I have been working on my research project on the history and science of the modern guitar. In the process, I have presented in front of my class, done loads of research, and even built a guitar. Also, I have come across some issues. One for example, with the famous Gibson Co. They had illegally imported wood into the US from Madagascar. This really upset me that they would do such a thing.
In my 8th grade culminating project, I have also learned about the way the guitar has completely redefined music. Some key things I’ve learned about it are how it has evolved over the years. It first started out in Egypt thousands of years ago. It has changed shapes and sizes, and most importantly the sound of it has completely changed. It is played in every single genre of music. You can’t turn on the radio not hear a song on the guitar.
I wonder if music one day is going to be completely different than it is today. Think about how music has changed in the last 100 years. Or really, think about how much it has changed in the last 10 years! I can’t even imagine how music would be without the guitar.
One other impactful aspect of the topic I explored describes the science of the guitar. I was especially interested by how the electric guitar can produce sound. The pickups can pick the sound waves up and convert that into electricity to make sound. It is really amazing to think that somebody actually was able to come up with that. At first, it seemed very hard to understand and I eventually got a good understanding.
This has shown me that if you look at something and think that it is going to be too hard to do or out of reach, then work your best at it and it will eventually happen. When I started my very first step of building my guitar, I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to finish in time and that I would need to get lots of help for it. But I read through the directions five times, and I ended up building it successfully. It took me quite a while, but I did not give up and put my best effort into it. In the end, it paid off.
I think the way I want this project to impact me is by motivating me to try new things in the future. I know how to play the guitar, but I went out on a limb and tried to build one. And it ended up working out. I also hope that this motivates me to build more guitars in the future. It was really fun to do, and I plan on building an acoustic guitar sometime in the near future. This project has been very fun, challenging, and something that will really impact me in my future.