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+--- Thread: The amazing advantage of guitars as musical instruments (/thread-165.html)
The amazing advantage of guitars as musical instruments - jtkung - 01-19-2017
I was thinking about musical instruments and which ones offer the widest range of playing style. If you look at most orchestral instruments, they have a singular sound and purpose. They can achieve great purity of sound, but at the expense of not having a wide range in their timbre. Their construction also is not changed much, so that design changes to suit individuals -- whether it be aesthetics, ergonomics, sound, etc. are never really possible. Also, because of their singular sound and purpose, their music style range is limited. You can play classical and jazz, and some pop/rock music (piano, saxophone), but not much else. There also isn't much of a trend to change the timbre or sound of the instrument. And to buy such instruments, they tend to be very expensive. Low-end beginner instruments are reasonably affordable, but not suitable for performance or pro recordings.
Guitar, on the other hand, is an instrument in a league by itself in many respects:
1. Can be used in almost all musical styles (classical, jazz, pop, rock, metal, etc.)
2. Timbre can be changed dramatically -- from acoustic, electric, archtop, etc. and the use of effects and distortions to create new sounds
3. Extremely expressive due to fingers touching the strings. Much like a violin, though with frets. It can be more expressive, however, due to string bending, whammy bars, pinch harmonics, wah-wah, and many other effects.
4. Learning curve. You can start playing recognizable and pleasing songs in a short amount of time. However, if you want to delve further, it is not limited.
5. Very portable
6. Very affordable -- instruments less than $1K are performance and gig-ready. This allows an individual to own several guitars to suit their needs
7. Can be customized and designed for the individual -- radical body designs, necks, frets, etc. This allows innovation, new sounds, techniques, playing, and aesthetics.
Here are the above points as contrasted to other instruments:
1. Most orchestral instruments can only be used for classical and some jazz. The exception is the piano which spans a larger range, but has other drawbacks (size, weight, portability, cost).
2. Most other instruments cannot change their timbre dramatically.
3. Many instruments are solo instruments and cannot play chords (wind instruments). Others don't allow continuous time pitch bending (piano) or radical changes to tone (almost all orchestral instruments)
4. Most orchestral instruments need a lot of time to start to be able to play songs and compositions adequately -- both from a technique point of view as well as timbre point of view.
5. Wind instruments are more portable, but most are not as portable as a guitar (piano, larger stringed or wind instruments)
6. Most orchestral instruments are very expensive. Professional instruments are normally tens of thousands of dollars or more. This will easily get you a custom-made, unique, professional guitar -- or several!
7. Most orchestral instruments do not deviate much from their conventional design. You cannot customize the look, feel, position of components, etc. on these. The guitar can be completely customized in aesthetics, design, construction, ergonomics, etc. to create a truly unique, individual instrument.