| The guitar is a lute type stringed musical instrument.
In Spain, the guitar has been popular since the 13th century and spread across to European countries and America in the 17-18th century. Since the 18th century, the 6-stringed guitar became common and 7 stringed guitars gained importance predominantly in Russia. Amongst the varieties, there is the so called Hawaiian guitar and the electric guitar is used in modern music.
The guitar consists of a body with deep cutouts on each side and flat sounding boards, of which the top has a large sound hole in the middle a neck with fingerboards, equipped with frets, and a headstock with machine heads. Initially braided strings were used, later on metallic strings and now nylon strings are used. In the 13th century, four double-stringed guitars were used with popularity in Spain. In the 17th century, a 5 double-stringed guitar the" Spanish guitar” spread across to Italy, European countries and also to America. In the middle of the 18th century, the guitar gained huge popularity in Europe. By this time, 6 single-stringed guitars replaced the conventional 5 double-stringed guitars and the quarter-tertian form evolved. In Russia and partially in Poland, the leading position was occupied by the 7-stringed guitar of the tertian type (the so called Russian guitar). Guitars with plenty of strings (with additional bass) were also manufactured. Mainly, the guitar is played for the accompaniment to singing and also in chambered ensembles and for solo play. In many countries, guitar has become a folk instrument. N. Paganini and also several outstanding composers of the 20th century composed songs for the guitar.
Special types of guitars appeared in the 20th century such as the “Hawaiian Guitar”. The Hawaiian guitar is played with a special plectrum, holding the guitar flat in the lap and pressing the strings to a fingerboard using a metallic strip and the orchestral or jazz-guitar with resonator grooves, as in the case of the violin and also designed for sound production by a plectrum. |
