history of the guitar essays

Explanitory/history of the guitar essays The Guitar In The Thirteenth Century The guitar is a musical instrument that has a large flat-backed sound box, a long fretted neck, and usually six strings. It is played by either strumming or plucking with a pick or ones fingers. The guitar is generally crafted of a combination of different woods and possessed a different number of strings. Although many forms of the guitar have existed only four have been seriously documented and recognized through out history. The four types of guitars are the lute, the four-course guitar, the five- course guitar and six stringed guitar. Lutes were the earliest form of guitar developed in the thirteenth century and were constructed of a single piece wood and had eight strings to be played. Lutes also, be known as vihuelas in some parts of Europe evolved merely 50 years after conception in the way they were constructed. Two pieces of wood were soon used for a better overall appearance and sound, with that change a set number of eight strings were established. Lutes quickly became a mainstream string instrument of the fifteenth century that was played by the rich and the poor alike. The first string of instruments that contained the word guitar started with the four and five-course guitars. The two guitars were named for the number of strings they possessed. The four-course guitar had four strings and also an unusual tuning much different from its preceding and its proceeding instruments, rather than traditional D-G-B-E tuning of todays tuning pattern the four-course was tuned to a C-F-A-D scale which is a ninth (two notes that span a range of nine notes, an octave plus one step) degree lower. In the later half of the thirteenth century the five-course guitar was invented which now included five strings rather than the previous four. It was played with the same tuning as the four-course guitar with the exception of the new extra string that was tuned to the lower o...