Wednesday, December 11, 2013

argument rough draft

Acoustic guitar or electric guitar?
 
. The history of the guitar can be traced back over 4000 years, making it a very early ancient instrument. Some people claim that the guitar is a development of the lute, or even of the ancient Greek kithara which both were fretless stringed instruments. At 3500 years old the oldest guitar ever found was obviosly acoustic and came from Egypt. The guitar was made of beautifully polished cedarwood and rawhide and was found on an archaeological dig. It can be seen today at the Archaeological Museum in Cairo. The modern guitars we have now are versions of these that have been greatly modified. Adolph Rickenbacker is the inventer of the first modern amplified electric guitar. It was a semi-hollow body guitar with sound holes.  Les Paul came up with the first solid body electric guitar and from there just as many changes were made to the electric guitar as the first known acoustic itself. When considering buying a guitar, one of the first things to consider is wether or not the guitar you will be spending your time learning on will be electric or acoustic Asking the question acoustic or electric is like asking a person if they want to bow hunt or hunt with a gun. Now im not a hunter, but I know that because of the compaired difficulty, it must feel a lot better to bag a kill with a bow. Just as it is with learning guitar, it is with almost everything you learn. And I know that learning on an acoustic before an electric is the best thing to do. The acoustic guitar is always ready and waiting like a loyal dog in the corner of your room using its eyes to beg you to play with it. A rough day has gone buy and you need to relax and take your mind off the stress and there it is. A buddy calls and wants to jam out some tunes with you and all you have to do is move the jacket over in your backseat of your car a little so you can store your guitar. Maybe you have been on your feet all day and just want to sit down. The acoustic is made to fit the shape of your body so that it will always be comfortable with a few adjustments. Electric guitars can be heavy and awkward shaped. You might never get used to it stabbing you in the side and pulling your shoulder as it scolds you with your mistakes loudly so all can hear. Remember! you can only put so much distortion on that thing before it sounds like pure static. Then you can be as bad as you want. No one will hear. If a person was to purchase both an electric and an acoustic and place them in the same room they would notice a few things right from the start. You most likely spent more money on your electric because of its needed components and equipment. Your mom is complaining that the electric bill went up because you keep leaving your amp on. You scared the neighbors. Jeez... You better pick up that acoustic and let everyone rest. It hurts as you dig your fingers into the strings. It is almost just as unforgiving as the electric but it is the clear choice. I have moved a lot in my life and found a new home. The one thing that I never forget or get rid of is my acoustic. I can remember sitting in my new apartment on the floor before anything was unpacked. Just looking at the blank white walls and the empty space. The smell of freshly used cleaning supplies and the occasional smell of touch up paint. The dead silence mixed with the ocasional neighbor sounds. My new journey fresh on my mind. Looking over at the boxes and replaying how many layers of stuff there is sitting ontop of more stuff. Then I look over and see a guitar case. What a great way to start my new journey. Acoustic guitarists must keep the rhythm of the song going throughout. A lot of electric guitarists pull out solos and no one knows what's going on or whether or not it's being played correctly. Electric guitarists can afford mistakes on stage whereas acoustic guitarists cant. The sound of an acoustic guitar is delicate and precise and pleasing to the appreciative ear. I have heard bands playing electric with the distortion turned up so damn high you cant even tell what chords are being played! If you are going to write a song acoustic guitar is essential.

"The reality is that when you write a song, you should be able to strip away all the instruments and just have a voice and an acoustic guitar. And the song will be good." Dweezil Zappa.

"If you cant play it on an acoustic guitar or a grand piano then its not a real song" Christopher Cross.

"To stand up on stage alone with an acoustic requires bravery boardering on heroism boardering on insanity". Richard Thompson.
 

 
 



12 comments:

  1. Really like the comparison that you point out. Stuck with the thesis well.

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  2. I think if you put a little more reason on why you should pick one guitare over the other it would help. You compare one or the other but you need to make a strong case on why to pick one. There are no refrenses to outside sources Works cited in the esay needs to be included. There is a lot of good personal opnion in here but not a lot of facts. Its a great start,

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  3. Thesis statement is clear. I dont think you can start a sentence with And. I like the closing sentence. I look forward to reading the final draft. I for sure deafen alot of people with my electric too!

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  4. In the blog you have the word "buy" and it should be "by". Otherwise spelling and everything looked good.

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  5. I can tell that you are for the acoustic for sure, so clear thesis statement. I like the part when you are compare the guitar to a loyal dog, just waiting for you to get home. I did not notice any errors, well done essay

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  6. Your thesis was obvious that you were comparing acoustic and electric guitars. This was my favorite sentence "The acoustic guitar is always ready and waiting like a loyal dog in the corner of your room using its eyes to beg you to play with it. Even though I do not play the guitar I can relate to how you feel because I have my lovable loyal dog Maddie. I also didn't know guitars are traced back 4000 years ago! Thats amazing that mankind thought of that so long ago. I would try to put a little more research into it since it is supposed to be 4 to 7 pages. I also found 7 spelling errors. Otherwise very well done!

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  7. I see spelling errors and a missing punctuation. I think your idea is sound however you are missing the statistics and outside sources to back it up.

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  8. I think you did a great job using figures of speech and enjoyed reading your essay. I know this a rough draft but I did not see any outside sources used and there was no citing. Also, I don't think that you actually stated which guitar you were making an argument for. You did however lean heavily towards the acoustic. Good job.

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  9. Your thesis was well pointed out. I would maybe fix your first sentence as I didn't quite understand it. I like to see some more quotes and supporting details instead of just first person. I did find several grammers. Ex, put period after the sentence, "When considering buying a guitar, one of the first things to consider is wether or not the guitar you will be spending your time learning on will be electric or acoustic" I really liked that you tried to combine different type of writing style to your essay. I would suggest try to fix the outline of your essay a little bit, I felt that it all kind of collide within another.

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  10. Thesis was all about whether to pick acoustic or electric guitar when learning to play. " a rough day has gone" by- not buy. I like when you point out the acoustic is formed to fit the body, I did not know that. When comparing the two It was funny when you talk about giving the neighbors a rest. Nice job Ben, Thank You

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  11. You didn't use paragraph spacing so it looks like all one paragraph the grammar needs polishing, good work otherwise.

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  12. You are going to need some external sources that show the musical quality of an acoustic is far better than an electric. Also, find sources that show learning on an acoustic is a better endeavor for a new musician. You need direct quotes--analyze them. This is how you're going to flesh out your argument. As it stands, it's an imcomplete picture. Use the quotes at the end but you need to blend them into your writing throughout.

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