Folk music is music of the common people. Created by someone who has a story to tell rather than composed by a trained musician, it is simple and easy to understand. Folk songs have easy, singable melodies, use simple harmonies, and (unless the song tells a sad story) have rhythms that are fun for dancing. The instruments of folk music are the instruments people happened to have around at the time. Sometimes inventive people built their own instruments if no others were available.

Probably the most common folk instruments are the guitar and fiddle. Both of these instruments have long histories and lead double lives. Their ancestors are the lutes, viols, rebecs, and other string instruments of past centuries. The guitar and fiddle play serious music in concert halls, and they accompany folk music and dancing in dance halls. In fact, the fiddle is really the name given to a violin when it is played in a popular or folk style.

Although a fiddle player at a country hoedown may not hold his instrument and bow exactly the same way as a violinist in a symphony orchestra does, they will both be using the same kind of instrument and playing it in much the same manner. The fiddle, like the violin, can only be played one or two notes at a time and usually plays the melody. Its customary place is in a group where other instruments play the harmonies and emphasize the rhythms. For country and western, and square-dance styles of music, the fiddle is usually joined by one or more guitars, a banjo, a drum set, and its oversized relative, the string bass.

One of the most popular instruments of music, the guitar comes in many shapes and sizes. There are folk guitars, classical guitars, and electric guitars; there are guitars with four, six, and twelve strings; and there are guitars with the usual single neck as well as others with two necks. Although each guitar has been designed to play a certain type of music, all are played much the same and can be used for folk music.

Just like all of the instruments in folk music, the guitar can be played by anyone with an ear for music. You might learn to play it faster with the help of a teacher, but you can probably learn enough to accompany a folk song by experimenting and practising on your own.

The guitar is either held on the player’s lap or by a strap over the shoulder. The sound is produced by plucking and strumming the strings with either the fingers of the right hand or a plastic pick held between the thumb and forefinger. Different pitches are played by pressing, or stopping, the strings against the fingerboard with the fingers on the left hand.

The guitar fingerboard has metal strips (frets) across its face at regular intervals. These frets make it easier for the player to stop the strings at the right places. To play a melody, one string is played at a time. To play chords, several of the strings are strummed with the right hand and fingered with the left hand. By learning the left-hand fingerings for three or four chords and strumming the strings in rhythm, a player is ready to play the accompaniment of many different folk songs.

The banjo is played much like the guitar, and usually has five strings. The banjo holds a particularly important place in the folk music of America.

Other stringed instruments used in folk music include the mandolin, ukulele, dulcimer, autoharp, and zither. The mandolin is a pear-shaped instrument closely related to the lutes of early England. It has eight strings and is best known for its playing of the tremolo, a rapid down-and-up picking of the strings that creates a tremulous quaver.

The ukulele looks like a very small guitar with four strings. It is usually associated with hula dancers and the Hawaiian Islands. (The name is Hawaiian and means `jumping flea”.) In the early 1900s many popular singers used the ukulele to accompany themselves as they sang. People found that the uke was easily carried wherever they might go as well as easy and fun to play. The uke isn’t as popular today as it was then, but it is still an important instrument in much folk music.

The dulcimer and autoharp are also easy and fun to play, but like the uke are played by relatively few people. The dulcimer is held on the lap, and the melody string is plucked with one finger. Different pitches are made by stopping the string with a small stick held in the left hand. Its soft, clear tones are just right to accompany lullabies and songs telling sad stories.

The autoharp was first made in Germany during the 1800s. It has many strings that provide sweeping, harplike chords when strummed. The instrument has a series of buttons to be pressed while playing. Each button is attached to dampers which cut out certain strings. The buttons usually have the name of a chord written on top, and the player merely has to press down the button for the chord he wants to play and strum the strings with either a finger or a felt pick. The autoharp is an easy folk instrument and fun to play, and is now used for teaching music in some schools.

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