The guitar originally had four courses of strings, three double, the top course single, that ran from a violin-like pegbox to a tension bridge glued to the soundboard, or belly; the bridge thus sustained the direct pull of the strings. In the belly was a circular sound hole, often ornamented with a carved wooden rose. The 16th-century guitar was tuned C–F–A–D′, the tuning of the centre four courses of the lute and of the vihuela.
A woman wearing a hanbok plays the traditional Korean musical instrument kayagum (gayageum).
BRITANNICA QUIZ
Another Musical Instruments Quiz
Do you know who invented the clarinet? What is Korea’s national instrument? Test what you know about the devices that make music with this quiz.
From the 16th to the 19th century several changes occurred in the instrument. A fifth course of strings was added before 1600; by the late 18th century a sixth course was added. Before 1800 the double courses were replaced by single strings tuned E–A–D–G–B–E′, still the standard tuning.
Venetian guitar
Venetian guitar
Guitar with mother-of-pearl inlays from Venice, 17th century.
AdstockRF
The violin-type pegbox was replaced about 1600 by a flat, slightly reflexed head with rear tuning pegs; in the 19th century, metal screws were substituted for the tuning pegs. The early tied-on gut frets were replaced by built-on ivory or metal frets in the 18th century. The fingerboard was originally flush with and ended at the belly, and several metal or ivory frets were placed directly on the belly. In the 19th century the fingerboard was raised slightly above the level of the belly and was extended across it to the edge of the sound hole.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.
Subscribe Now
In the 19th century the guitar’s body also underwent changes that resulted in increased sonority. It became broader and shallower, with an extremely thin soundboard. Internally, the transverse bars reinforcing the soundboard were replaced by radial bars that fanned out below the sound hole. The neck, formerly set into a wood block, was formed into a brace, or shoe, that projected a short distance inside the body and was glued to the back; this gave extra stability against the pull of the strings.
The 19th-century innovations were largely the work of Antonio Torres. The instrument that resulted was the classical guitar, which is strung with three gut and three metal-spun silk strings. Nylon or other plastic was later used in place of gut.
lyre-shaped guitar
lyre-shaped guitar
A lyre-shaped guitar from the 1800s.
AdstockRF
View a demonstration to understand the physics behind the working of an electric guitar
View a demonstration to understand the physics behind the working of an electric guitar
A demonstration of how electric guitars work.
© Your Life (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
See all videos for this article
Among variant forms of the guitar are the 12-stringed, or double-course, guitar, and the Mexican jarana and the South American charango, both small five-course guitars. Lyre-shaped guitars were fashionable in 19th-century drawing rooms. Other forms of the guitar include the metal-strung guitar played with a plectrum in folk and popular music; the cello guitar, with a violin-type bridge and tailpiece; the Hawaiian, or steel, guitar, in which the strings are stopped by the pressure of a metal bar, producing a sweet, gliding tone; and the electric guitar, in which the instrument’s sound and tone depend almost entirely on the electronic detection and amplification of its vibrating strings.
electric guitar
electric guitar
An electric guitar.
© Petr Malyshev/Fotolia
Guitar music from the 16th to 18th century was notated either in tablature (showing the position of the fingers on the frets and the strings to be plucked) or in a system of alphabetical chord symbols. Jazz-guitar tablature shows chord symbols on a grid representing strings and frets.
The guitar grew in popularity during the 17th century as the lute and vihuela declined. It remained an amateur’s instrument from the 17th to early 19th century. A few virtuoso guitarists, however, became known in Europe, among them Gaspar Sanz (flourished 1674), Robert de Visée (c. 1650–1725), Fernando Sor (1778–1839), and Joseph Kaspar Mertz (1806–56). Modern classical-guitar technique owes much to the Spaniard Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909), whose transcriptions of works by Bach, Mozart, and other composers formed the basis of the concert repertory.
In the 20th century, Andrés Segovia gave the guitar further prominence as a concert instrument, and composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Manuel de Falla wrote serious works for it; others (e.g., Pierre Boulez) scored for the guitar in chamber ensembles.
Clapton, Eric
Clapton, Eric
Fender Stratocaster electric guitar being played by British rock musician Eric Clapton in London, 2008.
Majvdl
The guitar is widely played in the folk and popular music of many countries. In jazz ensembles it is part of the rhythm section and is occasionally played as a solo instrument. In popular music the guitar is usually amplified, and ensembles frequently include more than one instrument, a “lead” guitar for solos, another for rhythm, and a “bass” guitar to play bass lines.
The word "guitar" was adopted into English from Spanish word "guitarra" in the 1600s. In the Middle Ages the word "gitter" or "gittern" was used in England. Both "guitarra" and "gitter" came from the Latin word "cithara". The word "cithara" came from the earlier Greek word "kithara". "Kithara" could have come from the Persian word "sehtār". "seh" meaning "three" and "tār" meaning "string". There is also a similar but two-stringed Persian instrument named "dotār". "do" means "two" in Persian. The Indian sitar instrument was named after the Persian "sehtār". The sihtar itself is related to the Indian instrument, the sitar.
A person who plays a guitar instrument is called a guitarist. A person who makes or fixes guitar instruments is a "luthier", which comes from the word "lute". The word "lute", comes from the Arabic "Al-Uud", a stringed instrument from the Middle East.
The guitar appears to be derived from earlier instruments known in ancient central Asia as the Sitara. Instruments very similar to the guitar appear in ancient carvings and statues recovered from the old Iranian capitol of Susa. The modern word, guitar, was adopted into English from the Spanish word "guitarra", which came from the older Greek word kithara. Possible 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 found root meaning "cord" or "string".
The word "guitar" is a word that the Iberian Arabic language took from the Persian language. The word "qitara" is an Arabic name for various members of the lute family that preceded the Western guitar. The word "guitarra" was introduced into Spanish when such instruments were brought into Iberia by the Moors after the 10th century.
There have been instruments like the guitar for at least 5,000 years. The guitar may have come from older instruments known as the sitara from ancient India and central Asia. The oldest known picture of a guitar-like instrument is a 3300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard. The oldest guitar-like instrument that is still complete is the "Warwick Gittern" in the British Museum. It belonged to Elizabeth I of England and probably to her father Henry VIII before it was given to her. It is about 500 years old.