Interesting Facts and Information about Guitar that will Make You Think

Playing or listening to some of your favorite guitarists can instantaneously rejuvenate you and is perhaps the most popular modern instrument. It is perhaps the versatility and the charisma of this musical instrument that has seen it become the central instrument in the vast majority of popular music.

Think you know a lot about guitar trivia? You will find people spreading incomplete or partial knowledge about guitars. Let me provide you with some guitar facts which you probably never knew.

1. The first musical instrument to bear the name Guitar appeared in the 13th century, it has its origins in the Latin word Cithara. It was not until the 1200s that an instrument began to use the name. Guitarra Moresca, the Moorish Guitar and Guitarra Latina the Latin Guitar. The Spanish Vialo do Mano was perhaps the modern guitar’s closest ancestor, however. Appearing in the 15th century, it usually had 6 strings, and a familiar body shape, resembling a modern acoustic.  
2. Playing guitar or listening to music keeps brain healthy: Music is a great medicine for brain and reverses the aging of brain. Research conducted have found listening to music improve cognitive function. “If you want to keep your brain engaged throughout the aging process, listening to or playing music is a great tool. It provides a total brain workout.” – Charles J. Limb, M.D., Johns Hopkins otolaryngologist.
3. ‘Reach out to Asia’ Fender Stratocaster is the world’s most expensive guitar priced at $2.7million: The world’s most expensive guitar was auctioned in Doha in 2005. The guitar was signed by 19 performers – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, Mark Knopfler, Ray Davis, Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Tony Iommi, Angus and Malcolm Young, Paul McCartney, Sting, Ritchie Blackmore, Def Leppard and Bryan Adams. “Reach Out To Asia”, what this project came to be known as was an idea to raise funds to help the victims of the 2004 Tsunami Disaster. The music world came together to help aid the massive disaster that affected millions.
4. Fender factory makes around 90,000 strings per day. This is over 20,000 miles a year, enough to circle the world. The company also makes around 950 guitar necks a day.
5. Leo Fender who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company and the inventor of Fender guitars was as saxophonist and never learned how to play guitar. In addition to that, he in fact was an accountant before losing his job in the Great Depression. After losing his job, he decided to turn his hobby of tinkering with electronics, radios, amplifiers, and the like, into a business, “Fender Radio and Record Shop”, which eventually led to what is now known as the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

I am Rex Lee Bell, a guitarist and a guitar instructor with over 40 years of experience as a musician. I have been a studio guitarist in San Francisco Bay Area and New York City recording and performing with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr., Paul Simon, Michael Jackson and many others.

If you are a beginner or if you have some knowledge about playing guitar and want to continue learning then contact me, I can help you learn guitar at your home. I have been doing mobile guitar lessons for many years. Guitar Confidence covers over 30 cities in the East Bay and South Bay areas; including Benicia, Berkeley, Clayton, Concord, Crocket, Danville, Dublin, Fairfield, Hercules, Lafayette, Livermore, Martinez, Moraga, Orinda, Pleasant Hill, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Vallejo, & Walnut Creek, CA.