Electric guitar: History and Key Facts
An electric guitar is a guitar that, unlike a standard acoustic guitar, requires external electric sound amplification to be heard at typical performance volumes.
Musical Instruments archive
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Theremin: History and Key Facts
The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (
Drum machine: History and Key Facts
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns.
Synthesizer: History and Key Facts
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals.
Hammond organ: History and Key Facts
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M.
Mellotron: History and Key Facts
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963.
Sitar: History and Key Facts
The sitar (English: or ; IAST: sitāra) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music.
Steelpan: History and Key Facts
The steelpan (also known as a pan or steel drum) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago.
Guitar: Anatomy of a Guitar: An Open Learning Guide
This chapter presents an overview of the different parts most commonly found on the three main types of guitar. The body of a guitar consists of a treble or upper bout (the half of the guita
Piano: Introduction: An Open Learning Guide
The piano, attributed to Bartolomeo Cristofori of the eighteenth century, is a popular keyboard instrument widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment
Guitar: Adjusting the Guitar: An Open Learning Guide
Many beginning or even intermediate guitarists are unaware that their guitar should be "set up". The adjustments described in the adjustment subsections below (along with restringing and tun
Guitar: Alternate Picking: An Open Learning Guide
Alternate picking is an important skill, because it allows you to play more than twice as fast than with just down picking. The basic idea is that if you are picking just on down strokes, ev
Guitar: Alternate Tunings: An Open Learning Guide
Many guitar players use alternate tunings, which differ from standard tuning. The use of alternate tunings (non-standard tunings) are found throughout the history of the classical guitar and
Guitar: Arpeggios and Sweep Picking: An Open Learning Guide
The word arpeggio (ar-peh-jee-oh) is Italian for "like a harp". It is a common technique for playing chords on the harp. To play an arpeggiated chord on the guitar, pick each note of the cho
Guitar: Authors: An Open Learning Guide
This book has no authors other than the public: it is open for anyone and everybody to improve. Therefore, this is more properly a list of acknowledgements of contributors than a list of aut
Guitar: Barre Chords: An Open Learning Guide
Barre chords are chords that involve using one finger, usually your first finger, to press all the strings down at once on a single fret. Barring turns your first finger into a movable capo.
Roland TR-808: History and Key Facts
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 808, is a drum machine manufactured by Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983.
Electronic musical instrument: History and Key Facts
An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry.
Acousmonium: History and Key Facts
The Acousmonium is the sound diffusion system designed in 1974 by Francois Bayle and used originally by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales at the Maison de Radio France.
AirHarp: History and Key Facts
AirHarp is a musical instrument that uses motion detection and software (of the same name) to create pitches.
Audiocubes: History and Key Facts
AudioCubes are a collection of wireless intelligent light-emitting objects, capable of detecting each other's location, orientation, and user gestures.
Guitar: Bass Guitar: An Open Learning Guide
Bass guitars have similar design features to other types of guitar but scaled up: thicker strings, longer neck and larger body, etc. This allows lower notes to be created when the strings ar
Guitar: Bending and Vibrato: An Open Learning Guide
Bending and vibrato are two related effects which help give extra "life" to notes, especially sustained notes, by changing their pitch. The techniques are not commonly used on the acoustic g
Guitar: Blues: An Open Learning Guide
The blues is an American form of music whose origins can be traced back to the African-American communities of the southern states in the early 1900s. Its a music of African performance aest
Guitar: Blues Exercises: An Open Learning Guide
The partial seventh chords below are to be played as stab chords. Play these partial chords on the back beat (play the chord on the snare) using a down-stroke to add to the rhythmic drive. N
Guitar: Buying a Guitar: An Open Learning Guide
A new guitar can be purchased for a moderate price. Modern manufacturing techniques coupled with mass production keeps costs low while intonation and playability are preserved by precise mac
Guitar: Buying an Amplifier: An Open Learning Guide
Amplifiers come in a wide variety of designs and your choice of amplifier should be based on the type of music you wish to play. Your local guitar dealer will let you test the different ampl
Guitar: Cables: An Open Learning Guide
Since you are likely to encounter cables at some point in your guitar playing career, it is important learn about them. This is especially true if you play the electric guitar. With the elec
Guitar: CAGED connect scales: An Open Learning Guide
Let's say you're improvising in G major. You picked the first CAGED scale you found with the root note in the 3rd fret on the E string. Now let's assume that the singer is currently singing
Guitar: Campfire Diploma: An Open Learning Guide
The Campfire Diploma is the first part of a multi-volume guitar school in the Wikibooks project guitar. The first volume teaches the basics of playing the guitar for hobby guitarists, that y
Guitar: Campfire Diploma: Song Examples: An Open Learning Guide
In this appendix you will find all the practice examples from the campfire diploma and other well-known songs from commercially available songbooks. So that this guitar course can continue t
Blaster beam: History and Key Facts
The blaster beam is a concept electric musical instrument consisting of a 12 to 18-foot (3.5 to 5.5 m) long metal beam strung with numerous tensed wires under which are mounted electric guitar pi
Casiotone: History and Key Facts
Casiotone was a series of home electronic keyboards made by Casio in the early 1980s.
Chordboard: History and Key Facts
The chordboard is an electronic musical instrument based on software, and played by a keyboard controller.
Guitar: Campfire strumming pattern: An Open Learning Guide
With the “Western strumming” we had a good preliminary exercise for the “campfire strumming”, because the first half of the “Western strumming” is the same as the first half of the “campfire
Guitar: Campfire-Diploma Completion: An Open Learning Guide
As with school, you don't have to get everything 100% right and without mistakes, and you don't have to memorize everything either. It's enough if you can accompany the songs to some extent
Guitar: Campfire-Diploma Completion: Song Examples: An Open Learning Guide
With these songs you leave the beginner status. The songs are not particularly difficult. But they contain all the essential learning content of the campfire diploma. (6 chords G D C Em Am A
Guitar: Chord changes C-Am: An Open Learning Guide
The change between C major and A minor (Am for short) is even easier than the change between G and Em. In the key of G major, the chord C major is the subdominant. Am is the relative minor o
Guitar: Chord changes from D to A: An Open Learning Guide
Here I'll show you in slow motion how to change from D to A. Try to follow the sequence exactly. What seems slow to you now will become incredibly fast over time. Just by singing the example
Guitar: Chord changes G-C-D: An Open Learning Guide
All you need is a new chord and you're already in a new key. This time it's the key of G major. We're leaving the A major chord behind. A major is not part of the key of G major and only occ