Post 47: Electric guitar sounds
“Now we know why we like it”
I am spanning the musical genres this week the last post recommended some 18th century French music but today we are at the other end of the spectrum. I had my first foray into music written and arranged for an electric guitar quartet performed at a fairly new small venue, The Forge in Camden. My colleague Ella (an erstwhile electric guitar player herself) and I went to a gig by a group called Ludi led by guitarist Adrian Lee. The music was inspired from a wide range of sources, including Joni Mitchell, Philip Glass and medieval composer Guillaume de Machaut. It was exciting to hear the electric guitar being played in such a new (to me) and subtle way. It would be lovely to work with the group here at the museum once we have a slightly bigger and more acoustically suitable space to use. So it was a useful and enjoyable research evening. Check them out here where you will also find links to their newsletter and musical examples.
https://twitter.com/MusicotopiaUK
My electric guitar epiphany continued when one of our residential neighbours gave me the heads up about an article on page 22 of the Times, (24 July 2014). Apparently a scientist has mapped out the physics of a virtuoso guitar solo (in mathematical equations) and proved electric guitars use the same patterns of sound as a human voice. I went to the original paper entitled “String Theory – The Physics of String Bending and other Electric Guitar technique.” Here is a link to the article – ok I confess I was lost at the first fundamental frequency equation perhaps I should stick to the listening rather than understanding.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0102088
Comments
“proved electric guitars use the same patterns of sound as a human voice”.
Eric Clapton said in his 80s South Bank Show special that when he play’s a solo he’s singing but through the notes played on the guitar.
It’s taken this long for science to catch up.
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