Guitar, a stringed instrument that originally originated in Spain at the beginning of the 16th century, evolved from the Latin guitar, a late-medieval instrument with a waisted body and four strings.
The early guitar was shorter and deeper than the current guitar, and the waist was less pronounced.
It was closely related to the vihuela, the guitar-shaped instrument played in Spain instead of the lute. Initially, the guitar had four courses of strings, three doubles, the single top course, which ran from the violin-like pegbox to the tension bridge glued to the soundboard, or the belly; hence, the bridge maintained the direct pull of the strings. There was a hollow sound hole in the belly, frequently adorned with a sculpted wooden rose. The 16th-century guitar was tuned to C–F–A–D, tuning the middle to four lute and vihuela courses.
There have been many improvements in the instrument from the 16th to the 19th century. The fifth set of strings was added before 1600; a sixth course was added at the end of the 18th century. Until 1800, the double courses were replaced by single strings tuned E–A–D–G–B–E′, now the normal tuning. The violin-type pegbox was replaced about 1600 with a smooth, mildly reflexed head with rear tuning clamps; in the 19th century, metal screws were replaced by tuning clamps.
Early bonded intestines were replaced by built-in ivory or metal frills in the 18th century. Originally, the fingerboard was flush with and ending up in the abdomen, and some metal or ivory frets were mounted directly on the belly. In the 19th century, the fingerboard was elevated slightly above the belly stage and stretched around it to the edge of the soundhole.
In the 19th century, the body of the guitar also underwent improvements resulting in increased sonority. It became larger and shallower, with an incredibly thin soundboard. Internally, the transverse bars that stabilize the soundboard were replaced by radial bars that blew out below the soundhole. The collar, formerly set into a wooden block, was moulded into a brace or shoe that rotated a short distance within the body and was glued to the back, providing extra stability to the pull of the strings.
The inventions of the 19th century were mainly the work of Antonio Torres. The resulting instrument was the classical guitar, which is strung with three intestines and three metal-stringed silk strings. Nylon and plastic were later utilised in place of the gut. Among the various types of the guitar was the 12-stringed, or double-stringed guitar, and the Mexican jarana and the South American charango, which were all small five-string guitars. Lyre-shaped guitars were popular in the 19th-century living rooms.
Other types of the guitar include the wire-strung guitar played with a plectrum in folk and traditional music; the cello guitar, with a violin-like bridge and a tailpiece; the Hawaiian guitar, or steel guitar, in which the strings are stopped by the weight of a metal bar, creating a smooth, slick note; and the electric guitar, in which the sound and tone of the instrument rely almost entirely on the electro.
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Guitar music from the 16th to the 18th century was recorded either in tablature (showing the position of the fingers on the frets and strings to be plucked) or in an alphabetical chord symbol scheme. Jazz-guitar tablature displays the chord symbols on a grid of strings and frets.
The guitar became more popular in the 17th century as the lute and the vihuela declined. It remained an amateur instrument from the 17th to the early 19th century.
However, a few virtuoso guitarists were popular in Europe, including Gaspar Sanz (1674), Robert de Visée (1650–1725), Fernando Sor (1778–1839) and Joseph Kaspar Mertz (1806–56). The new classical-guitar technique owes a great deal to the Spaniard Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909), whose transcriptions of works by Bach, Mozart and other composers formed the basis of the concert repertoire.
In the 20th century, Andrés Segovia brought more attention to the guitar as a concert instrument, and composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Manuel de Falla composed serious works for it; others like Pierre Boulez added for the guitar in chamber ensembles. The guitar is frequently played in folk and traditional music in many countries. It is part of the rhythm section of jazz ensembles and is rarely played as a solo instrument. The guitar is typically amplified in mainstream music, and the ensembles also have more than one instrument, a solo lead guitar, a rhythm guitar, and a bass guitar to play bass lines.
Thus the guitar we use today has travelled centuries to get the shape that it has now.
