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guitar - stringed instrument or percussion?


Micahb

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Seems odd I know but me and a friend were having a discussion the other night and I seem to remember my classical guitar teacher telling me a guitar was technically actually a percussion instrument because you strike the stings. And, that a stringed instrument is a violin or a cello as you do not strike the strings but use a bow.

 

Anyone know the truth? Wikipedia does not list that as I can tell....perhaps my instructor was a nut case as it seems most classical teachers are!:freak:

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Hmm,My fourth grade music teacher taught us a stringed instrument was any instrument that has "strings".Even a piano in which you "strike" a key that moves a hammer that "strikes" a string..Is a string instrument..Man,just the thought of a banjo must have blew your teachers mind!!

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Heck no, I don't know the truth, but that doesn't keep me from having an opinion. I would think that a classical instructor would argue that it is a "plucked" instrument because a classical player largely rests her finger on the string, plucking it to form the note (the last thing I think of classical technique is "striking" the string) Maybe a flat picker "strikes" the string with a plectrum, but most fingerstylists sure don't, and even with a flat pick the note is formed when the pick releases it and starts it vibrating.

 

Of course all the percussive techniques - banging on the top and tapping the strings and the other weird stuff that Hedges et al do (or did) is a whole 'nother critter, as are hammer ons, pull offs, and the like.

 

So here is another question, is it the string that makes the sound, or the fact that the string is vibrating the top? If you argue that it is the string (which I don't think it is) then the way you make it vibrate probably determines what you call the instrument (plucked, bowed, or maybe percussion). But if it is the stretching and slackening of the string that moves the top that moves the air that makes the sound - then a guitar is a stringed instrument just like a violin.

 

Of course we all know what they say about opinions.....

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Actually, a piano is considered to be a percussion instrument. I seem to remember from my music studies that the fine nuance between plucking and outright hitting (or hammering) represented the proverbial line in the sand between what's categorized as either a "string" instrument or a "percussion" instrument. Other examples of stringed "percussion" instruments from memory include the hammered dulcimer and its family. On the other hand, examples of stringed instruments falling into the "string" category were harpsichord (strings are plucked), guitars and other lute-based instruments ...

 

Of course, IMHO, all this is seriously academic. Categories are useful, I guess, when attempting to explain something to a person having little point of reference, but when it becomes confusing in and of its own right ... well, we may have begun to miss the point ... My 2 cents.

 

Cheers !

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sooo, what would a brass hammer dulcimer be?

 

This is what comes of trying to do taxonomy without a license. Instrument categories are completely arbitrary, lots of instruments fit in more than one category or in none at all.

 

In the spirit of beating a dead horse...

 

If a piano is percussion, and harpsichord is string, what's a pipe organ? Synclavier? Armonica?

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A guitar is a percussive, stringed instrument. There now goodnight!

 

+1:thu:

 

IMHO Guitar is a stringed instrument. A percussion instrument by technique.

 

I guess if you only play softly it may not be percussive. With any kind of dynamic attack you are using the percussive nature of the instrument. :wave:

 

Of course if you flip it over and tap on the back you are using it as a drum which would make it percussive only.:)

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Actually, a piano
is
considered to be a percussion instrument. I seem to remember from my music studies that the fine nuance between plucking and outright hitting (or hammering) represented the proverbial line in the sand between what's categorized as either a "string" instrument or a "percussion" instrument. Other examples of stringed "percussion" instruments from memory include the hammered dulcimer and its family. On the other hand, examples of stringed instruments falling into the "string" category were harpsichord (strings are plucked), guitars and other lute-based instruments ...

 

 

 

Well,actually the piano is both,string and percussion.But,it's part of the chordophone family of instruments.Chordophones are defined as string instruments.

 

 

Wiki say's..."String instrument

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. The most common string instruments in Western music are those in the violin, piano and guitar families."

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Well summarized, Iteleu. As also mentioned by a previous poster, I guess some instruments can fall into different categories, fwiw.

 

An enlightening if not entirely practical discussion ... ;)

 

Cheers !

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Well,actually the piano is both,string and percussion.But,it's part of the chordophone family of instruments.Chordophones are defined as string instruments.



Wiki say's..."String instrument

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. The most common string instruments in Western music are those in the violin, piano and guitar families."

 

 

 

The piano is technically a percussion instrument. "Chordophone" is simply a classification of instruments that use strings. The piano evolved from the harpsichord, which is considered a percussion instrument. From the harpsichord came the forte-piano, which is a percussion instrument; from the forte-piano came the piano-forte, which is the modern piano and is a percussion instrument.

 

The guitar is also considered a percussion instrument. The sound is made using the same means as the harpsichord (plucking) or the piano (striking)

 

 

Also you can't always trust Wiki because it is edited by random people like me and you that might or might not know what they are talking about.

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Also you can't always trust Wiki because it is edited by random people like me and you that might or might not know what they are talking about.

 

 

Kind of like Forums...

 

I'm just glad musicians aren't in charge of biology. Whales would be fish, bats would be birds, and humans would be closely related to ostriches.

 

I'd still like to know what kind of instrument the armonica is, or how about the bowed saw?

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The piano is technically a percussion instrument. "Chordophone" is simply a classification of instruments that use strings. The piano evolved from the harpsichord, which is considered a percussion instrument. From the harpsichord came the forte-piano, which is a percussion instrument; from the forte-piano came the piano-forte, which is the modern piano and is a percussion instrument.


