This thesis examines the rise of the electric guitar in the United States – arguably the most iconic and successful musical instrument of the 20th century – and the role of George Beauchamp in its invention and development. It focuses on Beauchamp's invention of the electromagnetic pickup, which is the component that makes an electric guitar an electric guitar. The research is based on examination of surviving instruments as well as archival research. An extensive contextual background is given regarding the historical development of electrical musical instruments in general and electric and electrified stringed instruments in particular. The instruments manufactured by Beauchamp’s company, the Electro String Instrument Corporation are discussed as well as difficulties and litigation Beauchamp and his company were faced with while trying to bring the instruments to market. The thesis focuses on the period between the first electrification of a fretted string instrument in 1890, and the conclusion of “the Miessner matter” (a period of prolonged threatened legal action against Electro String and other electric guitar manufacturers) in 1939. The thesis also considers competing pickup systems that emerged in the wake of Beauchamp's invention.

Musical instruments are not static, unchanging objects. They are, instead, things that materially evolve in symmetry with human practices. Alterations to an instrument's design often attend to its ergonomic or expressive capacity, but sometimes an innovator causes an entirely new instrument to arise. One such instrument is the Chapman Stick. This instrument's history is closely intertwined with global currents that have evolved into virtual, online scenes. Virtuality obfuscates embodiment, but the Stick's world, like any instrument's, is optimally related in intercorporeal exchanges. Stickists circumvent real and virtual obstacles to engage the Stick world. Using an organology informed by the work of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, this study examines how the Chapman Stick, as a material "thing," speaks in and through a virtual, representational environment.

The main motivation of this thesis is to explore several techniques for estimating electric guitar synthesis parameters to replicate the sound of popular guitarists. Many famous guitar players are recognisable by their distinctive electric guitar tone, and guitar enthusiasts would like to play or obtain their favourite guitarist's sound on their own guitars. This thesis starts by exploring the possibilities of replicating a target guitar sound, given an input guitar signal, using a digital filter. A preliminary step is taken where a technique is proposed to transform the sound of a pickup into another on the same electric guitar. A least squares estimator is used to obtain the coefficients of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter to transform the sound. The technique yields good results which are supported by a listening test and a spectral distance measure showing that up to 99% of the difference between input and target signals is reduced. The robustness of the filters towards changes in repetitions, plucking positions, dynamics and fret positions are also discussed. A small increase in error was observed for different repetitions; moderate errors arose when the plucking position and dynamic were varied; and there were large errors when the training and test data comprised different notes (fret positions). Secondly, this thesis explored another possible way to replicate the sound of popular guitarists in order to overcome the limitations provided by the first approach. Instead of directly morphing one sound into another, replicating the sound with electric guitar synthesis provides flexibility that requires some parameters. Three approaches to estimate the pickup and plucking positions of an electric guitar are discussed in this thesis which are the Spectral Peaks (SP), Autocorrelation of Spectral Peaks (AC-SP) and Log-correlation of Spectral Peaks (LC-SP) methods. LC-SP produces the best results with faster computation, where the median absolute errors for pickup and plucking position estimates are 1.97 mm and 2.73 mm respectively using single pickup data and the errors increased slightly for mixed pickup data. LC-SP is also shown to be robust towards changes in plucking dynamics and fret positions, where the median absolute errors for pickup and plucking position estimates are less than 4 mm. The Polynomial Regression Spectral Flattening (PRSF) method is introduced to compensate the effects of guitar effects, amplifiers, loudspeakers and microphones. The accuracy of the estimates is then tested on several guitar signal chains, where the median absolute errors for pickup and plucking position estimates range from 2.04 mm to 7.83 mm and 2.98 mm to 27.81 mm respectively.

