Guitar — A Video Map Guide

Lute § History and evolution of the lute, History of lute-family instruments, Gittern, Citole § Origins, and Classical guitar § History .tmulti .multiimageinner.tmulti .trow.tmulti .tsingle.tmulti .theader.tmulti .thumbcaption.tmulti .text-align-left.tmulti .text-align-right.tmulti .text-align-center@media all and (max-width:720px)@media screen@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark)Instrument labeled "cythara" in the Stuttgart Psalter, a Carolingian psalter from 9th century Paris.Turkey. Hittite lute from Alacahöyük 1399–1301 BC. This image is sometimes used to indicate the antiquity of the guitar, because of the shape of its body.Musical instrument historians wri

Guitar collection in Museu de la Música de BarcelonaGuitars are often divided into two broad categories: acoustic and electric guitars. Within each category, there are further sub-categories that are nearly endless in quantity and are always evolving. For example, an electric guitar can be purchased in a six-string model (the most common model) or in seven- or twelve-string formats. An instrument's overall design, internal construction and components, wood type or species, hardware and electronic appointments all add to the abundant nature of sub-categories and its unique tonal & functional property. Acoustic Acoustic guitar Extended-range classical guitar, Flamenco guitar, Chitarra battente, Guitarrón mexicano, Harp guitar, Russian guitar, Selmer guitar, and Tenor guitarThe Guitar Player (c. 1672), by Johannes Vermeer 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. .side-box.infobox .side-box.side-box-abovebelow,.side-box-text.side-box-image.side-box-imageright@media(min-width:500px)@medi

Handedness List of musicians who play left-handed .div-col.div-col-small.div-col-rules.div-col dl,.div-col ol,.div-col ul.div-col li,.div-col dd Headstock Nut Machine heads (or pegheads, tuning keys, tuning machines, tuners) Frets Truss rod cover Inlays Neck Heel (acoustic) Neckjoint (electric); Cutaway (electric) Body Pickups Electronics Bridge Pickguard Back Soundboard (top) Body sides (ribs) Sound hole, with Rosette inlay Strings Saddle Fretboard (or Fingerboard) Modern guitars can be constructed to suit both left- and right-handed players. Typically the dominant hand is used to pluck or strum the strings. This is similar to the violin family of instruments where the dominant hand controls the bow. Left-handed players usually play a mirror image instrument manufactured especially for left-handed players. There are other options, some unorthodox, including learn to play a right-handed guitar as if the player is right-handed or playing an unmodified right-handed guitar reversed. Guitarist Jimi Hendrix played a right-handed guitar strung in reverse (the treble strings and bass strings reversed). The problem with doing this is that it reverses the guitar's saddle angle. The saddle is the strip of material on top of the bridge where the strings rest. It is normally slanted slightly, making the bass strings longer than the treble strings. In part, the reason for this is the difference in the thickness of the strings. Physical properties of the thicker bass strings require them to be slightly longer than the treble strings to correct intonation. Reversing the

Guitar tunings Stringed instrument tunings Standard In standard tuning, the C-major chord has three shapes because of the irregular major-third between the G- and B-strings. By the 16th century, the guitar tuning of ADGBE had already been adopted in Western culture; a lower E was later added on the bottom as a sixth string. The result, known as "standard tuning", has the strings tuned from a low E to a high E, traversing a two-octave range: EADGBE. This tuning is a series of ascending fourths (and a single major third) from low to high. The reason for ascending fourths is to accommodate four fingers on four frets up a scale before moving to the next string. This is musically convenient and physically comfortable, and it eased the transition between fingering chords and playing scales. If the tuning contained all perfect fourths, the range would be two octaves plus one semitone; the high string would be an F, a dissonant half-step from the low E and much out of place. The pitches are as follows: String Scientific pitch Helmholtz pitch Interval from middle C Frequency(Hz) 1st E4 e' major third above 329.63 2nd B3 b minor second below 246.94 3rd G3 g perfect fourth below 196.00 4th D3 d minor seventh below 146.83 5th A2 A minor tenth below 110.00 6th E2 E minor thirteenth below 82.41 The table below shows a pitch's name found over the six strings of a guitar in standard tuning, from the nut (zero), to the twelfth fret. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 E F F♯ G A♭ A B♭ B C C♯ D E♭ E B C C♯ D E♭ E F F♯ G A♭ A B♭ B G A♭ A B♭ B C C♯ D E♭ E F F♯ G D E♭ E F F♯ G A♭ A B♭ B C C♯ D A B♭ B C C♯ D E♭ E F F♯ G A♭ A E F F♯ G A♭ A B♭ B C C♯ D E♭ E In the s

Though a guitar may be played on its own, there are a variety of common accessories used for holding and playing the guitar. Capotasto Capo (musical device) A capo (short for capotasto) is used to change the pitch of open strings. Capos are clipped onto the fretboard with the aid of spring tension or, in some models, elastic tension. To raise the guitar's pitch by one semitone, the player would clip the capo onto the fretboard just below the first fret. Its use allows players to play in different keys without having to change the chord formations they use. For example, if a folk guitar player wanted to play a song in the key of B Major, they could put a capo on the second fret of the instrument, and then play the song as if it were in the key of A Major, but with the capo the instrument would make the sounds of B Major. This is because, with the capo barring the entire second fret, open chords would all sound two semitones (in other words, one tone) higher in pitch. For example, if a guitarist played an open A Major chord (a very common open chord), it would sound like a B Major chord. All of the other open chords would be similarly modified in pitch. Because of the ease with which they allow guitar players to change keys, they are sometimes referred to with pejorative names, such as "cheaters" or the "hillbilly crutch". Despite this negative viewpoint, another benefit of the capo is that it enables guitarists to obtain the ringing, resonant sound of the common keys (C, G, A, etc.) in "harder" and less-commonly used keys. Classical performers are known to use them to enable modern instruments to match the pitch of historical instruments such as the Renaissance music lute. Slides Slide guitar Example of a bottleneck slide, with fingerpicks and a resonator guitar made of metal A slide or a steel is a hard smooth object (a steel bar, round metal or glass bar or cylinder, neck of a bo

Notes .skin-vector-2022 .skin-vector-2022 .references[data-mw-group=upper-alpha].references[data-mw-group=upper-roman].references[data-mw-group=lower-alpha].references[data-mw-group=lower-greek].references[data-mw-group=lower-roman]div .referencesdiv .referencesdiv .referencesdiv .referencesdiv .references ^ "The first incontrovertible evidence of five-course instruments can be found in Miguel Fuenllana's Orphenica Lyre of 1554, which contains music for a vihuela de cinco ordenes. In the following year, Juan Bermudo wrote in his Declaracion de Instrumentos Musicales: 'We have seen a guitar in Spain with five courses of strings.' Bermudo later mentions in the same book that 'Guitars usually have four strings,' which implies that the five-course guitar was of comparatively recent origin, and still something of an oddity." Tom and Mary Anne Evans, Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock. Paddington Press Ltd, 1977, p. 24. ^ "We know from literary sources that the five course guitar was immensely popular in Spain in the early seventeenth century and was also widely played in Franc