Guitar is what kind of instrument

Its strings are plucked. Mandolin A small, stringed instrument of the lute family. It has a pear shaped body, strings in four pairs and a neck similar to a guitar. Musical Bow A simple string instrument used by a number of South African peoples, that consists of a flexible stick and strung end to end with a taut cord, usually metal. It can be played with the hands or a wooden stick or branch. Rebab A medieval Arabic bowed musical instrument having from one to three strings, shaped typically like a small lute.

Setar An Iranian musical instrument and member of the lute family. Shamisen A three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument. Sitar A plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent. Tambura A stringed drone instrument played in India. Playing the guitar as a percussion instrument also achieves similar sounds to certain parts of a drum set. The sounds are most often compared to a hi-hat, snare, and kick drum. Percussion guitarists, including Antoine Dufour, often use their wrists and the flat of their palms to hit the body of the guitar, below the soundhole.

The closer the contact to the hole, the deeper the sound. By patting the strings against the fret — the metal lines on the fretboard, which is the long neck of the guitar — the player can achieve the sound of the hi-hat. The pick-guard area is usually the flat piece underneath the soundhole. By flicking the pick-guard area with a finger, musicians can imitate the sound of a snare drum.

Another method to achieve a similar but sharper sound is by striking any point of the guitar body with the edge of the knuckle. The player can achieve the sound of the kick drum by hitting the body just above the soundhole with the fleshy part of the palm. They can also tap the bottom of the guitar body, and this creates a quick rhythmic cadence that adds to any composition.

The ability to switch between strings and percussion leads to an interesting music style. When playing the guitar as both a string and percussion instrument, the strings may need to be tuned differently to facilitate the chosen technique. This, in large part, will depend on the musician and the type of music they are aiming to achieve. A musician can tune their guitar in a specific way for percussion playing.

This involves tightening and loosening the strings to play specific notes. One example of alternate tuning that helps with percussion playing includes utilizing the notes D-A-D-G-A-D on a six-string acoustic guitar. Generally, music played using the fingerpicking technique was initially used in folk songs, but it has evolved within a wide variety of genres, including pop and rock source.

With the addition of percussion playing, the guitar adds another element to the music, allowing for the addition of multiple beats. Since some genres of popular music rely heavily on beats, the percussion elements of a guitar can allow for a wider range of sounds.

Useless without an amplifier? Learn the names of the parts Electric bass parts. Electric bass parts. Structure What kind of instrument is an electric guitar? What are pickups? How to Play There are many ways to play the electric guitar Controlling the sound Pickups for different purposes The role of effectors There are many ways to play the electric bass.

How the Instrument is Made Even electric guitars are made from wood! Guitar-like instruments, like the lute, have been dated back as far as BCE making them one of the oldest musical instruments. Since their development, all that time ago, the guitar has been through many changes.

Now there are a huge number of different guitars available but there are five main types of guitar that these will fall into:. The classical guitar, also known as the Spanish guitar, was originally made to play classical or flamenco music but they are now used to play whichever type of music the player desires. Classical guitars tend to feature nylon strings which are easier on fingers and produce a mellower sound than steel strings.