Plucky Strings and Peppy Percussion Strings and Percussion    

Lesson 18: Guitar - Twelve Spanish Dances, Op. 5 - 'Arabesca'

by William Riley

Performer: Enrique Granados

Directions

Study the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Listen to the music daily.
• Recite the composer and composition names.
• Read the synopsis.
• Review the vocabulary terms.
• Read about the instrument category.
• Complete the enrichment activities.
• Study the review questions.

Synopsis

This lesson continues the study of the guitar, a stringed instrument. Guitars have a wooden body, a long neck, and six strings that musicians strum or pluck with their fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick). The musical composition for this lesson, 'Twelve Spanish Dances, Op. 5 - Arabesca,' by William Riley, features the music of a guitar. The painting included in the lesson, 'The Guitar Player,' by Johannes Vermeer, shows a woman playing a guitar.

Vocabulary

Guitar: A stringed musical instrument with a fretted fingerboard, typically incurved sides, and six or twelve strings, played by plucking or strumming with the fingers or a plectrum.
Plectrum (Guitar Pick): A thin flat piece of plastic, tortoiseshell, or other slightly flexible material held by or worn on the fingers and used to pluck the strings of a musical instrument such as a guitar.

Category

Music lessons over the next two years group musical instruments into five major categories: strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.

String instruments produce sound through the vibration of strings. Strings may be plucked or strummed with fingers, hit with hammers, or rubbed with a bow.

See a picture of strings below. Note that some strings are thicker and some are thinner.

The sound produced by a string depends in part on its thickness, its length, its tightness, and its material.

Instruments have multiple strings of varying thickness. Musicians playing instruments turn pegs to tighten or loosen the strings and change their sounds. Musicians also press their fingers against the strings to control the length of strings that vibrate and produce sound. Strings are made from materials such as nylon or steel.

String instruments include violins, violas, cellos, double basses, guitars, ukuleles, sitars, mandolins, banjos, and depending on who you ask, pianos.

Study the images of strings.

1. Viola Strings

2. Cello Strings

3. Guitar Strings

Enrichment

Activity 1: Review the Parts of a Guitar

• Study the parts on the labeled picture of the guitar.

Activity 2: Study Pictures of Plectrums (Guitar Picks)

Activity 3: Can You Find It?

Study the lesson image, 'The Guitar Player,' by Johannes Vermeer, and find the following:

• Musician
• Painting
• Gold Frame
• Curls
• Pearls
• Strumming Hand
• Hand Shortening and Lengthening the Strings
• Guitar
• Guitar Neck
• Guitar Body
• Guitar Strings
• Guitar Sound Hole
• Guitar Saddle

Activity 4: Study Guitar Finger Movements

Watch the video to see how a musician uses his fingers to play a guitar.

Note how he uses one hand to strum the strings and the other to shorten and lengthen the strings to change the sound.

Review

Question 1

What are the five major groups of instruments listed in the lesson?

1 / 5

Answer 1

The five major groups of instruments are strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.

1 / 5

Question 2

Which string instrument does this lesson feature?

2 / 5

Answer 2

This lesson features the guitar.

2 / 5

Question 3

How many strings do guitars have?

3 / 5

Answer 3

Guitars have six strings.

3 / 5

Question 4

What are the major parts of the guitar?

4 / 5

Answer 4

Major parts of the guitar include the tuning pegs, neck, body, strings, bridge, sound hole, and saddle.

4 / 5

Question 5

How do musicians make sounds with a guitar?

5 / 5

Answer 5

Musicians use one hand (or a guitar pick) to strum the strings and the other to shorten and lengthen the strings to change the sound.

5 / 5

❮ ❯

1. What are the five major groups of instruments listed in the lesson? The five major groups of instruments are strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.
2. Which string instrument does this lesson feature? This lesson features the guitar.
3. How many strings do guitars have? Guitars have six strings.
4. What are the major parts of the guitar? Major parts of the guitar include the tuning pegs, neck, body, strings, bridge, sound hole, and saddle.
5. How do musicians make sounds with a guitar? Musicians use one hand (or a guitar pick) to strum the strings and the other to shorten and lengthen the strings to change the sound.

References

'String instrument.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

'Guitar.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.