The History of Country Music Part 1

The History of Country Music Part 1 Instruments and Early History

For those that don’t know • Country music is a genre American popular music. • Term to know: • Genre – a category that identifies pieces of music (but also film and literature) to a shared tradition or set of conventions.

The setup • Immigrants and their traditions and musical instruments go back nearly 300 years ago. • When coming to America, immigrants brought with them their most valued possessions, which in many cases were instruments.

Instruments

Accordion

Accordion • Reed instrument developed in early 19th century Europe • Worn like a vest • Consists of left and right hand keyboard that are connected by bellows

Autoharp • Gained prominence during the 1920s in country music. • Played by strumming strings.

Banjo

Banjo • Strummed or plucked. • Descended from West African lutes • Slave trade brought the banjo to Africa • Most recognizable music in country music

Bass

Bass • Provides rhythmic “bottom” for melody. • Upright favored by bluegrass and rockabilly bands. • Electric base is used in contemporary music.

Dobro

Dobro • Precursor to steel guitar. • Invented Dopyera brothers in 1920s and modeled after the Hawaiin “slack” or resonator guitar. • Played face up. Music picks strings and slides a metal bar across the frets

Drums

Drums • Not part of the original instrument lineup in country music • Were introduced officially to country music in the 1950s with the advent of rock and roll.

Fiddle

Fiddle • Brought to America from British Isles. • Has always been a fixture to country music. • Has been in America for nearly three centuries.

Guitar

Guitar • Evolved in Europe from a lute- • It was refined in America into two major styles: the flat-top, perfected by 1850 by C. F. Martin of Nazareth, Pennsylvania; and the “arched-top” (with a top carved in the manner of a violin), invented by Orville Gibson of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the 1890s.

Guitar • Prior to the 1920s the guitar had been a refined parlor instrument that was overshadowed in American popular music by (chronologically) the lute, minstrel banjo, mandolin and tenor banjo.

Harmonica

Harmonica • Developed in Europe during the 1820s. • Popularity grew because of the ease in which it could be packed. • Used in blues

Mandolin

Mandolin • Derived from ancient lute of Renaissance Italy. • Composers such as Handel and Mozart. • Bill Monroe became the first country virtuoso of the Mandolin

Piano

Piano • Integral in the inception of country music. • Made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis

Pedal Steel Guitar • Developed by Alvino Rey, a pop steel guitarist and leader of a big band and machinist John Moore in 1939 • The first country musician to take the instrument seriously was Speedy West - an obscure, California-based steel player who approached patternmaker Paul Bigsby

Pedal Steel Guitar • Steel guitar has since then become a staple in country music

The History of Country Music Part 1

The History of Country Music Part 1

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