Orientador: Margarete Arroyo / Banca: Heloísa Feichas / Banca: Daniel Marcondes Gohn / Resumo: O autoaprendizado de música é uma prática comum entre jovens que desenvolvem processos personalizados de construção de conhecimento a partir dos seus interesses musicais. Por meio desses processos alcançam seus objetivos imediatos, o que torna essa forma de aprendizado uma opção tentadora. A guitarra elétrica é um instrumento frequentemente sujeito ao autoaprendizado. Para validar essa assertiva, apresento ao leitor nove jovens autoaprendizes de guitarra, que participam desta pesquisa qualitativa, um estudo de caso múltiplo. Observa-se que, nos últimos quinze anos, muito se investigou acerca de como esses processos são vividos pelos autoaprendizes, produzindo, inclusive, uma legitimação das práticas de aprendizado informais na música popular. Porém pouca atenção foi dada para as dificuldades que surgem no decorrer dessa trajetória e à consequente motivação por uma orientação musical de professores, seja presencialmente ou à distância. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta investigação é compreender por que alguns jovens autoaprendizes desejam uma orientação musical. Para ter êxito nesse processo investigativo, foi feito um levantamento de dados no meio digital, por intermédio de entrevistas semiestruturadas individuais, realizadas por videoconferência, criação de grupo de discussão no Facebook da pesquisa, observação e análise de vídeos dos jovens guitarristas postados no Youtube e registro em um caderno de pesquisa. Para análise e interpretação dos dados, recorri ao conceito de Aprendizagem Autodirecionada (Self-Directed Learning - SDL), inicialmente estruturado pelo educador americano Malcom Knowles. Este conceito foi adaptado para o contexto de aprendizagem musical a partir do modelo tridimensional SDL criado por Liyan Song e Janette R. Hill, que originalmente desenvolveram-no para a investigação do aprendizado em ambiente on-line. Os resultados desta pesquisa... / Abstract: Music self-directed learning is a common practice among young people who develop custom processes to build knowledge from their musical interests. Through these processes they reach their immediate goal which makes this form of learning a tempting option. The electric guitar can be considered one of the instruments that could lead to a self-learning. To validate this assertion, I present the reader nine young guitar self-learners who participated in this qualitative research, a multiple study case. It is observed that, in the last fifteen years, plenty of investigations have been made regarding to how these processes are experienced by self-learners, but little attention has been given to the difficulties that emerge in the course of this path and a consequent motivation for a musical orientation. Therefore, the objective of this research is to understand why some young self-learners seek for musical orientation. To succeed in this investigative process, data collection was made in the digital environment, through semi-structured individual interviews conducted by videoconference, debate groups on Facebook, observation and analysis of the young guitarists' videos posted on Youtube, and records in a fieldnotes. For the data analysis and interpretation, I resorted to the concept of Self-directed Learning (SDL), initially structured by the American educator Malcolm Knowles. This concept was adapted for the context of musical learning from the SDL three-dimensional model created by Liyan Song and Janette R. Hill that originally developed it to the investigation of the online learning environment. The results of this research have shown that all young people have achieved temporary limits in self-learning and sought for musical orientation. But a singular apprentice profile was identified, characterized by the interchange and simultaneity between self-learning and orientation. This profile indicates ... / Mestre

Orientador: Marcos Siqueira Cavalcante / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T14:36:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Batista_AdrianodeCarvalho_M.pdf: 713091 bytes, checksum: a2b6db85291dd1dc0d5a08dd668648f8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Essa dissertação é um estudo sobre a formação e aplicabilidade das chamadas Tétrades na guitarra elétrica. O presente trabalho descreve o processo de construção de tais acordes, além de sistematizar alguns procedimentos de expansão harmônica levando em consideração as características técnicas e idiomáticas do instrumento. O estudo ainda busca organizar, de maneira sistêmica, as principais aberturas de acordes usadas na guitarra elétrica para a confecção de encadeamentos harmônicos aplicados em acompanhamento de importantes gêneros da Música Popular. Por meio das análises de transcrições também é possível perceber claramente os procedimentos estudados ao longo da pesquisa. Desta forma, esse trabalho é uma tentativa de amenizar as lacunas existentes na metodologia de ensino da guitarra, e se propõe a contribuir para a organização e elaboração do material harmônico utilizado por este instrumento. Além disso, também poderá ser utilizado como método ao estudo da harmonia e construção de tétrades na guitarra, para alunos ingressantes no ensino superior, assim como alunos dos cursos de música em nível fundamental e médio / Abstract: Four-Note Chord Voicings: A Harmonic Study of the Electric Guitar This research project is about the construction and application of four-note chord voicings for the electric guitar. The present work describes the building process of these chords and introduces a systematic procedure for harmonic expansion, taking in consideration the technical characteristics and idiomatic nature of the instrument. This study attempts to organize the main voicings used on the electric guitar to create harmonic cadences applied in the rhythm sections of important styles of Contemporary Popular Music. The procedures studied and utilized for this work are clearly evident through transcriptions and analysis. This work proposes to diminish the existing gaps in the study of four- note chord voicings and contribute to the organization and elaboration of study material for the instrument. Besides, it could be a method to the study of harmony and the building process of the four note chord voicings to the beginners in the college as well as students at basic and intermediate stages / Mestrado / Mestre em Música

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Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur elgitarrlärare går tillväga när de undervisar i elgitarrspel med plektrum och vilka de största tekniska utmaningarna är som uppkommer för studenten. Datainsamlingen har genomförts genom kvalitativa intervjuer med tre erfarna elgitarrpedagoger. Studien utgår från ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visar att de tre pedagogerna till stor del låter eleverna själva välja hur de ska spela. Pedagogerna nämner några vanliga fel som eleverna gör, till exempel: de förankrar inte fingrarna eller handen i gitarren, plektrumet trycks för långt in mellan strängarna och att de håller plektrumet för hårt eller för löst. / The purpose of this study was to investigate how electric guitar teachers go about teaching plectrum techniques and what the greatest challenges are for the student. The data collection has been conducted through qualitative interviews with three experienced electric guitar teachers. The study is based on a hermeneutic perspective. The result shows that the three educators largely allow students to choose how to play. The pedagogues mention some common mistakes that the students do, for example: they do not anchor their fingers or hand to the guitar, the plectrum is pushed too far in between the strings and that the plectrum is held either to firm or to soft.

