Who invented the guitar. History of the birth of the guitar

Good day to everyone who has visited this blog! Today we will take a short trip into the past. And first of all, I want to tell you about how the guitar was born and evolved over time, and most importantly, what was the ancient history of the creation of the guitar.

The guitar is perhaps the most common and popular musical instrument all over the world. It is used as a solo or accompanying instrument in various musical directions and styles, while being a leading instrument in such styles as country, blues, rock music, flamenco, jazz and others.

A person who plays music on a guitar is called a guitarist. A luthier or guitar maker is a person who makes and repairs guitars.

Origin of the guitar

Of the earliest evidence that has survived to this day, dating back to the 2nd millennium BC, about stringed instruments, the following can be highlighted:

• Images kinnora, found in Mesopotamia during archaeological excavations;

• musical instruments in other India – sitar and wine;

• in other Egypt – zither, pabla and nefer;

• in other Rome and Greece – kithara.

The predecessors of the modern guitar had a rounded, elongated, resonating hollow body and a long neck with strings stretched across it. A single body was made from a hollowed-out piece of wood, a tortoise shell, or a dried pumpkin.

At the instruments Yueqin and zhuan, which appeared in China in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. e., the body was made of wood and was assembled from a lower and upper deck and a shell, which connected the entire structure together.

Around the 6th century, Moorish and Latin guitars appeared in Europe, and a rather interesting instrument vihuela appeared later in the 15th and 16th centuries, which had a great influence on the subsequent formation of the design of the current guitar.

origin of name

The origin of the word “guitar” is due to the merger of two words: “ tar"(from Old Persian "string") and " sangeet"(from Sanskrit "music"). According to other sources, this word comes from “ couture"(from Sanskrit "four-stringed"). As this musical instrument spread from Asia to Europe, the name “guitar” underwent many changes, but the final name was displayed in the 18th century in medieval literature.

Spanish guitar

Spain in the Middle Ages was the main center for the development of the guitar, where it was brought from ancient Rome - the so-called Latin guitar. But the Moorish guitar was brought by Arab conquerors. The guitar with five double strings, invented in Spain, became widespread in the 15th century. This guitar was called the “Spanish guitar”. This guitar acquires 6 strings in the process of evolution at the end of the 18th century, as well as a large repertoire of works thanks to the Italian composer and virtuoso guitarist Mauro Giuliani.

Russian guitar

In Europe, the guitar has been known for five centuries, but it came to Russia relatively late. Only at the beginning of the 18th century did Western music begin to spread widely in Russia. Thanks to Carlo Conobbio and Giuseppe Sarti, composers from Italy, the guitar received a solid place in Russia. Nikolai Makarov was one of the first and significant guitarists and performers on a 6-string instrument. But at the beginning of the 19th century, with the help of the activities of a talented guitarist Andrei Sihra, the 7-string version of the guitar is becoming popular. He wrote more than a thousand works for the 7-string called “Russian guitar”.

Acoustic guitar

The design of the Spanish guitar underwent significant changes during the 18th and 19th centuries. The craftsmen experimented with the fastening of the neck, the shape and size of the body, the design of the tuning mechanism and other details. And so, the 19th century Spanish guitar maker Antonio Torres gave the acoustic guitar its modern size and shape. Guitars of his design are today called classical. Francisco Tárrega was the most famous Spanish guitarist and composer of the time, who laid the foundations for classical guitar playing and was followed in the 20th century by Andres Segovia.

Electric guitar

Sound amplification technologies that emerged in the 20th century gave the green light to the creation of a new type of guitar - the electric guitar, which had a great influence on popular culture. In 1936, the first such guitar, with a metal body and magnetic pickups, was patented by the founders of the Rickenbacker company, Adolph Rickenbacker. and Georges Beauchamp. In the early 50s Leo Fender And Les Paul independently invent an electric guitar with a solid wood body. Its design has remained unchanged to this day. Jimi Hendrix, an American guitarist who lived in the mid-20th century, is considered the most influential guitarist.

Bas-guitar

The double bass, before the advent of the modern bass guitar, was the largest and most important bass instrument in the violin family. He had many shortcomings. It was very large in size and weight, did not have saddles on the neck, had a relatively low volume level and was vertical. Because of these shortcomings, the widespread use of the double bass in various ensembles of modern music at the beginning of the 20th century was difficult.

