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Rigo Ybarra
Professor Linda Garcia
English 1302-09
9 January 2017
Rock & Roll
There is too much to be said about rock & roll, although there are many different genres
“the song remains the same” doesn’t it? While in high school I took music appreciation then
followed with music theory. The experience was amazing.
Please read my use of history skeptically, because the information I am presenting may
be off or wrong, considering I took the classes a couple years ago. The information just isn’t as
fresh as it used to be. Every day I learned about music, while in music appreciation I studied the
history of music, right from the very beginning, which if I recall correctly was drums and horns.
These drums and horns were used in the military during the ancient times (Greco-Roman) they
were instilled for battle commands. They proved quite useful and necessary. Even the biggest
man with the biggest lungs yell would not travel as far as a horn or a drum, then on top of that
you would have to distinguish what he said weather it was attack retreat and so on. The horns
and drums went on to be incorporated recreationally among kings for petty entertainment.
The next pivotal change came with the Italian renaissance. When Italy introduced the
guitar into the world it came in with a bang considering how cheap they were in reference to
pianos later. The cheap nature of the guitar was extremely important; the fact that it was so
cheap made it easily attainable to the lower classes bringing music to the majority and made it
the people’s instrument. Anybody could grab a guitar and begin learning their instrument, where
as a piano would have taken so much craftsmanship and care that the price was exaggeratingly
more than even the finest of guitars. This fact still continues today.
About 200 years later was when the piano actually debuted, when this came to be it took
the world by storm. The true name of the piano is a pianoforte translating to softloud. The
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reason for this strange name was because of the touch of the piano if you applied mass force
the key would play loud; if you applied soft force the keys would sound soft. Although there had
been many attempts at making a piano like instrument, such as the harpsichord and the
clavichord, the piano was the one that really got all the girls. When Beethoven got a hold of his
piano all the girls would throw there corsets at him.
The next change happened in the early 1900s with jazz folk and in the 30s blues and
country emerged from the plains, bayous, and woods of our great nation. History is reflected
into music, after the depression and into World War ll people began singing over big bands and
created a more of a lounge jazz and this particular music continued through the years despite
musical evolution.
In the 50s is when music really got way too interesting. The blues and country came
together to form rock & roll, this brash music is amazing fusing together the blues progression
