Musician who plays the guitar
A
guitarist
(or a
guitar player
) is a person who plays the
guitar
. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family
instruments
such as
classical guitars
,
acoustic guitars
,
electric guitars
, and
bass guitars
. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar by
singing
or playing the
harmonica
, or both.
Techniques
[
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]
The guitarist may employ any of several methods for sounding the guitar, including
finger-picking
, depending on the type of strings used (either
nylon
or
steel
), and including
strumming
with the fingers, or a
guitar pick
made of bone, horn, plastic, metal, felt, leather, or paper, and melodic
flatpicking
and finger-picking.
The guitarist may also employ various methods for selecting
notes
and
chords
, including fingering, thumbing, the barre (a finger lying across many or all strings at a particular fret), and
guitar slides
, usually made of glass or metal. These left- and right-hand techniques may be intermixed in performance.
Notable guitarists
[
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]
Rock, metal, jazz, country and blues
[
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]
Several
magazines
and
websites
have compiled what they intend as lists of the greatest guitarists?for example
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
by
Rolling Stone
magazine, or
100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
by
Guitar World
magazine.
Rolling Stone
[
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]
The first in this list is the American guitarist
Jimi Hendrix
, introduced by
Pete Townshend
, guitarist for
the Who
, who was, in his turn, ranked at #10 in the list.
In describing the list to readers, Paul MacInnes from British newspaper
The Guardian
wrote, "Surprisingly enough for an American magazine, the top 10 is fair jam-packed with Yanks", though he also noted three exceptions in the top 10.
[1]
The online magazine
Blogcritics
criticized the list for introducing some allegedly undeserving guitarists while forgetting some artists the writer considered perhaps more worthy, such as
Johnny Marr
,
Al Di Meola
,
Phil Keaggy
or
John Petrucci
.
[2]
In 2011,
Rolling Stone
updated the list, which this time was chosen by a panel of guitarists and other experts with the top 100 consisting of
Eric Clapton
,
Eddie Van Halen
,
Keith Richards
and
Tony Iommi
.
[3]
Artists who had not been included in the previous list were added.
Rory Gallagher
, for example, was ranked in 57th place.
[4]
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
is mentioned in many biographies about artists who appear in the list.
[5]
Guitar World
[
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]
Guitar World
, a monthly music magazine devoted to the guitar, also published their list of 100 greatest guitarists in the book
Guitar World Presents the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time from the Pages of Guitar World Magazine
.
[6]
Different from the
Rolling Stone
list, which listed guitarists in descending order,
Guitar World
divided guitarists by
music genre
?such as "Lords of Hard Rock" for
hard rock
artists or "Jazzmen" for
jazz
players. Despite the appearance in other magazines like
Billboard
,
[7]
this publication by
Guitar World
was criticized for including no female musicians within its selection.
[8]
However,
Guitar World
recently published a list of "Eight Amazing Female Acoustic Players", including
Kaki King
,
Muriel Anderson
and
Sharon Isbin
.
[9]
Time
and others
[
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]
Following the death of
Les Paul
,
Time
website presented their list of 10 greatest artists in
electric guitar
. As in
Rolling Stone
magazine's list, Jimi Hendrix was chosen as the greatest guitarist followed by
Slash
from
Guns N' Roses
,
B.B. King
,
Keith Richards
,
Jimmy Page
, and
Eric Clapton
.
[10]
Gigwise.com
, an online music magazine, also ranks Jimi Hendrix as the greatest guitarist ever, followed by Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Keith Richards and
Kirk Hammett
.
[11]
Other genres
[
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]
The classical guitar is strung with gut or nylon strings on top and wound basses for the lower strings. It was often ornately decorated with mother of pearl. Many early classical guitarists played with their finger tips only but later guitarists play with a combination of finger nail and flesh to project a clear sound and allowing for many different changes in sound quality (or timbre). This guitar tradition dates back at least to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when a four course instrument was popular among aristocrats. In the early nineteenth century there the guitar enjoyed a surge of popularity when composer/performers such as
Fernando Sor
,
Napoleon Coste
,
Mauro Giuliani
, and many others published thousands of pieces for the concert hall and home gatherings. The classical guitar enjoyed another period of popularity in the twentieth century when recordings amplified the relatively quiet instrument. There are many
classical guitarists
listed as "notable" in their respective epochs.
One of the most renowned
flamenco guitarists
in recent decades was
Paco de Lucia
. Flamenco music is a popular traditional music associated with the Andalucia region of southern Spain. It is characterized by intricate syncopated rhythms intimately informed by a gypsy dance style. Flamenco guitarists also often accompany flamenco singers performing "
cante jondo
" (deep song). De Lucia was also one of the first to have successfully crossed over into other genres of music such as classical and jazz.
[12]
The
cuatro
guitar is a family of Latin American string
instruments
played in
Puerto Rico
,
Venezuela
and other
Latin American
countries. It is derived from the
Spanish guitar
. Although some have
viola
-like shapes, most cuatros resemble a small to mid-sized
classical guitar
. In Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the cuatro is an ensemble instrument for secular and religious music, and is played at parties and traditional gatherings.
[13]
Christian Nieves
is a Puerto Rican cuatro player and is recognized by the Institute of Puerto Rican culture as the most talented young of their national instrument, the
Puerto Rican cuatro
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
MacInnes, Paul (13 February 2007).
"Who are the 100 greatest guitarists of all time?"
.
The Guardian
. London
. Retrieved
18 November
2009
.
- ^
The Theory (28 August 2003).
"The Top 100 Guitarists According to Rolling Stone"
.
Blogcritics
. Archived from
the original
on 5 June 2013
. Retrieved
18 November
2009
.
- ^
"Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Tony Iommi Among '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time'
"
. 23 November 2011.
- ^
"100 Greatest Guitarists: Rory Gallagher"
.
Rolling Stone
. Archived from
the original
on 12 July 2012
. Retrieved
31 December
2012
.
- ^
Clement, Vivian (2007).
How to Succeed As a Female Guitarist: The Essential Guide for Working in a Male-dominated Industry
. Alfred Publishing. p. 1.
ISBN
978-0-7390-4304-2
.
- ^
Jeff Kitts, Brad Tolinski (2002).
Guitar World Presents the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time from the Pages of Guitar World Magazine
. Hal Leonard Corporation.
ISBN
0-634-04619-5
.
- ^
Billboard
, vol. 117, n° 49, pp. 67
- ^
Leonard, Marion (2007).
Gender in the music industry: Rock, discourse and girl power
. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 38.
ISBN
978-0-7546-3862-9
.
- ^
"Eight Amazing Female Acoustic Guitar Players"
. 24 August 2015
. Retrieved
4 October
2015
.
- ^
"The 10 Greatest Electric-Guitar Players"
.
Time
. 14 August 2009. Archived from
the original
on 17 August 2009
. Retrieved
18 November
2009
.
- ^
"The 50 Greatest Guitarists... Ever!"
.
Gigwise.com
. Retrieved
14 January
2010
.
- ^
*
Chapman, Richard; Clapton, Eric (2000).
Guitar: music, history, players
. Dorling Kindersley Pub. p. 40.
ISBN
978-0-7894-5963-3
.
- ^
"C"
.
Stringed Instrument Database
. Retrieved
20 March
2018
.
External links
[
edit
]
Look up
guitarist
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.