Guitar

Guitar Music

The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that has been in existence in one form or another since ancient times. A typical guitar is equipped with six strings although there are guitars that have either fewer or more strings. Some of the other components of a guitar include the headstock, nut, fretboard, frets, and neck joint. This article serves to offer some history on the origins of the guitar and define some of the less well known parts of the modern guitar.

The History of the Guitar
Prior to the Sixteenth century there is very little written evidence of the existence of guitars in ancient times. The evidence of guitars prior to this point has included graphical representations taken from the art work of ancient times. These paintings, carvings and sculptures often depicted a person with an object very similar to a guitar. Although the guitar was thought to originate in the ancient Near East, there is also evidence that ancient Egypt and medieval Europe also had musical instruments that resembled the guitar. In Babylonia ancient artifacts show an instrument that bears resemblance to the modern day guitar. It is unclear how many strings this instrument had, but the body was possibly bowl shaped and very likely similar to the modern day guitar in many other ways. There is also evidence of guitar-like instruments prior to the fourteenth century, possibly even as early as the third century. France, Germany, England and Spain all have depictions of crude guitar instruments in their history. The guitar of medieval Europe had a rectangular body and either four or five strings.


continued

Music