The Bass Guitar is the key instrument in any band, no matter what genre. People commonly consider the vocals or lead guitar to be the most important sound since it is the loudest, but if a bass player stopped playing in any situation, it is always notable. The bass is the glue of a band, it holds rhythm and harmony, while tying the guitar to the drums. Thus being, the bass has had such a dramatic impact on all styles and genres of music, from any point of time. So how far does the Bass Guitar go back in history?
While the Double Bass (Upright Bass) gained its fame in orchestras and big bands, it actually paved the path for the future Bass Guitar. Orville Gibson, along with Adolph Rickenbacker, created the first electric Upright Bass. The idea
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This new bass had the shape of a guitar, which was a big deal to Bass players. Bass players could now travel much easier with their guitar rather than a bulky Double Bass. The new design also introduced more sophisticated electronics, pick-ups, and a encouraged better amplifiers. This new bass meant that the whole band wouldn’t muffle out its sound, like the barely audible Upright. It also meant that a whole new type of strings would have to be made. Squier tackled this job and made the all new flat-wound strings exclusively for the bass. As rivaling companies saw the creation of the Bass guitar, it wouldn’t be long after until they made models of their own. These new models all follow the styles of music, from looks to their unique …show more content…
Many genres use the tone of the bass in different ways. For instance, at the beginning of its creation, it was used to sub fill the Upright. It could be heard over the strings and percussion, a common place where it never was heard at all. Eventually towards the end of big bands came the explosion of small group garage rock bands of the late 50’s and so on. We saw groups such as The Beatles or Elvis Presley’s Jerry Scheff introduce a dominant side of the Bass guitar, a side which allowed it to go beyond its capabilities. This explosion of possibilities made countless guitar manufactures endeavor their ideas for a “New Bass Guitar”. Companies such as Ibanez, Schecter, Epiphone, Yamaha, Rickenbacker’s 4000 and 4003 models and very importantly, Music Mans iconic Stingray. Companies like these led to new ideas, such as one of the greatest inventions of all of Bass Guitar history, Humbucking active pickups. This was a huge invention that came along with the Music Man Stingray and helped develop the heavy distortion and funk of the late 70’s until present. This is where we see the bass develop more rhythm and life, something words can’t describe. It's almost as if the Bass produces a language of its own, something that turns a band from mediocre to excellent. Listen to The 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius”. Here you can listen to Joe Osborn play such a classic but demanding riff. The whole song is built off
In Rock- The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Yorke provides a chronological approach to rock and roll from 1877- 1974. Although it is not extremely detailed, a general overview of each year’s music is presented. Throughout the book, many descriptive summaries of individual artists may be found along with classic pictures.
According to Peter E , his original program included transcriptions from Tárrega , as well as his own transcriptions of Bach and others. However, based on Clinton, George , many "serious" musicians believed that Segovia would be laughed off of the stage, because the guitar could not play classical music at that time. In order to refute their argument, Segovia astounded the audience with his perfect techniques and impressive performing skills. After that, Segovia shared the view he had of the guitar being a concert instrument. "First, no string instrument offers such complete harmonic potential; second, it is light and can be transported effortlessly from one place to another; and thirdly, its sound is naturally melancholic and beautiful." From that concert, he also found out the only problem with the concert guitar performance, which is that the guitar could not produce enough sound to fill the hall. So over the coming years, Segovia would supervise luthiers to experiment through thousands of new woods and designs for the body of the guitar, thereby increasing its natural amplification, and do more practice simultaneously, to make his performing technique go further. With the advent of nylon strings during the World War II, the guitar could produce more consistent tones, and also being able to project the sound much farther. The range of the sound transmission problem was solved gradually. In 1928, Andrés Segovia’s first concert in New York had been a huge success, which also led him to more offers for appearances in America and Europe, from then on, the great, meaningful journey of Andrés Segovia and his guitar was
First of all you must know the origins of the great musical genre that is the rock genre. Rock started as Rock and Roll on the United States in the 1950’s. It was greatly influenced by the music of the era, such as Blues and Country, being blues its greater influence. According to historians Rock and Roll first song was made in the year 1954. This new genre grew quickly due to the advances in the Radio technologies, also different people with different interests were hearing the radio. This made the radio station put music for certain audiences, such as adults and teens. Rock and Roll was targeted mire for teens rather than adults or kids.