The guitar is also considered a percussion instrument. The sound is made using the same means as the harpsichord (plucking) or the piano (striking)



Also you can't always trust Wiki because it is edited by random people like me and you that might or might not know what they are talking about.

 

Well,I hope this is kinda easy to understand for the folks out there:thu: ....Please,everyone....DO you all follow me:lol: ???OK!Cut the strings off your piano or guitar...A "Chordophone" is a classification of instruments that use strings(you must have missed this part here jack)to produce "sound":idea: ....I hope your instruments will still sound the same!!!Whoop's,They don't??WHY???Because you need What??STRINGS???YES!!!!:thu: "If the strings make the sound"it is technically a "STRING INSTRUMENT"...In fact,every string instrument needs some kind of percussion to play.But in fact,all instruments need such...So please,define further??:D...

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Well,I hope this is kinda easy to understand for the folks out there:thu: ....Please,everyone....DO you all follow me:lol: ???OK!Cut the strings off your piano or guitar...A "Chordophone" is a classification of instruments that use strings(you must have missed this part here jack)to produce "sound":idea: ....I hope your instruments will still sound the same!!!Whoop's,They don't??WHY???Because you need What??STRINGS???YES!!!!
:thu:
"If the strings make the sound"it is technically a "STRING INSTRUMENT"...In fact,every string instrument needs some kind of percussion to play.But in fact,all instruments need such...So please,define further??
:D
...

 

If you are going to make up classifications on your own then fine that doesn't bother me since it really doesn't matter what an instrument is called. But if you want to know what it is really classified as in the educated world then you need to realize that not everything is as simple as (cut your stings off and it doesn't play.....see stringed instrument) Instruments are classified by how the sound is made, not what makes the sound(if you can understand that). Also stringed instruments that use bows to make the sound are not percussion instruments and do not use percussion to produce the sound.

 

Instruments that are sounded by striking, shaking, plucking, (http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textp/Percussioninstruments.html)

 

Percussion instrument--A musical isntrument played by striking it, such as a drum, cymbal, (read this one carefully)piano, tambourine, castanets or chimes.(world book dictionary)

 

 

 

percussion instrument

n.

 

An instrument, such as a drum, xylophone, piano, or maraca, in which sound is produced by one object striking another or by being scraped or shaken. "percussion instrument." The American Heritage

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That's all very well and good, but that vt.edu site lists piano as a "stringed instrument" http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/texts/Stringinstruments.html

 

So it seems like the definition is more up for grabs than you imply. Even in the "educated world".

 

And apparently the armonica and saw are "Friction Idiophones" under a much more sensible classification system. http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/instruments/instrumentmain.html

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Seems odd I know but me and a friend were having a discussion the other night and I seem to remember my classical guitar teacher telling me a guitar was technically actually a percussion instrument because you strike the stings. And, that a stringed instrument is a violin or a cello as you do not strike the strings but use a bow.


Anyone know the truth? Wikipedia does not list that as I can tell....perhaps my instructor was a nut case as it seems most classical teachers are!
:freak:

 

Traditionally - and I am going back a few hundred years here - the lute and clavichord (the forerunner of the piano) were considered percussion instruments because during the Baroque period they formed part of the "continuo", viz. The small group of instruments that provided the rythym / bass / percussion section that accompanied a singer or solo instrument (usually violin or cornetto).

 

But that is not the whole picture - percussion instruments were also considered to be "unexpressive", viz. The player cannot manipulate the instrument to yield different sounds or tones. Indeed, a great controversy arose in the mid 19C about whether a piano was a percussion instrument, not because the sound is produced by striking a key but because however the player strikes the key you get the same sound (plunk).

 

The guitar (or lute) however is capable of great expression because an accomplished player can generate a range of nuances of sound and tone by the way he frets and plucks the strings. This became especially true of the guitar as it was developed over the years to become the wonderful instrument it is today.

 

Just to be provocative I will add that, in my opinion, the piano, alas, is a percussion instrument.

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If you are going to make up classifications on your own then fine that doesn't bother me since it really doesn't matter what an instrument is called. But if you want to know what it is really classified as in the educated world then you need to realize that not everything is as simple as (cut your stings off and it doesn't play.....see stringed instrument) Instruments are classified by how the sound is made, not what makes the sound(if you can understand that). Also stringed instruments that use bows to make the sound are not percussion instruments and do not use percussion to produce the sound.

 

Instruments that are sounded by striking, shaking, plucking, (
)

 

Percussion instrument--A musical isntrument played by striking it, such as a drum, cymbal, (read this one carefully)
piano
, tambourine, castanets or chimes.(world book dictionary)

 

 

 

percussion instrument

n.

 

An instrument, such as a drum, xylophone, piano, or maraca, in which sound is produced by one object striking another or by being scraped or shaken. "percussion instrument." The American Heritage

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ok ok, I didn't actually expect you to look into the sources. You're much more thorough then my professors. I admit the piano is considered both in general but if you ever run into anyone who is classically trained or any music majors or professors of music at almost any university or conservatory they will tell you that it is a percussion instrument. I don't know why they decided on that because i haven't yet started my sophomore year so i haven't taken any music history or things of that nature. They just mutual decided on calling it a percussion instrument. But for this discussion i submit, you win. Good job:thu:

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