GUITAR

Musical instrument of the lute family, having a flat, wasted body with a round sound hole and a fretted neck along which runs 6 strings.

The strings are fastened at the top of the neck to tuning screws, and at the other end to a bridge glued to the instruments´s sound board, or belly.

The top 3 strings are usually made of gut or nylon; the others are metal. The strings are tuned E A d g b e1 (E= second E below midle C; e1 = E above middle C) The players left hand fingers stop the strings at the apropriate frets to produce the correct pitches; the right-hand fingers pluck the strings. Some metal-strung guitars are plucked with a small flat plectrum, or pick.

Guitarlike instruments have existed since ancient times, but the first written mention of the guitar proper is from the 14th century. In its earliest form it had three double courses (pairs) of strings plus a single string (the highest).

The guitar probably originated in Spain, where by the 16th century it was the counterpart among the middle and lower classes of the aristocracy´s vihuela, an instrument of similar shape and ancestry that had six double courses.

The guitar became popular in other European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries, and by the late 17th century a fifth course of strings had been added below the other four. In the mid 18th century the guitar attained its modern form, when the double course were made single and a sixth string was added above the lower five.

Guitar makers in the 19th century broadened the body, increased the curve of the waist, thinned the belly, and changed the internal bracing. The olf wooden tuning pegs were replaced ny a modern machine head.

pick it up!