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PODCAST

A People"s History of the Guitar

Grant Samuelsen

A People"s History of the Guitar is about people, guitars, people and their guitars, and guitars and their people. We"ll be exploring histories, origins, innovation, triumphs, and tragedies, and talking to well-known, little known, and unknown people who make music with the guitar, and who make, and think about the instrument. A People"s History of the Guitar starts with the idea that the guitar belongs to all of us, and it deserves a history for all of us. This podcast uses the following

music music history

All Episodes

26:21

New! Where Does Guitar Come From?

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2025/12/12

Episode nine about the word guitar. That's not bad grammar, its a question: what is the origin of the word, guitar?It's an odd word with deep roots, and the evolution of the word tracks with the evolution of the instrument itself. Join me for a slightly speculative, and ultimately inconclusive, exploration of one word that might have come from more than one place, because no word comes out of no-where. ----Learn about how to support the project here!Check out all previous episodes below. Episodes

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28:34

Sinners: People & Vampires & their Guitars

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2025/12/03

This episode goes off-road a little. I'm late to the party, but when I recently/finally saw Ryan Coogler's Sinners, I couldn't not do an episode on this movie. Sinners is a cracking good vampire movie that also happens to be a micro-history of Black Music, with details that can tell us a lot about the history of string instruments in the United States. Its about the guitar, people and their guitars, and the guitar and its people...even if some of those people aren't people anymore. Playlist and

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25:56

NEW! Strung Theory II: The Musical Bow

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2025/07/14

This is the second in a short series of episodes and interviews about that thing we made, that if we hadn't made, there would be no guitar. Episode six is about how we learned to make a string and pull it tight between two fixed points to make a weapon. The bow and arrow changed the way we lived, ate, and killed each other. And the bow part of the bow and arrow might be a prototype for future stringed musical instruments (chordophones). That's because until we taught ourselves how to make string,

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24:54

New! Strung Theory (Part One)

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2025/05/20

This is the first in a short series of episodes and interviews about how we turned cordage into chordage. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs System for Musical Instrument Classification, the guitar is in the Chordophone category. And it wouldn't be there if it weren't for something we found, and manufactured, over tens of thousands of years, called cordage.The story of cordage is under-told and overlooked, but it's everywhere, and it's one of our most important tools and materials. We take it for

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26:04

Some German Guys Figured it Out

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2025/02/05

Episode five is about one of the ways we organize human knowledge. It's also about two German musicologists who created a system for categorizing musical instruments, before the Nazis fucked it all up. And you bet it's relevant to the development of the guitar, because in the Hornbostel Sachs system, the guitar is barely a blip among the hundreds of tools humans use to make music. And if that's the case, why is the guitar...everywhere?As we get into this long history, it's important to maintain a

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24:48

Why Music?

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/10/11

This episode takes us from the evolution of human musicality into the realm of music itself, and its origins. That story is big, controversial, and messy. So, I've sorted it into easily digestible summaries of the ideas of Charles Darwin, Steven Brown, and Steven Pinker: three thinkers whose work is important for understanding how and why we started making music. It could have been really long, but I've cleverly limited it to under about 25 minutes. Here's a link to a brief and delightfully

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31:19

Hit It! (Mostly About Hitting Things)

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/10/10

You don't make a musical sound by just sitting there. You have to fight for it. This longish episode is about turning kinetic energy into mechanical energy into sound energy. It's about force. It's about electrical circuits, making stone arrowheads, and playing the piano. It's about how we learned to clench our fists and hold guitar necks, and how we learned to manage the delicate interplay of the bones and muscles in our hands. It's about Stanley Kubrick, and the Ramones, and how we learned really

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30:47

Walk This Way

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/07/13

This episode is about one of the things that launched us homo sapiens on our journey toward making music, which would eventually get us to the guitar. That one thing is our feet, which is really two things. When we evolved into beings who could walk upright, we introduced something new into our lives. Becaming bipedal, millions of years ago, gave us one of the foundations of music, and Disco, and CPR. It also helped to make our brains bigger, which made us smarter, and our walking feet and bigger

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26:38

There is No Origin Story

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/05/30

In this episode we'll go back in time, into a cave with a Greek God where the mythical first stringed instrument was created, to Wisconsin, California, and Mississippi, in search of an origin story for the guitar. No spoilers, but the show title might give you a hint of what's to comeAnd it's time to ask for support. If the idea of a podcast about the history of the guitar that's also a history of humans and our music sounds interesting, I agree. I have about a year's worth of content outlined and

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01:19

Episode Two PREVIEW: Bodies of Knowledge

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/05/02

If we're going to explore the history of people, the guitar, people and their guitars, and the guitar and its people, we first need to find out some things about us. How we became musical beings, ask if we're musical beings at all, and find out how we learned to make things that would eventually help us to make things that would help us to make music. I promise that you'll never see Saturday Night Fever in the same way, ever again. That'll be in Bodies of Knowledge, Episode Two of A People's History

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01:32

Episode One PREVIEW: There is No Origin Story

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/05/02

In Episode one, we'll be looking at how to start and where, because finding a place to begin a history of the guitar like this isn't simple. In Episode One, we'll make up some stories, dip into a little Greek mythology, and find a starting point in a surprising place - before musical instruments, before music, and before people. Episode One of A People's History of the Guitar, There is No Origin Story, hits the airwaves on Thursday, May 9, 2024, so click follow or subscribe, and our mutual friend

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20:51

Episode Zero: Intro to A People's History of the Guitar

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/05/02

A People's History of the Guitar is about people, the guitar, people and their guitars, and the guitar and its people. In this introductory episode, you'll find out a little about the podcast, what the podcast is about, why I decided to do this in the first place, and who the podcast is for. Spoiler alert: it's for everybody. I'll be publishing at least three episodes every month as this ramps up, so click follow and be informed. Be very informed.

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01:05

Trailer

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/05/02

A People's History of the Guitar has been in the the podcast oven for a while, and it's finally time to take it out and poke it with a fork. Here's a short taste of the sound and purpose of the show to come. You'll hear at least three episodes every month, so click the follow button and the internet will let you know when new episodes pop out of the toaster.

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01:04

Episodes coming in mid-April!

A People"s History of the Guitar ·

2024/04/05

Episodes coming in mid-April! A People's History of the Guitar is a podcast about the guitar, people, and people and their guitars.

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