Guitar: The Instrument that Rocked the World

By Vivienne Mackie

If you are planning to be anywhere near Louisville, KY, before April 22, 2012 it’s well worthwhile to take an extra day to visit this wonderful exhibition. Even if you’re not a music buff and cannot play a guitar, it’s still fascinating and you will come away feeling inspired to perhaps learn!

Orlando Science Center was the first stop on this unique musical tour: a tour of the story and history of the Guitar. The National Guitar Museum (NGM) put together this special exhibition, called “Guitar: The Instrument that Rocked the World”, to showcase this enduring American icon and probably the world’s most popular instrument.

The exhibition ran in Orlando June 11, 2011 and ended January 3, 2012. Next, the exhibition heads to Louisville, Kentucky, to the Louisville Science Center from January 22 to April 22, 2012 (www.louisvillescience.org ). A 15-city tour over the next 5 years is planned.

At the end of the tour, one city in the US will become the permanent home of the NGM (unknown at this time).

We were lucky enough to visit this exhibition twice in Orlando and each time were also fortunate to have a live band playing as part of the exhibition. The last time (28 December, 2011), a young man, Alex Ivanov, accompanied by his grandmother (we think) gave a very capable performance.

It’s a great exhibition because this instrument appeals to every age group and has been used in every type of musical genre imaginable. The historical section features an amazing collection of special guitars, plus of old guitar-like instruments, such as the Nyatiti (Kenya), the Pipa (China), the Oud (Mesopotamia), the Tanbur (Persia), the Charango (Andean) and the Vihuela (Iberia). There are also baroque guitars, Romantic guitars, Spanish guitars, lutes, banjos and sitars.

As the pamphlet and the web site explain, “As the guitar evolved from European and Asian instruments during the Middle Ages (oud, sitar, lute, and lyre), it gave players a sense of musical and personal freedom. Its image became inextricably linked with those who followed their own path, from balladeers and Gypsies in Europe on to cowboys along the American frontier. Slaves, sharecroppers, protest singers, and teenage rebels all used the guitar as the soundtrack to songs that questioned the way of the world . . . giving birth to the blues, folk music, and rock and roll.”

Other cases show guitars with different numbers of strings (usual is 6), different shapes,different woods, and different colors. We see an explanation of the different strings—catgut, nylon, metal—and a real oddity, the “Rock Ock 8-Neck Guitar”. There are a number of interactive features, such as the world’s largest playable electric guitar, a giant copy of a Gibson Flying V guitar made in Houston, which kids can climb on; different types of strings to strum to hear the different sounds; buttons to push to hear different types of guitars etc. A number of monitors show footage of famous performers using the guitar, such as Bluesman Mississippi John Hurt, Bruce Springsteen, and Chet Atkins.

A lot of fun, and definitely recommended.

Take a look at the excellent NGM site, which has much information about this amazing instrument.

www.nationalguitarmuseum.com