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This month's newsletter brings you an inspirational quote, ancient origins of the guitar, and a lesson in chords and intervals...

Quote:

"The guitar is an orchestra in itself." - Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) in reference to Italian guitar virtuoso Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) whose concerts Beethoven would often attend in Vienna.

Origins of the guitar:

The origins of the guitar can be traced back as far as 1350 B.C. from an area of Asia Minor, now in Modern Turkey. A stone relief discovered in the region depicts an instrument with strings running along a neck with frets which were stopped and plucked to form notes. Just like the guitar we know of today, it also had a resonating sound chamber to increase the volume and a body with in-curved sides. ¹

Chords and intervals:

Initially, chords were derived from intervals of thirds, such as in A major (A, C#, E), and D minor (D, F, A), etc. For example, in the A chord (A being the root), C# is three scale steps (a third) from A, and E is three scale steps (a third) from C#. So you see that the A chord is formed by combining a third and a third. The same principle applies to the D chord. These chords are known as tertian (Latin for 3) harmony because they are built in thirds. ²

After the twentieth century, musicians added chords built in seconds (secondary harmony), fourths, (quartal harmony), and fifths (quintal harmony). Following the same logic in making tertian harmony chords above, secondary harmony chords consist of intervals built in seconds. So instead of A, C#, E, we'll use A, B, C# (B is a second from A and C# is a second from B) to make a secondary harmony chord. Follow the same logic with quartal (intervals in fourths) and quintal (intervals in fifths) harmony chords. You can even go a step further by combining an interval of, for example, a second followed by an interval of a third (A, B, D). Use this concept of chord making in your next song! ²

References:

1. Chapman, Richard. Guitar (music, history, players)-1st American edition.
New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc., 2003, pp. 10, 17.

2. Ottman, Robert W. and Mainous, Frank D. Rudiments of Music-3rd edition.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Simon & Schuster Company, 1995, p. 243.

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Steve Sabz
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