The most common type of bass guitar is an electric bass guitar. Electric basses have solid bodies. An electric bass needs to plug into a amplifier to be heard over other instruments. A bass amplifier or amp, is pretty much a powered speaker. If you get an electric bass, you will also need a bass amp. An example of a electric bass would be the one I played in the WNE. The electric bass was the only bass that the school could provide for the band but we also felt it had the right sound for the job.
Today classic rock is basically extinct you could say. Most kids now listen to rap, pop, and other music genres. Classic rock bands most all of the time had a message in their songs. Now most music today is about bad things or just plain stupid things. Classic rock bands tried to get people to relate to their songs. Some of the classic rock songs were about pain and love.
The very first saxophone was called the C bass saxophone, which was Adolphes first creation derived from the bass clarinet. He had tremendous success with this instrument so he went on to replace the oboes, bassoons, and French horns in military bands with Bb and Eb saxhorns.
Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam, Alternative Grunge bands from the 90s, were very influential to today’s bands. Grunge music started in the early 90s, mainly from the Seattle scene. Metallica, Kiss, and even Led Zeppelin helped make alternative music start. Although these bands were very famous in the 90s, many of them suffered from substance abuse and even depression. After years of being famous some bands split completely, some formed new bands with members in other bands, and even some stayed together and play together today. All bands believed that people should be able to afford music and listen to what they enjoy, not what other people want you to listen to. Bands from the 90s have influenced some of
I believe that the history of rock and roll demonstrates a link between culture and social class race, and age; by the way a genre brings all the people in these different categories into one big group. When rock and roll began to emerge people from different cultures and social classes started to come together as a group by the way they dressed. It was not only the music but also the fashion it brought along with it. People from this era changed the way they dressed, styled their hair and their means of transportation. This brought together people from different cultures and social class, race and age all together.
In conclusion I feel authenticity in rock music has a huge part to play and although it is a very snobby culture of "we will like you until we've had enough" its still personal to every person and they have a choice to decide who fits into their perfect music world.
influential in the North as well. Blacks moved from the South to the North and
It is believed that the Irish brought to the region the fiddle and the pipes. It is believed that the first stringed instrument, the dulcimer was brought by the Germans, Norwegians, Swedish and French. The dulcimer became known as the 1“Hog Fiddle” or “Music Box”.
V. To make this short I will start in the 50’s the golden age of rock and roll, continue to the 60’s with beatlemania, on to the 70’s with disco and punk rock, then the 80’s on through today.
A&E Biography Channel UK “SAM PHILLIPS The man who Invented Rock & Roll”. 1 Feb. 2013. Web. The Web.
Leo Fender, in the 1950s, with some help from his employee, George Fullerton, managed to develop the first mass produced bass guitar. The Fender P bass, or Precision Bass guitar, was introduced in 1951. It became a widely copied standard in the industry. The Fender Bass Guitar was a new instrument that was easily transportable to a gig. It can be amplified to about any volume without having to worry about feedback. Elvis Presley started using the Fender Precision Bass around 1957. Following Fender in 1953, Gibson introduced the first short scale violin-shaped electric bass with an extendable end pin, which allows the instrument to be played upright or horizontally. Gibson renamed this in 1958 to the EB-1. Other small companies began introducing the Electric Bass during the 1950s like Kay in 1952 and Danelectro in 1956. The distinctive Violin Bass was made using the violin construction techniques. It was introduced in 1956 by a man named Walter Hofner. This instrument is mostly known as the “Beatle Bass” since Sir Paul McCartney made it famous.
Many people and many styles of music influenced Rock and Roll. The styles included Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Bluegrass, Boogie-Woogie, and Rockabilly. Each was a major factor into the introduction of a new style of music called Rock ‘N’ Roll.