The Birth of the American 12-string Guitar (2013)(harpguitars.net) |
The Birth of the American 12-string Guitar (2013)(harpguitars.net) |
If you haven't heard (or seen) Michael Hedges play a harp guitar, there's some background and links to videos here:
I was totally unfamiliar with harp guitar but I am sad that I missed such a special gathering!
If you haven't heard them yet, you're in for a wild ride: https://www.youtube.com/@AnginePoitrine
https://collectionsdumusee.philharmoniedeparis.fr/search.asp...
I see your added frets, and raise "add frets on the fly using Lego":
Really? I highly recommend Flying Microtonal Banana.
You only have to put your finger somewhere in between two frets to get a particular note, so you can play more than the tiny handful of chords that can be played on something like a violin.
There are non-fretted guitars but they are rare, and I think early banjos were not fretted.
in college a good friend was a very good Oud player (plucked, some number of strings.... more than 8? I forget), and it definitely sounds different from guitar due to less sustain. Clearer notes and chords, but they don't linger as long or loud.
Edit: apparently it's 11 strings? ok.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Guitar_family_instrum...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lute-family_instrum...
They are as old as we can trace it back, vihuela/viola de mano were multi-course, as was the baroque guitar which developed from them. The romantic guitar brought us single string courses and in the guitar family double courses died out other than in a few nooks and crannies. I don't think this has any effect on what TFA proposes and the author is well aware of this bit of information, but it has been years since I read it and maybe I am forgetting something?
As a matter of fact, the "tenor guitar" was made for people who knew how to play the very popular four string banjo, but wanted to play a guitar without learning new chords.
Instruments were in a state of change, and the "harp" nomenclature (and styling) for a 12-string guitar was more a marketing flourish than a family lineage.
On a Cello a fingered string is gone in 2 seconds.
Really? Most people's first intro to microtonal guitar is recent and brought to them by Angine de Poitrine.
What do you think double-stops are?
Of course in most music contexts there is more than one instrument playing and so the others can fill in the missing note making a full chord. Only a "one-man-band" really feels the loss.
That's E, G♯, B, D, F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz3WR-F_pnM
If not, stop and watch it. But make a cup of tea to enjoy with it first, and maybe put a cloth over your keyboard for when you inevitably splutter tea all over it.