Guitar is an wonderful instrument you should learn it .

Guitar
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For other uses, see Guitar (disambiguation).
Guitar

A classical guitar with nylon strings

String instrument
Classification String instrument
321.322
Hornbostel–Sachs
(Composite
classification
chordophone)
Playing range

(a standard tuned guitar)

Related instruments
 Bowed and plucked string instruments

The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings.[1] It is typically played
with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar pick or the
finger(s)/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting (pressing the strings against
the frets) with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected
either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar (for an acoustic guitar), or
through an electrical amplifier and a speaker.

The guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with
either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its
construction and tuning. The modern guitar was preceded by the gittern, the vihuela, the four-
course Renaissance guitar, and the five-course baroque guitar, all of which contributed to the
development of the modern six-string instrument.

There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the classical guitar (Spanish
guitar/nylon-string guitar), the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar, which is
sometimes called a "jazz guitar". The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the strings'
vibration, amplified by the hollow body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber.
The classical guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive finger-picking
technique where each string is plucked individually by the player's fingers, as opposed to
being strummed. The term "finger-picking" can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues,
bluegrass, and country guitar playing in the United States. The acoustic bass guitar is a low-
pitched instrument that is one octave below a regular guitar.

Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, use an amplifier and a loudspeaker that both makes
the sound of the instrument loud enough for the performers and audience to hear, and, given
that it produces an electric signal when played, that can electronically manipulate and shape
the tone using an equalizer (e.g., bass and treble tone controls) and a huge variety of
electronic effects units, the most commonly used ones being distortion (or "overdrive") and
reverb. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but solid wood guitars began to
dominate during the 1960s and 1970s, as they are less prone to unwanted acoustic feedback
"howls". As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of electric guitars, including
hollowbody guitars, archtop guitars (used in jazz guitar, blues and rockabilly) and solid-body
guitars, which are widely used in rock music.

The loud, amplified sound and sonic power of the electric guitar played through a guitar amp
has played a key role in the development of blues and rock music, both as an accompaniment
instrument (playing riffs and chords) and performing guitar solos, and in many rock
subgenres, notably heavy metal music and punk rock. The electric guitar has had a major
influence on popular culture. The guitar is used in a wide variety of musical genres
worldwide. It is recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass,
country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul, and pop.

Contents
 1 History
 2 Types
o 2.1 Acoustic
o 2.2 Electric
 3 Construction
o 3.1 Handedness
o 3.2 Components
 4 Tuning
o 4.1 Standard
o 4.2 Alternative
o 4.3 Scordatura
 5 Accessories
 o 5.1 Capotasto
o 5.2 Slides
o 5.3 Plectrum
o 5.4 Straps
o 5.5 Amplifiers, effects and speakers
 6 See also
 7 Notes and references
o 7.1 Notes
o 7.2 Citations
o 7.3 Sources
 8 External links

History
See also: Lute § History and evolution of the lute, Gittern, Citole § Origins, and Classical
guitar § History
Illustration labeled "cythara" in the Stuttgart Psalter, a Carolingian psalter from the 9th
century. The instrument shown is of the chordophone family, possibly an early citole or lute

Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was
defined as being an instrument having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs,
and a flat back, most often with incurved sides."[2] The term is used to refer to a number of
chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century
and, later, in the Americas.[3] A 3,300-year-old stone carving of a Hittite bard playing a
stringed instrument is the oldest iconographic representation of a chordophone and clay
plaques from Babylonia show people playing an instrument that has a strong resemblance to
the guitar, indicating a possible Babylonian origin for the guitar.[2]

The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, has been applied to a wide variety of
chordophones since classical times and as such causes confusion. The English word guitar,
the German Gitarre, and the French guitare were all adopted from the Spanish guitarra,
which comes from the Andalusian Arabic ‫( قيثارة‬qīthārah)[4] and the Latin cithara, which in
turn came from the Ancient Greek κιθάρα. Kithara appears in the Bible four times (1 Cor.
14:7, Rev. 5:8, 14:2 and 15:2), and is usually translated into English as harp.

Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar. Although the development of
the earliest "guitars" is lost in the history of medieval Spain, two instruments are commonly
cited as their most influential predecessors, the European lute and its cousin, the four-string
oud; the latter was brought to Iberia by the Moors in the 8th century.[5]

At least two instruments called "guitars" were in use in Spain by 1200: the guitarra latina
(Latin guitar) and the so-called guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar). The guitarra morisca had a
rounded back, wide fingerboard, and several sound holes. The guitarra Latina had a single
sound hole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers "moresca" or "morisca"
and "latina" had been dropped, and these two cordophones were simply referred to as
guitars.[6]

The Spanish vihuela, called in Italian the "viola da mano", a guitar-like instrument of the
15th and 16th centuries, is widely considered to have been the single most important
influence in the development of the baroque guitar. It had six courses (usually), lute-like
tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument
with a sharply cut waist. It was also larger than the contemporary four-course guitars. By the
16th century, the vihuela's construction had more in common with the modern guitar, with its
curved one-piece ribs, than with the viols, and more like a larger version of the contemporary
four-course guitars. The vihuela enjoyed only a relatively short period of popularity in Spain
and Italy during an era dominated elsewhere in Europe by the lute; the last surviving
published music for the instrument appeared in 1576.[7]

Meanwhile, the five-course baroque guitar, which was documented in Spain from the middle
of the 16th century, enjoyed popularity, especially in Spain, Italy and France from the late
16th century to the mid-18th century.[A][B] In Portugal, the word viola referred to the guitar, as
guitarra meant the "Portuguese guitar", a variety of cittern.

There were many different plucked instruments [8] that were being invented and used in
Europe, during the Middle Ages. By the 16th century, most of the forms of guitar had fallen
off, to never be seen again. However, midway through the 16th century, the five-course guitar
[9]
was established. It was not a straightforward process. There were two types of five-course
guitars, they differed in the location of the major third and in the interval pattern. The fifth
course can be placed on the instrument, because it was known to play seventeen notes or
more. Because the guitar had a fifth string, it was capable of playing that amount of notes.
The guitars strings were tuned in unison, so, in other words, it was tuned by placing a finger
on the second fret of the thinnest string and tuning the guitar [10] bottom to top. The strings
were a whole octave apart from one another, which is the reason for the different method of
tuning. Because it was such so different, there was major controversy as to who created the
five course guitar. A literary source, Lope de Vega's Dorotea, gives the credit to the poet and
musician Vicente Espinel. This claim was also repeated by Nicolas Doizi de Velasco in 1640,
however this claim has been refuted by others who state that Espinel's birth year (15555)
make it impossible for him to be responsible for the tradition.[11] He believed that the tuning
was the reason the instrument became known as the Spanish guitar in Italy. Even later, in the
same century, Gaspar Sanz wrote that other nations such as Italy or France added to the
Spanish guitar. All of these nations even imitated the five-course guitar by "recreating" their
own.[12]

Finally, circa 1850, the form and structure of the modern Guitar is credited to Spanish guitar
maker Antonio Torres Jurado, who increased the size of the guitar body, altered its
proportions, and invented the breakthrough fan-braced pattern. Bracing, which refers to the
internal pattern of wood reinforcements used to secure the guitar's top and back and prevent
the instrument from collapsing under tension, is an important factor in how the guitar sounds.
Torres' design greatly improved the volume, tone, and projection of the instrument, and it has
remained essentially unchanged since.

Types
Guitar collection in Museu de la Música de Barcelona

The Guitar Player (c. 1672), by Johannes Vermeer

Guitars can be divided into two broad categories, acoustic and electric guitars. Within each of
these categories, there are also further sub-categories. For example, an electric guitar can be
purchased in a six-string model (the most common model) or in seven or 12-string models.

Acoustic

Main article: Acoustic guitar

See also: Extended-range classical guitar, Flamenco guitar, Guitar battente, Guitarrón
mexicano, Harp guitar, Russian guitar, Selmer guitar, and Tenor guitar
Classical Guitar Sample

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Spanish Romance.

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Acoustic guitars form several notable subcategories within the acoustic guitar group: classical
and flamenco guitars; steel-string guitars, which include the flat-topped, or "folk", guitar;
twelve-string guitars; and the arched-top guitar. The acoustic guitar group also includes
unamplified guitars designed to play in different registers, such as the acoustic bass guitar,
which has a similar tuning to that of the electric bass guitar.

Renaissance and Baroque