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Post new topic Where & how did stringed instruments begin ??
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Author Topic:  Where & how did stringed instruments begin ??
Eddie Cunningham

 

From:
Massachusetts, USA
Post  Posted 14 Apr 2010 4:14 pm    
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After listening to Roy Thompsons beautiful and haunting "Steel Koto" rendition I did some deep thinking and wondered where all these stringed sounds began ?? All evidence points to the Orient , China, India and Persia. Maybe some warrior placed his bow on a hollow gourd and twanged the bowstring and was pleased with the sound and then tried it with two bows ?? There were all kinds of various stringed instruments developed over the centuries, Kotos , Lutes, Sitars & Violins ETC . Then eventually Joe Kekuku happened to slide a knife on that old guitar in 1890 and the Hawaiian steel guitar sound was born !! But I do wonder where and how it all began !!??? Anybody have any ideas or thoughts ??? The old geezer , Eddie "C"
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Jason Hull

 

Post  Posted 14 Apr 2010 5:40 pm    
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The first stringed instrument probably was a bow, then a resonator was added, as in the Berimbau:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berimbau

Add a few strings and you've got a harp, like the Kora:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kora_(instrument)

For info on early steel guitars, see Roots of Steel in Steel Guitarist magazine.
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Charles Davidson

 

From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
Post  Posted 14 Apr 2010 8:02 pm    
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Don't know the ans to that. But the first steel that caught my attention was the intro to Hank Snows I'm Moving on when I was around nine or ten years old. I'm SURE I had been hearing steel on the old forties country songs,But that's the ONE that made me want to be a picker. Very Happy YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.
_________________
Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC !
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