The birth of the classical guitar
The Origins of the Classical Guitar
The guitar possibly originated in ancient Egypt
The guitar possibly originated in ancient Egypt
Musical Instruments such as a guitar which produce a sound by plucking strings are called “plucked stringed instruments”.
A plucked stringed instrument resembled a guitar appeared in a painting around 3,000 B.C. of the ancient Egypt. Although not having any evidence to show how this instrument has been developed since the picture was painted to support a theory, it is no doubt that it was being redesigned into a various shape and spread through the globe.
The original shape of the guitar in the 14th and 15th centuries
The original shape of the guitar in the 14th and 15th centuries
The first guitar, a plucked string instrument, appeared in Spain around the turn of the 15th century. The instrument was called a “vihuela” then and it was consisted of four double-strings (paired courses).
Four double-strings indicate that the instrument had two strings on each course, along the full length of the neck, eight strings in total. The five double-string version appeared around the year 1600. The six single-string version became popular in Europe in the 1800. This six single-stringed instrument is no doubt the closest ancestor to today's guitar so that it is even called the “nineteenth century guitar”.
Torres - father of the modern guitar
Torres - father of the modern guitar
19th century guitars varied in both shape and size depending on a luthier. The instruments were small and did not produce large sound then. Antonio de Torres, a guitar luthier, was born in Spain in 1817, who made a larger version of the guitar with a lager sound. Torres extended the length of the strings and changed to make bigger body size to create the first version of the modern guitar. Other guitar luthiers took notice of the modifications he had made and Antonio himself popularized his manufacturing method. Additional modifications were made along the way to create a guitar that closely resembles the modern guitar.
