1. The History of Country Music Part 1
Instruments and Early History

2. For those that don’t know
Country music is a genre American popular music.
Term to know:
Genre – a category that identifies pieces of music (but also film and literature) to a shared tradition or set of conventions.

3. The setup
Immigrants and their traditions and musical instruments go back nearly 300 years ago.
When coming to America, immigrants brought with them their most valued possessions, which in many cases were instruments.

4. Instruments

5. Accordion

6. Accordion Reed instrument developed in early 19th century Europe
Worn like a vest
Consists of left and right hand keyboard that are connected by bellows

7. Autoharp Gained prominence during the 1920s in country music.
Played by strumming strings.

8. Banjo

9. Banjo Strummed or plucked. Descended from West African lutes
Slave trade brought the banjo to Africa
Most recognizable music in country music

10. Bass

11. Bass Provides rhythmic “bottom” for melody.
Upright favored by bluegrass and rockabilly bands.
Electric base is used in contemporary music.

12. Dobro

13. Dobro Precursor to steel guitar.
Invented Dopyera brothers in 1920s and modeled after the Hawaiin “slack” or resonator guitar.
Played face up. Music picks strings and slides a metal bar across the frets

14. Drums

15. Drums Not part of the original instrument lineup in country music
Were introduced officially to country music in the 1950s with the advent of rock and roll.

16. Fiddle

17. Fiddle Brought to America from British Isles.
Has always been a fixture to country music.
Has been in America for nearly three centuries.

18. Guitar

19. Guitar Evolved in Europe from a lute-
It was refined in America into two major styles: the flat-top, perfected by 1850 by C. F. Martin of Nazareth, Pennsylvania; and the “arched-top” (with a top carved in the manner of a violin), invented by Orville Gibson of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the 1890s.

20. Guitar
Prior to the 1920s the guitar had been a refined parlor instrument that was overshadowed in American popular music by (chronologically) the lute, minstrel banjo, mandolin and tenor banjo.

21. Harmonica

22. Harmonica Developed in Europe during the 1820s.
Popularity grew because of the ease in which it could be packed.
Used in blues

23. Mandolin

24. Mandolin Derived from ancient lute of Renaissance Italy.
Composers such as Handel and Mozart.
Bill Monroe became the first country virtuoso of the Mandolin

25. Piano

26. Piano Integral in the inception of country music.
Made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis

27. Pedal Steel Guitar
Developed by Alvino Rey, a pop steel guitarist and leader of a big band and machinist John Moore in 1939
The first country musician to take the instrument seriously was Speedy West - an obscure, California-based steel player who approached patternmaker Paul Bigsby

28. Pedal Steel Guitar
Steel guitar has since then become a staple in country music