnet and coil, which registered those vibrations and passed the electric signal on to an amplifier. The first commercially advertised electric guitar, made by the Stromberg-Voisinet company in 1928, utilized a similar pickup, with vibrations being picked up from the soundboard.

Drums history

Pacific LX Series Drums

The concept of drums are as old as mankind. A drum is called a membranophone, or an instrument that creates sound by striking a stretched membrane with some type of object, usually a rounded stick. Drums consist of a hollowed-out piece(called the body), a membrane stretched over the end of the drum, and tuning keys or pegs which tighten or loosen the membrane to achieve different tones. While most may think that the body of the drum produces the sound, it is in fact actually the membrane and its vibration that creates the sound when struck.

Guitar History

Western Guitar DG-750

While the guitar may have gained the bulk of its popularity as a musical instrument during the modern era, guitar-like instruments have been in existence in numerous cultures throughout the world for more than five thousand years. With such an extensive history, it is virtually impossible to cover its entirety within the scope of this article. Instead, mentioning several significant developments within that lengthy history helps to paint a broad overview of the history of the guitar.

Saxophone History

Saxophone

For decades, the saxophone has been the voice of jazz. It's the soulful wail and upbeat jump that have made the saxophone a staple in the world of music. However, the saxophone started out in military bands in the year of its birth, 1846.

In the early 1900s, it was not taken seriously as an instrument, being used in vaudeville acts and as a substitute for violin in early dance bands. It wasn't until jazz musicians discovered this instrument, applying the attack and phrasing of the jazz trumpeters, that the sax was brought into the limelight.

Trumpet History

Trumpet

The trumpet is simply an extension of the idea of amplifying one's own voice. While it contains rich, pure sounds all its own, it is interesting to note the history and ideas of the trumpet, and its correlation to our human instrument.

If you see a seashell on the beach, and notice that the wind makes a sound when it hits the shell, you are watching the power of air in a confined space. If you watch wind blow over a glass bottle and moan, that is a wind instrument in action. Early human tribes used shells and horns to call each other.

<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>