Since musicians also carried their guitars in cases and bags they commandeered the word as well, and started using it to describe their guitars. The gangsters who ran these lotteries carried their guns in a bag or case and referred to them as axes. John claims that the word was actually coined from the illegal lottery business. In the book ‘ The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu‘, R&B artist and street slang aficionado Dr. You’re certainly getting a lot of different slang guitar terms for your money in this article, huh? 4. So far we’ve got ‘axe’, ‘woodshedding’, and ‘chops’. They were responsible for a lot of the ‘jive langauge’ that we musicians still use to this day.
So, as guitarists, we use our ‘axes’ to show off our chops.Ĭhops is another term that originated from the jazz players of the 1940s onwards. In terms of guitar playing, your chops are the palette of skills that you possess – your musician’s toolbox if you will. What do you do with an axe? You chop wood. This makes the theory one of the earliest in this article! 3. In the context of music, the term was used as far back as 1936 when it was recorded during an interview with jazz musician Louis Armstrong.
Of course, these days your ‘woodshed’ is more likely to be your bedroom or practice space, as opposed to an actual shed! And what do you use to chop wood? An axe! In the past, musicians might go out to the woodshed to practice in peace, as it would generally be located away from the hustle and bustle inside the home. In jazz circles, the term is commonly shortened to ‘shedding’, or even just ‘shed’. In the context of a musician, woodshedding is known as a prolonged practice or rehearsal session. WoodsheddingĪ further possible reason for referring to a guitar as an axe could be thanks to the term ‘ woodshedding‘. So just in case, here are a few more potential explanations! 2. However, we can’t say for certain that this is the definitive origin of this slang term. Popular consensus is that the word has become so synonymous with the guitar due to the instrument’s slight resemblance to the shape of an axe.
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It is also theorized that the axe reference eludes to the ‘swing’ of a jazz saxophonist in full stride. At some point around 1967 guitarists also started to refer to their guitars as axes.Īccording to the April 2007 edition of The Word Detective, the term was first associated with the saxophone due to ‘sax’ sounding like ‘axe’. The use of the word ‘axe’ as a slang term for a musical instrument actually began with the saxophone in 1955, and then, later on, the trumpet. It Started With The SaxĪ guitar is called an axe thanks to the jazz musicians of the ’50s who first coined the term. Whether you cringe at this common slang term or not, let’s try and discover where it came from… Why Is A Guitar Called An Axe? 1. Hopefully at least one of them will satisfy your thirst for knowledge! However, I have tried my best to include as many different theories as I could uncover. Unfortunately, through my research, I found that there is no real concrete answer to the origins of this slang term. I was curious myself, so I carried out a little digging to see what I could find out. Well… AXE, and you shall receive… (sorry, not sorry). Ever wondered why a guitar is called an AXE?
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