The first instruments used

BANJO PRIMITIVE

This instrument was constructed with an elongated gourd which had been dried until it had hardness plastic. Had five cut a long plastic fishing line tied to the post of hollow wood mast served as the instrument strings. Four string stretched to the end of the stick, and the fifth was tied near the body of the instrument, with a shorter length uplifting tone. There was a hand-carved bridge that held the strings separated from the taut membrane goatskin covering the cut made with pumpkin, tongue Wolof instrument called Halam, in the language of African musicians that led south US, is named after Banjo.

Over time banjo suffered major change. For 1883, Banjo was Americanized. Skin membrane was now extended over a round frame, initially wood and metal later. The rounded handle was now replaced by a flat mast, and the short rope was attached to the side of the mast with pins, first of wood and in a drum and when changed, the pins and the ring that held metal braces were also to thread. In this way the instrument was more noisy and since the string could tighten again sounded in a higher pitch. He had become a banjo with metallic sound.

Banjo with the violin were becoming the most common instruments of southern plantations. And it was not definitively settle the instrument but the blues was instrumental in helping to develop the techniques that became part of the history of the blues. You may be considered as an intermediate stage between the music of the griots (Each language of South Africa has a different to designate "singer" word, but all of them use a more general term, griot) and of the first blues singers .

Part of the reason for the Banjo lost its central role in rural African American musical life is that many pieces of his repertoire had been assumed by white musicians and had been associated with the Minstrel shows (Variety Show with artists mostly white, which included songs and comedy routines, usually mockingly imitating blacks). We can also mention the changes in the instrument (the highest pitch and the tension of the strings, which could not produce a sustained note).

GUITAR

With the first guitar accompaniments there was another way to resolve the dilemma. The guitar moved to a high degree to Banjo and Fiddle, especially the former, whose use was uncommon among Blues singers.

The blues was primarily a vocal music and vocal quality required in certain instruments. The flexibility of the guitar satisfy this requirement. The tuning my-si-re-sol-la-mi standard was altered or detensioning tightening the ropes until the instrument was tuned to a rope. The results were very satisfactory.

With the first guitar accompaniments there was another way to play it. This was achieved with the slack key guitar, which were popular in the United States. Essentially, the guitar is tuned to an open chord and the melody is played by sliding a metal bar up and down the strings. This was the solution to a specific problem of blues which led to different tunings and styles of modern blues.

This technique was also known by the name of knife-song as a knife blade on the ropes he slipped, and the musician could get a plaintive sound like a human cry, or a field-holler. Although some players use this resource on an occasional basis, and other usually, the fact is that the technique is widespread, indicating a clear difference feels blues singer endowed with vocal sounds qualities.

While later with the development of the blues itself it was used a number of instruments (Pitcher and kazoo, which was replaced in the thirties by the low of a rope made from a washtub inverted or bucket butter pork, washboard (all these African percussion instruments), slide guitar, made of wire rope extended over a wood or wall of a house broom and when pressed, it sounded and slid one glass bottle along, played in the thirties and forties, many blues artists began in this way.) who gave the tone at the beginning of this genre.