Warm Up: S. read website: (http://invention.si.edu/invention-electric-guitar/p/35-invention)
and answer the following questions on your own paper. You may work in groups.
What is the Smithsonian Institution?
What
is the National Museum of American History?
What is the Lemelson Center for the
Study of Invention and Innovation?
How do we know the websites created by these institutions
are reliable sources of information?
What are some of the ways you can judge the reliability
of a website?
Questions About the History of the Electric Guitar
Directions: Use the website “The Invention of the Electric Guitar,” provided by the Lemelson Center
for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution, to discuss and answer the
questions below with your group. You should be able to answer all the questions using the website.
1. The website notes that “the electric guitar may be the most important and popular instrument
of the last half-century in American music.” Why was it so important?
2. What are some of the reasons performers in the late 19th century and early 20th century might
have wanted their guitars to make louder sounds?
3. What were some of the techniques used to make guitars louder in the years before the
invention of the electric guitar?
4. How did the popularity of Big Band music in the 1920s impact the kinds of guitars musicians
played?
5. What is a “hollow-body” electric guitar? What were some of the problems associated with
these instruments?
6. The website notes that “during the early years of its existence, the electric guitar's viability as a
‘true’ instrument was frequently debated. The instrument's detractors often claimed it did not
produce a pure, ‘authentic’ musical sound.” Why do you think they may have felt this way? Do
you think their objections were justified? Why or why not?
7. How did the electric guitar pioneers of the 1930s and 1940s influence the kinds of sounds a
musician could make with a guitar?
8. In what ways were electric guitars innovative? What could musicians do with them that they
could not do with an acoustic guitar?
9. Why was the electric guitar so important to the development of Rock and Roll?
10.What are the differences between how acoustic, electric-acoustic, solid body and
Hawaiian/steel guitars make sounds?
11. Which type of electric guitar has had the greatest impact on Rock and Roll? Why?
12.Compare and contrast the sounds made by an acoustic guitar with those of amplified hollow body
and solid-body electric guitars. (Use the links found under “How Guitars Work.) How are
these sounds different? How do they create different moods and different musical effects?
Now we will work in groups to find info on five of the early electric guitars. Then we will compile this info into a timeline on the development of the electric guitar.
You will need to use internet sources (tablet or phone) to find the information about each guitar. You must tell what your sources are and if they are reliable sources. Please see reliable resources page to decide if your website is reliable or not.
http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/webeval.html
Share your results with the class on Friday.
http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/webeval.html
Share your results with the class on Friday.
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