{"id":224168,"date":"2019-06-24T09:15:26","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T09:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miscstuff.co.uk\/?p=224168"},"modified":"2026-07-25T23:44:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T23:44:25","slug":"the-electric-guitar-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miscstuff.co.uk\/?p=224168","title":{"rendered":"The Electric Guitar: Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to The Ten Week Worship Guitar blog.<\/strong> As well as my recent resurrection of my YouTube channel<\/a>, on which I\u2019ve now begun sharing a weekly worship guitar focused workshop called \u2018Worship Workshop Wednesday\u2019, I recently resumed blogging. I started with a 3-part series on why I teach<\/em> worship guitar as opposed to just playing it.<\/p>\n

Over the past few weeks here on the blog, I\u2019ve been sharing something which I\u2019ve not extensively shared anywhere before – some work from my PH.D, which focuses <\/strong>on the development of the guitar over the last century, and it\u2019s influence on the music produced on it. Feel free to go back through the last few posts to get a feel of what\u2019s been shared so far. This week, I begin to dive into the development of the electric guitar, the evolution of new styles and beyond. If you\u2019re interested in learning more about the guitar, look no further than this blog. If you know others who would be interested in this too, please share with them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new post will be shared here on the blog every Monday, so do ensure that you\u2019re following the journey, and don\u2019t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel<\/a>, where you\u2019ll receive a free workshop every week which will teach you not only a new worship song to add to your repertoire, but also a skill, which will continue to carry you forward in your worship guitar journey.<\/p>\n

The Electric Guitar: Part One<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Increased volume, new techniques\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

In the first decades of the century the design of the guitar was constantly undergoing modification in an attempt to increase the volume to cope with larger performance situations. More radical attempts to solve the problem of volume limitation of the guitar were being made by several people contemporaneously. Their solution was to electronically amplify the volume of the instrument.<\/strong> On the electric guitar a \u2018pick-up\u2019 converts string vibrations into an electrical signal. Duchossoir explains that the pick-up:<\/p>\n

… consists of a permanent wire magnet and a coil of insulated copper wire. The coil is placed, either around the magnet, or around a polar mass magnetized through contact with the magnet. The pick-up is then placed in such a way that a magnetic field is created around the strings, the vibrations of which generate a weak current in the coil that can be amplified and transmitted to a loudspeaker.<\/em> (1981: 14)<\/p>\n

\"Charlie

Charlie Christian<\/p><\/div>\n

Charlie Christian.<\/h4>\n

Schuller has said that \u201c… with the advent of the electric amplification and the arrival of Charlie Christian, the guitar emerged as a full-fledged member of the melodic fraternity\u201d<\/em> (1989: 226). The advent of the electric guitar had two major effects on the development of improvised guitar styles:<\/strong><\/p>\n