Classical Guitar History

The instrument that we call the classical guitar has a history as long as our culture itself. Of course, it has not always been called the "classical" guitar, or even the "guitar" for that matter, so let's look at some of the influences in classical guitar history that have refined it into the guitar we now know and love.

The acoustic guitar with six nylon strings is generally known as the classical guitar but you can play practically any kind of music on it. Sometimes a little imagination is needed as Jose Feliciano showed when he converted The Doors' "Light My Fire" into an acoustic ballad, but in the right hands the classical guitar can be quite versatile.

One interesting fact from classical guitar history is that during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when the guitar in its early forms was very popular in Europe, the music for it was written almost entirely in tablature. If you read about the history of the classical guitar in detail you will see that the process of the evolution of the guitar involved many instruments like the vihuela and the baroque guitar.

As the twentieth century classical guitar repertoire was heavily based on Spanish music, we could regard the intense work on the development of the guitar in the eighteenth century as the real genesis of the classical guitar. The six string guitar replaced the five stringed instrument in the hands of the musical public in Europe and as it gained popularity, luthiers kept refining the shape and internal strength of the guitar.

The musical history of the classical guitar includes both new music written specifically for the guitar and arrangements of works of other instruments so they can be payed on the guitar. Obvious choices of guitar pieces were the works of John Dowland who wrote for the lute and the vihuela but keyboard works written for the harpsichord were also well suited to arrangement for the guitar. As a result, the seventeenth century composer, Domenico Scarlatti has many of his pieces in today's classical guitar repertoire. Another composer for the keyboard who had many works arranged for the guitar was the Spanish composer, Isaac Albeniz.

The beginning of the history of the classical guitar as we now know it is in the early twentieth century when Andres Segovia began recording his interpretations of composers such as Bach and Tarrega. The classical guitar has remained a favorite of audiences through to the twenty-first century.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.