Studiens syfte är att få inblick i hur elgitarrlärare arbetar för att få sina elever att lära sig notskrift. I bakgrundskapitlet beskrivs tidigare forskning om notläsning och notskrift. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt används ett designteoretiskt perspektiv, vilket fokuserar på hur människor använder olika tecken för att designa sin kommunikation och sitt lärande. Studien vilar på en kvalitativ forskningsansats med videoobservation som metod. Sex elgitarrlärare på olika kulturskolor har videoobserverats. Det inspelade materialet har sedan transkriberats och analyserats med fokus på de teckenskapande resurser lärarna använder i sin undervisning. I resultatet framkommer att lärarna använder såväl tal, sång, kropp, instrument, musikaliska termer och ljudande bakgrunder för att undervisa traditionell notskrift och/eller tabulatur till eleverna. I diskussionen berörs två övergripande undervisningssätt som har lyfts fram hos lärarna: en traditionell notbunden och musikteoribaserad undervisning och en tabulatur- och gehörsbaserad undervisning. / The study aims to gain insight into how guitar teachers working to get their students to learn musical notation. In the background chapter, previous research in music reading and notation is shown. As a theoretical basis the design theory perspective is used, which focuses on how people use different characters to design their communication and learning. The study is based on a qualitative research with video observation as method. Six electric guitar teachers at different arts schools have been observed using video recording. The recorded material was then transcribed and analysed with a focus on the character-building resources teachers use in their teaching. The result shows that teachers use speech, voice, body, instrument, musical terms and sounding backing tracks to teach traditional music notation and/or tablature for students. In the discussion two comprehensive teaching methods that have been highlighted by the teachers is discussed: a traditional sight-reading and music theory based teaching and a tablature and ear based instruction.

Studiens syfte är att se ifall det är möjligt att under en kortare tid bli en bättre a-vistaläsare. För att undersöka detta har jag under en åttaveckorsperiod övat a-vista 15 minuter per dag, med hjälp av en bok just för a-vistaläsning. Ett urval av dessa övningstillfällen har jag videofilmat. Jag har också använt mig av loggbok för att dokumentera mina upplevelser av min egen process. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt har jag valt ett multimodalt designteoretiskt perspektiv. I resultatet visas hur olika resurser hanteras, samt hur progression i lärandet har varit. Det framkommer att jag under denna period har lärt mig att läsa a-vista bättre än innan. Jag använde mig av kroppsliga resurser i ganska stor utsträckning då jag övade a-vistaläsning. I diskussionen beskriver jag utifrån det designteoretiska perspektivet hur förutsättningarna utifrån den valda boken har varit, samt vilka resurser som användes vid lärandet. / The purpose of this study is to find out if it is possible to become better at sight-reading melodies during a shorter period, in this case eight weeks with 15 minutes of daily training. With a video recorder, I have documented a selection of daily training sessions based on a book that specifically focuses on sight-reading melodies. Furthermore, I have written a logbook to document my personal experiences during the process. Theoretical perspective is design theory. The results shows how different resources are handled, and the learning progression of the process are described. It appears that I during this period, have become better at sight-reading melodies and it is also clear that I use bodily resources quite a lot while practicing sight-reading. Lastly, in the last chapter I discuss the preconditions given by the book and what resources that has been created during my learning period.

<p>This dissertation consists of two independent musical compositions and an article detailing the process of the design and assembly of an electric guitar with particular emphasis on the carefully curated suite of embedded effects. </p><p>The first piece, 'Phase Locked Loop and Modulo Games' is scored for electric guitar and a single echo of equal volume less than a beat away. One could think of the piece as a 15 minute canon at the unison at the dotted eighth note (or at times the quarter or triplet-quarter), however the compositional motivation is more about weaving a composite texture between the guitar and its echo that is, while in theory extremely contrapuntal, in actuality is simply a single [superhuman] melodic line.</p><p>The second piece, 'The Dogma Loops' picks up a few compositional threads left by ‘Phase Locked Loop’ and weaves them into an entirely new tapestry. 'Phase Locked Loop' is motivated by the creation of a complex musical composite that is for the most part electronically transparent. 'The Dogma Loops' questions that same notion of composite electronic complexity by essentially asking a question: "what are the inputs to an interactive electronic system that create the most complex outputs via the simplest musical means possible?"</p><p>'The Dogma Loops' is scored for Electric Guitar (doubling on Ukulele), Violin and Violoncello. All of the principal instruments require an electronic pickup (except the Uke). The work is in three sections played attacca; [Automation Games], [Point of Origin] and [Cloning Vectors]. </p><p>The third and final component of the document is the article 'Finding Ibrida.' This article details the process of the design and assembly of an electric guitar with integrated effects, while also providing the deeper context (conceptual and technical) which motivated the efforts and informed the challenges to hybridize the various technologies (tubes, transistors, digital effects and a microcontroller subsystem). The project was motivated by a desire for rigorous technical and hands-on engagement with analog signal processing as applied to the electric guitar. ‘Finding Ibrida’ explores sound, some myths and lore of guitar tech and the history of electric guitar distortion and its culture of sonic exploration.</p> / Dissertation