In the 1930s, when jazz music became very popular, and automobile transport became widespread, thanks to which it was possible to transport large instruments, and the advent of sound amplification technology, it became possible to create an ideal bass instrument that did not have the disadvantages of the double bass. At this time, companies producing such musical instruments did not have much commercial success.

Here, for example, are some of the most successful companies:

• Gibson produced the bass mandolin from 1912 to 1930;

• Paul Tutmark, an American entrepreneur, created in 1936, which had many of the modern features of a modern bass guitar (it had a solid wooden body, a horizontal neck with fret tracks);

• Leo Fender, the founder of the company of the same name, created a guitar based on the Fender Telecaster guitar, which became very popular and received recognition from many musicians. The ideas put into this instrument have become a standard in the manufacture of bass guitars. In 1960, a more improved model of the Fender Jazz Bass was released, it was no less popular in comparison with the Precision;

• Hofner is a German company that released a semi-acoustic in 1955. This bass became famous thanks to The Beatles musician Paul McCartney, which was shaped like a violin.

In the 1960s, bass guitars became popular with the advent of rock music. New varieties of these instruments have appeared, such as acoustic and fretless bass guitar. The number of strings also increased, active electronics were added, and bass guitars with double strings and no headstock appeared. With the development of the instruments themselves, playing techniques also actively developed, for example, slap and playing with harmonics.

Well, I hope the article “The History of the Guitar” was useful to you. If you want to add something of your own, leave a comment. Click on the social buttons. networks and share with friends! Good luck to you!

The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments. Comprises:

• a hollow wooden body inside that acts as a resonator;
• extended neck;
• strings

As a solo instrument or accompanist, the guitar can be used in almost any musical genre.

The guitar is one of the most ancient instruments!

The emergence of the guitar roots go back thousands of years. The surviving documentary references date back to before our era. This musical instrument first appeared in ancient India and Egypt. The guitar is also mentioned in biblical texts. The parents of the instrument are considered to be the nabla and the kithara.

They consisted of a hollow body inside and an elongated neck with strings. The material was a specially prepared pumpkin, wood of a certain shape, or a turtle shell.

History of the origin and creation of the guitar also concerns Chinese culture - there is an instrument similar to a guitar - the zhuan. Such devices were assembled from two different parts. It was the Juan that served as the parent of the Moorish and Latin guitars.

On the European continent the popular instrument only begins to appear in the sixth century. The Latin version appears for the first time. According to scientists, the guitar, like the lute, could have been brought by the Arabs. The word itself probably arose from the combination of two concepts: “tar” (string) and “sangita” (music). According to another version, the basis was the word “cutur” (four-stringed). The designation “guitar” itself begins to appear only in the thirteenth century.

Guitar is a unique instrument. It is used in almost all styles of music. This string instrument also has many types - electric guitar, acoustic guitar. A person who plays a guitar is called a guitarist.

So, history of the origins of the modern guitar, which we see at the moment, dates back to the deepest antiquity. Its ancestors are considered to be instruments that were best known in the countries of the Near and Middle East several 1000 years ago. Some of the main representatives of which are the kinnora, Egyptian guitar, wine, nabla and many other ancient instruments with a resonating body and neck. These devices had a hollow, round body, which in turn was traditionally made from dried pumpkin, turtle shells, or whole pieces of wood. The appearance of the lower, upper deck and shell was fixed much later.

At the very beginning of the modern era, the lute, a close relative of the guitar, was more famous. The name lute itself comes from the Arabic el-daw wooden, and the word guitar itself comes from the merger of two words: Sanskrit the words sangeet, which means music and the ancient Persian tar string Until the sixteenth century, the guitar had 4 and three strings. They played it with their fingers and a plector with a bone plate, something similar to a pick. And only in the seventeenth century the first five-string guitar appeared in Spain, which was called the Spanish guitar. Double strings were placed on it, and the first string on the song was often single.

The appearance of the six-string guitar is usually attributed to the 2nd half of the eighteenth century, perhaps also in Spain. With the advent of the 6th string, all double strings were changed to single strings; in fact, this is the appearance of the guitar that appears before us at the moment. During this period, the triumphal journey of the guitar across countries and continents begins. And due to her own qualities and musical abilities, she gains worldwide recognition.

Origin

The earliest surviving evidence of stringed instruments with a resonant body and neck, the ancestors of the modern guitar, dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. e. Images of the kinnor (a Sumerian-Babylonian string instrument, mentioned in biblical tales) were found on clay bas-reliefs during archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia. Similar instruments were also known in Ancient Egypt and India: nabla, nefer, zither in Egypt, veena and sitar in India. The cithara instrument was popular in Ancient Greece and Rome.

