History Of The Guitar
Rock is possibly the most listened to genre of music. And of course the main instrument for rock is the guitar. There are many different types of guitars that can be found including acoustic and electric. The guitar usually has six strings, but four, seven, eight, ten, and twelve string guitars also exist. Guitars are made and repaired by luthiers.
Guitars may be played acoustically or they may rely on an amplifier that can electronically manipulate tone. The electric guitar was introduced in the 20th century and continues to have a profound influence on popular culture. Instruments similar to the guitar have been popular for at least 5,000 years. The guitar appears to be derived from earlier instruments known in ancient India and Central Asia as the Sitara. Instruments very similar to the guitar appear in ancient cravings and statues recovered from the Iranian capitol of Susa.
The modern word, guitar, was adopted into English from Spanish guitarra, derived from the Arabic word qitara, which in turn was derived from the earlier Greek word kithara. Prospective sources for various names of musical instruments that guitar could be derived from appear to be a combination of two Indo-European roots: guit-, similar to Sanskrit sangeet meaning “music”, and -tar a widely attested root meaning “chord” or “string”.
Illustration from a Carolingian Psalter from the 9th century, showing a Guitar-like plucked instrument.The word guitar is a Persian loanword to Iberian Arabic. The word qitara is an Arabic name for various members of the lute family that preceded the Western guitar. The name guitarra was introduced into Spanish when such instruments were brought into Iberia by the Moors after the 10th century. According to Merriam-Webster, the English word derives from French guitare, which in turn comes from Spanish guitarra.
The Spanish word was borrowed directly from Arabic qītār which was in turn adapted from Greek kithara. The Greek word may have, according to etymonline.com, its roosts in the Persian word sitar. The Ancient Iranian lute, called tar in Persian also is found in the word guitar. The tar is thousands of years old, and could be found in 2, 3, 5, and 6 string variations.
The Spanish vihuela (or “viola da mano”), a guitar-like instrument of the 16th century, appears to be an aberration in the transition from the renaissance to the modern guitar. It had lute-style tuning and a guitar-like body. Its construction had as much in common with the modern guitar as with its contemporary four-course renaissance guitar. The vihuela enjoyed only a short period of popularity, the last surviving publication of music for the instrument appeared in 1576.
It is not clear whether it represented a transitional form or was simply a design that combined features of the Arabic oud and the European lute. In favor of the latter view, the reshaping of the vihuela into a guitar-like form can be seen as a strategy of differentiating the European lute visually from the Moorish oud. Another view of the Spanish vihuela concerns how the guitar was seen in society. The Spanish vihuela was mostly played in taverns, barbershops, and on the streets of Spain. The vihuela was considered a common folk instrument and was originally discouraged by people.
The Vinaccia family of luthiers is known for developing the mandolin, and may have built the earliest extant six string guitar. Gaetano Vinaccia (1759 - after 1831) has his signature on the label of a guitar built in Naples, Italy for six strings with the date of 1779.[4][5] This guitar has been examined and does not show tall-tale signs of modifications from a double-coarse guitar. However, fakes are common for guitars and their labels in this day and age, and caution should be taken.
Modern dimensions of the classical instrument were established by Antonio Torres Jurado (1817-1892), working in Seville in the 1850s. Torres and Louis Panormo of London (active 1820s-1840s) were both responsible for demonstrating the superiority of fan strutting over transverse table bracing. The electric guitar was patented by George Beauchamp in 1936. Beauchamp co-founded Rickenbacher which used the horseshoe-magnet pickup. However, it was Danelectro that first produced electric guitars for the wider public.