The History of Classical Guitar

This article discusses the history of the classical guitar beginning with the lute and baroque guitars, and ending with the Torres Guitar and the modern classical guitar.

ORIGINS - THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD

The roots of the modern classical guitar can be traced back to two much older instruments.

The first of these is the vihuela - an instrument originating in the 15th and 16th centuries that first became popular in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The vihuela was shaped like a guitar, but tuned like a lute. It was a wooden instrument made with 6-course strings or “double strings,” which were plucked or strummed in unison - think of how a twelve string guitar is set up today. The strings back then were made of gut - a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fiber found in the walls of animal intestines.

The second instrument is the Baroque Guitar, also know as the Chitarra Battente. This was a 17th-century design featuring five-course strings. The baroque guitar first appeared in Southern Italy, using a A, D, G, B, E tuning, reflecting the standard tuning for the top five strings used for modern guitars. Also, around this time, the frets were increased from eight to ten, and then lastly twelve. 

Modern scholars believe the first 6-string guitar made its debut appearance in the late 1700’s and that it originated in both Vienna and Paris roughly around the same time. Although these guitars had the 6 strings that are used today, these guitars were still smaller than the modern classical guitar.

BUILDING THE MODERN CLASSICAL GUITAR

Over the last several hundred years the guitar had been gaining credibility as a professional musical instrument. With the contributions of certain renowned individuals from each of the preceding periods, the guitar caught the attention of Spanish luthier Antonio de Torres. Torres’ goal was to help the guitar become a viable concert and solo instrument at last. To do this, he increased the guitar's size and also focused on the soundboard as the most significant component of the guitar's construction, making it lighter and thus more resonant. This was important for the guitar to become loud enough to fill concert halls. He also used a system of fan-bracing that increased the instrument's strength while also decreasing its weight. Torres’ guitars quickly became the the standard of their time, although they were still smaller than the classical guitars we use today.

The classical guitars used today are constructed with various types of wood; with the finest guitars being made using Brazilian or Indian rosewood for the back and sides, and some form of either spruce or cedar for the top. Cedar tops will have a much warmer and darker tonal pallet, while spruce tends to have a brighter, more vibrant sound. The neck is usually constructed with mahogany, cedar, or ebony. Tuning pegs are mounted on the headstock. Classical guitars today typically use nylon strings, instead of the metal strings found in other acoustic and electric guitars. Traditionally, classical guitars have twelve frets with the 12th fret joining the neck to the body of the guitar, and 7 additional frets continuing into the body itself.  The 7th fret is only a partial fret enabling high B to be played on the first and sixth strings.