The guitar's predecessors had an elongated, round, hollow, resonating body and a long neck with strings stretched across it. The body was made in one piece - from dried pumpkin, tortoise shell, or hollowed out from a single piece of wood. In the III-IV centuries AD. e. in China, instruments appeared zhuan (or yuan) and yueqin, in which the wooden body was assembled from the upper and lower soundboard and the shell connecting them. In Europe, this gave rise to the Latin and Moorish guitars around the 6th century. Later, in the 16th centuries, the vihuela instrument appeared, which also influenced the formation of the design of the modern guitar.

origin of name

The word "guitar" comes from the merger of two words: the Sanskrit word "sangita", meaning "music" and the ancient Persian "tar", meaning "string". According to another version, the word “guitar” comes from the Sanskrit word “kutur”, meaning “four-stringed” (cf. setar - three-stringed).

As the guitar spread from Central Asia through Greece to Western Europe, the word “guitar” underwent changes: “cithara (ϰιθάϱα)” in Ancient Greece, Latin “cithara”, “guitarra” in Spain, “chitarra” in Italy, “guitare” in France, "guitar" in England and finally, "guitar" in Russia. The name “guitar” first appeared in European medieval literature in the 13th century.

Spanish guitar

Russian guitar

Classical guitar

Electric guitar

Guitar device

Main parts

The guitar has a body with a long neck called the "neck". The front, working side of the neck is flat or slightly convex. Strings are stretched parallel along it, fixed at one end to the base of the body, and the other to the tuning box at the end of the neck. On the base of the body, the strings are tied or fixed motionlessly using wings, on the headstock using a tuning mechanism that allows you to adjust the tension of the strings.

The string lies on two saddles, lower and upper, the distance between them, which determines the maximum length of the working part of the string, is the scale length of the guitar. The nut is located at the top of the neck, near the headstock. The lower one is mounted on a stand on the body of the guitar. The so-called bottom sill can be used. “saddles” are simple mechanisms that allow you to adjust the length of each string.

Frets

Guitar neck with frets and frets

The source of sound in a guitar is the vibrations of the stretched strings. The height of the sound produced is determined by the tension of the string, the length of the vibrating part and the thickness of the string itself. The dependence here is this: the thinner the string, the shorter and the tighter it is stretched, the higher it sounds. A mathematical description of this relationship was obtained in 1626 by Marin Mersenne and is called “Mersenne's Law”.

The main way to control the pitch of the sound when playing the guitar is to change the length of the vibrating part of the string. The guitarist presses the string against the fingerboard, causing the working part of the string to shorten and increasing the tone emitted by the string (the working part of the string in this case will be the part of the string from the bottom to the guitarist's finger). Cutting the length of the string in half causes the pitch to rise an octave.

Modern Western music uses the equal-tempered 12-note scale. To facilitate playing in such a scale, the guitar uses so-called. "Frets". A fret is a section of the fingerboard with a length that causes the sound of the string to rise by one semitone. At the border of the frets in the neck, metal fret thresholds are strengthened. In the presence of fret saddles, changing the length of the string and, accordingly, the pitch of the sound becomes possible only in a discrete manner.

The distance from the nut to the nut of the nth fret is calculated by the formula

Strings

Modern guitars use steel, nylon or carbon strings. The strings are numbered in order of increasing string thickness (and decreasing pitch), with the thinnest string being number 1.

A guitar uses a set of strings - a set of strings of different thicknesses, selected in such a way that, with the same tension, each string produces a sound of a certain pitch. The strings are installed on the guitar in order of thickness - thick strings, which give a lower sound, on the left, thin strings on the right (see picture above). For left-handed guitarists, the string order may be reversed. Currently, a large number of varieties of string sets are produced, differing in thickness, manufacturing technology, material, sound timbre, type of guitars and area of ​​application.

Guitar tuning

The correspondence between the string number and the musical sound produced by this string is called the “guitar tuning” (guitar tuning). There are many tuning options to suit different types of guitars, different genres of music and different playing techniques - such as:

Sound amplification

The vibrating string itself sounds very quiet, which is unsuitable for a musical instrument. To increase volume in a guitar, two approaches are used - acoustic and electric.

In the acoustic approach, the body of the guitar is designed as an acoustic resonator, allowing it to achieve volumes comparable to the volume of the human voice.

