Guitar-o-centrism

["Scott Bullerwell" <tanelorn@dimensional.com>]

David Kirkdorffer writes:

> If rock music is the dominant or most visible/listened to/played form of
> music around today, then it's true the Guitar is the dominant or most
> visible/listened to/played instrument in the rock genre.
> 
> Thus, it represents the largest market for "aftermarket" products - like
> effects etc.

A fair statement--guitar is highly visible, it's popular, it's sexy, it's
expressive, it's versatile, it symbolizes, uh... freedom, and it's
relatively easy to play popular music on.  I think there might be something
synergistic behind this.  Lotta guitar players means a lotta bands means a
lotta music means a lotta kids who want to be guitar players.  

Why guitar, though?  Apart from the fact that most kids dig rock music (and
aren't exposed to much else), I think it's because the guitar is CHEAP
(youse with the $20,000 rack and $8000 custom-shop guitar, stop snickering)
compared to drums, 'cello, piano, or for that matter most orchestral
instruments--or even a decent rack o' synths.  Yo-Yo Ma (and other
prominent classical soloists who commonly lease their million-dollar-plus
heirloom instruments from musea or private collections) wouldn't wince at
the sticker price of the latest Eventide and a McInturff Zodiac.  Hell, the
cat playing ninth-chair butt-trumpet in the Teaneck Philharmonia has more
than that rolled into his scruffy-looking horn.

And we live in the days of the $189 Stratocaster and $50 digital effects. 
And the $750 Echoplex Digital Pro. 

(Plus, you can give your kid a guitar and a headphone amp and not have to
hear her sawing through etudes or plonking through major scales or pounding
out endless measures of "Wipeout" on a cheap floor tom.)

Scott Bullerwell
tanelorn@dimensional.com
Boulder, Colorado, USA