Guitars etc.

*Yawn* Yeah, I got up at noon today. Don't judge me.

You know, for all the downright cynical things I've said about guitars, I really adore the instrument. When a person really unlocks the sound of which that instrument is capable, I could listen to it forever. I'll also admit I'm probably a bit jealous that guitar playing is considered an attractive quality whereas piano only gets you attention at talent shows, or if someone wants to know how to play "Clocks". Don't get me wrong, I'm not that jealous; I love my piano, and I don't have time or patience right now to learn guitar, and I'm okay with that.

It's fascinating as I look at the most popular instruments of today and think about their origins. The guitar is he uberfied child of instruments like the lute, the sitar, the harp, and the zither. The piano of course had the harpsichord before it, but even further was back the hammered dulcimer, which by virtue of hammers hitting strings is almost like a very early piano. Of course there have been woodwinds all over the place ever since someone learned how to whistle.

Anyways, thinking about such things makes me wonder if we will ever invent newer and better versions of the instruments we have today. It'll be a very long time until then I'm sure, because we are still discovering new ways to play these instruments which have already been around for centuries, in addition to the fact that we are electronically minded now and have way too much to keep us busy where music is concerned.

That's one of my secret, not-very-likely dreams though, to invent a new instrument. That would be fantastic!

To close this post, here are my favorite guitar performances from youtube. Are they better than August Rush? You'd better believe it.

These first two videos are to different versions of the same song, one short, one long. Choose at your convenience, but I recommend listening to both.

This third one opened my eyes to the idea that there is more than one way to play an instrument.