12 July 2024
09:00am - 6:00pm
Admission is free but tickets need to be reserved in advance.
Bringing together people from a range of fields interested in the use of the electric guitar in popular music, to share research about the electric guitar.
The Electric Guitar in Popular Music - a one day symposium. July 12th 2024
The Electric Guitar in Popular Music symposium will take place at Canterbury Christ Church on Friday 12 July 2024. Presentations have been collected around the following themes:
- Electric Guitar Soloing and Tonal Improvisation
- Electric Guitar as Rhythm and Texture
- Electric Guitar Design and Technology
- Electric Guitar Culture
- Electric Guitar Technique
We are delighted that Professor Milton Mermikides will be giving the keynote presentation.
'Hertz so Good: Expressive Dissonance and the Electric Guitar': This keynote lecture collates diverse research on musical dissonance from Euler’s ‘gradus suavitatis’, Parncutt & Hair’s dimensions of dissonance, to the predictive and pleasure cycle models of Kringelbach and Vusst. It is shown how these psychological, psychological and analytical models relate to musical expressivity in the pitch, rhythmic and timbral domains in the playing of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Hendrix, Johnny Greenwood, Jimmy Nolen, Joni Mitchell, Pat Martino and others, and demonstrate the subtle interplay of ‘pleasure' and ‘pain' central in the musical experience.
Milton Mermikides (www.miltonline.com) is a composer, lecturer, writer, academic, electronic musician, illustrator and guitarist from London. He is the 37th Gresham Professor of Music, Associate Professor of Music at University of Surrey, Professor Jazz Guitar, Royal College of Music, and Senior Research Fellow and Composer in Residence at the Centre of Eudaimonia & Human Flourishing (Linacre College, University of Oxford).
Enquiries: electricguitarconference@canterbury.ac.uk
Panel
- Dr James Dean (Chair, Canterbury Christ Church University)
- Dr Kate Lewis (Brunel University London)
- Professor Murray Smith (University of Kent)
- Dr Ben Curry (University of Birmingham)
Programme
| 8.45 - 9.15 | Arrival: Tea and Coffee | |
| 9.15 | Welcome | |
| 9.20 - 10.00 | Paper 1 | Dr James Dean Fretboard Personalities: Ways of Seeing the Fretboard in Blues and Jazz Guitar Improvisation |
| 10.00 - 10.40 | Paper 2 | James Corley Hexaphonic Hyperguitar Hybridity: Connecting sonic-arts to guitar music through technology and technique |
| 10.40 - 11.20 | Paper 3 | Oliver Jones Form and the Modular Guitar: A Case for the Technologically-Aware Analysis of Electric Guitar-Driven Popular Music |
| 11.20 - 11.40 | Break | |
| 11.40 - 12.20 | Paper 4 | Dr Gabrielle Kielich Understanding the Representation of Women Electric Guitarists on Instagram |
| 12.20 - 1.00 | Paper 5 | Michael McEvoy The Electric Rhythm Guitar in Funk: From James Brown to Daft Punk |
| 1.00 - 2.00 | Lunch | |
| 2.00 - 3.30 | Paper 6: Keynote | Prof. Milton Mermikides Hertz so Good: Expressive Dissonance and the Electric Guitar Followed by discussion led by Prof. Murray Smith |
| 3.30 - 4.00 | Break | |
| 4.00 - 4.40 | Paper 7 | Dr Rich Perks David Gilmour: Defining the 'Melodic' Guitarist |
| 4.40 - 5.20 | Paper 8 | Matthew Peacock John Scofield, Parry-Lord & Transformations: A Reappraised Approach to Formulas in Jazz Improvisation |
| 5.20 - 6.00 | Paper 9 | Dr Kate Lewis Who Does What?: Toward an Understanding of the Rhythm-Lead Guitar Spectrum |
(Schedule is subject to change)