Guitars, and Why We Love Them!

"...the modern word guitar, and its antecedents, have been applied to a wide variety of cordophones...the English word guitar, the German gitarre, and the French guitare were adopted from the Spanish guitarra, which comes from the Andalusian Arabic قيثارةر qitara,^[4] itself derived from the Latin cithara, which in turn came from the Ancient Greek κιθάρα kithara,^[5] and is thought to ultimately trace back to the Old Persian language..the oldest known iconographic representation..of a guitar is a 3,300 year old stone (rock! sic) carving!"

- wikipedia

Sure, they have been around and 'rocking' for a long time, but why do we love them? You hold them like a weapon, easy to start with but, like the best weapons, hard to master. They are both melodic and percussive, sweet and soothing then suddenly blazing a path between your wilting ears. Give one to a master and they can bring ten or ten thousand cheering people to their feet. They come in any description of shapes and sizes; timber, metal plastic, all combinations of these things. Plug an electric one in and they take on a whole new temperament! Suddenly, you need a couple of other guys with guitars to form a band, and then a drummer wants to hang around cause, lets face it; they love them too.

I first felt the inexorable lure of the stringed implement when I was about 15 yrs old, in High School and yes, we wanted to form a band. Neither I or my friends could play a note, so we said we would all choose an instrument and learn to play! I was earmarked for the role of bassplayer, and began my tuition.

Wasn't long however, before my stupid little fingers got discouraged and I thought I would have a go on the much thinner six-string kind. The thing that sealed it for me was a late night showing on tv of Dire Straits in the 'Alchemy' live concert movie. Hearing Mark Knopflers dusky-toned National Steel resonator chiming out in the intro to 'Romeo and Juliet' had me transfixed - and I have been happily stuck with them ever since.