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Guitars have disabilities: exploring guitar adaptations for an adolescent with Down syndrome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2014

Adam Patrick Bell
Adam Patrick Bell*
Affiliation:
John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair State University, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey 07043, USAbellad@mail.montclair.edu
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Abstract

The guitar has a high value in cultural capital and we are immersed in a culture in which the guitar is the predominant vehicle of music-making. Given the guitar's mass popularity, it follows that the guitar-learning community is vast and diverse. Subscribing to the social model of disability, I problematise the guitar as being disabled and conducted an instrumental case study using the ethnographic tools of video-based observation, field notes and a semi-structured interview to chronicle the experience of teaching an adolescent with Down syndrome how to play the guitar. Different approaches to enabling the guitar are examined including open-tuning, standard tuning and a modified two-string guitar. Findings discuss the importance of the guitar to the participant as a percussive and rhythmic instrument and additionally as support for singing in the context of jamming.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , November 2014 , pp. 343 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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