Musical Genres Or Styles of Guitar Music


Music is a free expression of emotion and feeling. It is an artistic expression of passion for melody, rhyme, measure and lyrics. Man's love for music is evident on the number of musical instruments that were developed and used through the decades. Among these ancient-modern instruments is the guitar.

Guitar is one of the stringed instruments that have a history rooted from the ancient times. Through the centuries of its use, it has created thousands of tunes and has entertained millions of people from the era and area on which it was used. The ancient forms of music created by the guitar also evolved along with the guitar's many forms. With man's continuing passion for music and for this stringed instrument, modern times have created modern niche of guitar music.

Blues is one of the vocal and instrumental forms of music that uses blue notes. It has emerged from African-American communities through their spiritual and work songs as well as chants. With the use of rhymed and simple narrative ballads, the community has created music with a prominent call and response pattern. Blues are traditionally played with a piano as in churches and gatherings. Later on, the accessibility of guitars and its popularity among bands have made more music for blues, making it the root for some other musical genres such as the jazz, rhythm and blues, bluegrass and rock and roll.


Jazz is one of the popular genres of music that are played with the guitar. It is known to have originated from the blue notes or Blues. Considered a confluence of African and European music traditions, Jazz is distinct for its improvisations, polyrythms, syncopation and swung notes. Jazz has made beautiful music with its fusion with the big-band style swing, bebop and Latin, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. Eventually, Jazz was incorporated in 20th century American pop music.

The more recent musical genre of guitar music is pop music. With its noticeable rhythmic element, melodies and hooks, its mainstream style and conventional structure made it very popular among the teenage population. Today, these are the music that usually appears on top of the record charts, which are determined by the number of sales and popularity in air play. And most of the songs in this genre are accompanied by the tunes of the modern and classic construction of guitars.

The versatile application of guitar to music explains why professional guitarists can play all musical genres. From rock to pop, classic to modern beat, no one will ever miss out the significant contribution of guitar tunes to the whole effect of a song or musical piece. Even for novice guitar players or those who are starting to learn to play the guitar, the selection of play pieces or practice pieces is limitless, making the learning process more interesting and exciting.

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