A People's History of the Guitar

Grant Samuelsen
  • 5.0 (1)
  • MUSIC HISTORY
  • SERIES
A People's History of the Guitar

A People's History of the Guitar is about people, guitars, people and their guitars, and guitars and their people. We'll be exploring histories, origins, innovation, triumphs, and tragedies, and talking to well-known, little known, and unknown people who make music with the guitar, and who make, and think about the instrument. A People's History of the Guitar starts with the idea that the guitar belongs to all of us, and it deserves a history for all of us.

Season 1

  1. EPISODE 1

    Intro to A People's History of the Guitar

    A People's History of the Guitar is about people, the guitar, people and their guitars, and the guitar and its people. In this introductory episode, you'll find out about what the podcast is about, why I decided to do it in the first place, and who the podcast is for. Spoiler alert: it's for everybody. I'm just getting this going, and episodes are coming as I finish them. My goal is a minimum of three episodes each month. We'll get there, especially if you keep listening, and if you'll consider supporting the project, so support the project here! Episode playlist here. Some guitar-based music that means something to me. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library, and revisit from time-to-time.

    22 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    There is No Origin Story

    In this episode we'll go back in time, into a cave with a Greek God, where a mythical stringed instrument was created, and on to Wisconsin, California, and Mississippi, in search of an origin story for the guitar. The title might give you a hint of where we'll end up. Support the project here! Episode playlist here. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.

    27 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    Walk This Way

    This episode is about one of the things that launched us on our journey toward making music, which would eventually get us to the guitar. That one thing is our feet. Which is really two things. When we began to walk upright, we introduced something new into our lives. Becoming bipedal, millions of years ago, gave us one of the foundations of music, and Disco, and CPR. It also helped to make our brains bigger, which made us smarter, and our walking feet and smarter noggins pointed us toward becoming musical beings. Support the project here! Episode playlist here. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.

    28 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    Hit It! (Mostly About Hitting Things)

    You don't make musical sounds by just sitting there. You have to fight for them. Music begins with little acts of violence, and we've been learning how to do that for a very long time. This episode is about turning kinetic energy into mechanical energy into sound energy. It's about force. It's about electrical circuits and stone arrowheads. It's about how we learned to make fists and hold guitar necks. It's about Stanley Kubrick and the Ramones, and how we learned important skills from breaking things, blowing speakers, and abusing musical instruments. Some of it's about me in 5th grade, and it's all about the fact that the guitar is...inevitable. Support the project! Episode playlist here. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.

    30 min

  5. EPISODE 5

    Why Music?

    This episode takes us from the evolution of human musicality into the realm of music itself, and its origins. That story is big, controversial, and messy. So, I've sorted it into easily digestible summaries of the ideas of Charles Darwin, Steven Brown, and Steven Pinker: three thinkers whose work is important for understanding how and why we started making music. It could have been really long, but I've cleverly limited it to under 25 minutes. Support the project! Here's a link to a brief and delightfully tension-filled conversation between Police drummer Stewart Copeland and Harvard Linguist/Psychologist Steven Pinker, referenced in the last third or so of the episode. Episode playlist here. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.

    25 min

  6. EPISODE 6

    Some German Guys Figured it Out

    Episode five is about one of the ways we organize human knowledge. It's also about two German musicologists who created a system for categorizing musical instruments, before the Nazis f****d it all up. And you bet it's relevant to the development of the guitar, because in the Hornbostel Sachs system, the guitar is barely a blip among the hundreds of tools humans use to make music. And if that's the case, why is the guitar...everywhere? As we get into this long history, it's important to maintain a sense of humility. Support the project here!

    26 min

  7. EPISODE 7

    New! Strung Theory (Part One)

    This is the first in a short series of episodes and interviews about how we turned cordage into chordage. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs System for Musical Instrument Classification, the guitar is in the Chordophone category. And it wouldn't be there if it weren't for something we found, and manufactured, over tens of thousands of years, called cordage. The story of cordage is under-told and overlooked, but it's everywhere, and it's one of our most important tools and materials. We take it for granted, but we shouldn't do that. It holds your shoes together. It's the stuff your clothes are made of. It's the thing that burns in the center of a candle. One type of cordage, called string, turns silent bows, boxes and slabs into stringed musical instruments, and that's why we're here. Here's a link to a complete interview with a scholar mentioned in the episode, which should make for good supplemental reading. Click here to support A People's History of the Guitar with a one-time or recurring contribution, or maybe both. If you want to see where this goes as much as I do, you can help me to produce unique new content and reach more people with a broader perspective on an instrument that changed the world. Go back and check out the previous episodes in order if you haven't already, and thanks for being curious about what I'm trying to do here.

    25 min

  8. SEASON 1 TRAILER

    Trailer

    A taste of the sound and purpose of the show. If you want to see and hear where this goes as much as I do, I hope you'll think about supporting the project with a one-time or recurring contribution, or maybe both! Click here to help me create new and unique content, and reach more people. Thanks for listening, and for considering support for the project!

    1 min

Trailer

About

A People's History of the Guitar is about people, guitars, people and their guitars, and guitars and their people. We'll be exploring histories, origins, innovation, triumphs, and tragedies, and talking to well-known, little known, and unknown people who make music with the guitar, and who make, and think about the instrument. A People's History of the Guitar starts with the idea that the guitar belongs to all of us, and it deserves a history for all of us.

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