Episode 6

Some German Guys Figured it Out

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 sense of humility.

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About the Podcast

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A People's History of the Guitar

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About your host

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Grant Samuelsen

Grant Samuelsen has led a multimodal professional and personal life in the worlds of contemporary art and music, business, and academia, and he has degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Carnegie Mellon University. He has published essays, articles and criticism, and he's been a guitar player since he was 13. He's interested in everything, which is a problem, but the history of the guitar has held his attention for the longest period of time, so he's doing this podcast. He's originally from the Chicago area and lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his family, guitars, and a female Staffy named after one of the male members of Black Flag.