In an ensemble setting one of the most difficult challenges lies in achieving balance and blend among the group. Playing with dynamics, arranging the instrumentation appropriately, and selecting the right players all have a significant impact on the ensemble sound. The use of amplifiers has made the job of blending and balance easier since their invention. Amps have also allowed for new musical styles to develop as well as many other possibilities for the musical world.
Most commonly amplifiers are used by the electric guitar, bass, and occasionally keyboard players. However, they have the ability to amplify anything that can be plugged into the input jack from a 1/4 inch cable. You can see the extent of these possibilities explored in the music of composers like John Cage who wrote a piece for an amplified cactus. For live performances, being able to amplify instruments has created more possibilities for audiences to attend shows and participate in musical culture. Amps allow fewer instruments to produce the same sound levels as hundreds of acoustic instruments. This invention may have even had an impact on the kind of music people choose to see today. Before the invention of amps, filling a large concert hall with sound probably meant seeing an orchestra or choir perform. Cathedrals and churches are also naturally build to project sound within the room, and organs could project within the walls very loudly. But outside of these environments a large audience hearing music probably did not exist. Today, the possibility of one person, or a band of three people, can produce as much sound or greater than an orchestra, choir, or pipe organ within cathedral.
Not only have amps impacted the musical styles and genres since their invention, they impact the school environments too. In school bands there are opportunities for guitar, bass, and keyboard players to join marching bands in the “pit” section. Although they don’t all march it is a nice option and allows for some interesting arrangements of music. The lack of specific instruments can also be substituted by amplified guitars or basses that fill in the missing parts very well. The variety of companies that make amps as well as their ability to adjust and customize sound levels has created endless possibilities for musicians from all fields and specialties. Here are a couple of my favorite companies and innovators of amplifiers:
Fender
Ampeg
GK
Amplifiers really have opened the door for innovation. Rock band can now be louder than an orchestra in a stadium with enough half stacks. It is interesting the world that opened up when they made these. We have gone from being able to manipulate the high low and medium frequencies of an instrument to adding reverb and playing with timbre. Many genre's of music would not exist without an amplifiers. The rock shows that so many of us have grown up with would not be possible, because so much of the music wouldn't be made or would be completely different sounding. I also like fender Ampeg and GK. I really love Ibanez, line 6 for effects, and Paul Read Smiths (PRS's).
ReplyDeleteReally interesting blog post! I have always been interested in how amplifiers have had an effect on the music world. This would be a really cool lesson for a music history lesson maybe?
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