In the electric approach, one or more pickups are mounted on the body of the guitar, the electrical signal from which is then amplified and reproduced electronically. The volume of the guitar's sound is limited only by the power of the equipment used.

A mixed approach is also possible, where a pickup or microphone is used to electronically amplify the sound of an acoustic guitar. In addition, the guitar can be used as an input device for a sound synthesizer.

Approximate specifications

• Number of frets - from 19 (classical) to 27 (electro)
• Number of strings - from 4 to 14
• Scale - from 0.5 m to 0.8 m
• Dimensions 1.5 m × 0.5 m × 0.2 m
• Weight - from >1 (acoustic) to ≈15 kg

Materials

For simple and cheap guitars, the body is made of plywood, while for more expensive and, therefore, high-quality instruments, the body is traditionally made of mahogany, or rosewood, and maple is also used. There are exotic options, such as amaranth or wenge. In the manufacture of electric guitar bodies, craftsmen enjoy greater freedom. Guitar necks are made of beech, mahogany, and other durable woods. Some electric guitar makers use other materials. Ned Steinberger founded the Steinberger Sound Corporation in 1980, which manufactured guitars from various graphite composites.

Classification of guitars

The large number of varieties of guitars that currently exist can be classified according to the following criteria:

By sound amplification method

Dreadnought

• An acoustic guitar is a guitar that sounds using a body made in the form of an acoustic resonator.

• An electric guitar is a guitar that sounds through electrical amplification and reproduction of the signal taken from the vibrating strings by a pickup.

• Semi-acoustic guitar (electric-acoustic guitar) is a combination of an acoustic and electric guitar, when in addition to the hollow acoustic body, the design also includes pickups.

• A resonator guitar (resophonic or resofonic guitar) is a type of acoustic guitar in which metal acoustic resonators built into the body are used to increase volume.

• Synthesizer guitar (MIDI guitar) is a guitar intended for use as an input device for a sound synthesizer.

According to the housing design

Semi-acoustic archtop

• Classical guitar 19th century).
• Flattop is a folk guitar with a flat top.
• An archtop is an acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a convex front soundboard and f-shaped sound holes (f-holes) located along the edges of the soundboard. In general, the body of such a guitar resembles an enlarged violin. Developed in the 20s of the 20th century by Gibson.
• Dreadnought (Western) is a folk guitar with an enlarged body of a characteristic “rectangular” shape. It has increased volume compared to the classic case and a predominance of low-frequency components in the timbre. Developed in the 20s of the 20th century by Martin.
• The jumbo is a larger version of the folk guitar, developed in 1937 by Gibson and becoming popular among country and rock guitarists.
• An electro-acoustic guitar is an acoustic guitar with a built-in pickup, the peculiarity of which is the shape of the soundboard, which makes it easier to access the lower frets.

By range

• An ordinary guitar - from D(E) of the major octave to C(D) of the third octave. Using a machine (Floyd Rose) allows you to significantly expand the range in both directions. The range of the guitar is about 4 octaves.

• A bass guitar is a guitar with a low-range sound, usually one octave lower than a regular guitar. Developed by Fender in the 50s of the 20th century.

• Tenor guitar is a four-string guitar with a short scale, range and banjo tuning.

• A baritone guitar is a guitar with a longer scale than a regular guitar, allowing it to be tuned to a lower tone. Invented by Danelectro in the 1950s.

By the presence of frets

• An ordinary guitar is a guitar that has frets and frets, adapted for playing in evenly tempered tuning.

• A fretless guitar is a guitar that does not have frets. In this case, it becomes possible to extract sounds of arbitrary height from the range of the guitar, as well as smoothly change the height of the extracted sound. Fretless bass guitars are more common.

• Slide guitar (Slide guitar) is a guitar designed for playing with a slide; in such a guitar the pitch of the sound smoothly changes with the help of a special device - a slide, which is moved along the strings.

By country (place) of origin

Russian guitar

• The Spanish guitar is an acoustic six-string guitar that originated in Spain in the 13th to 15th centuries.

• The Russian guitar is an acoustic seven-string guitar that appeared in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries.

• The ukulele is a slide guitar that operates in a “lying” position, that is, the body of the guitar lies flat on the guitarist’s lap or on a special stand, while the guitarist sits on a chair or stands next to the guitar as if at a table.

By music genre

Ukulele

• Classical guitar - acoustic six-string guitar designed by Antonio Torres (19th century).
• Folk guitar is an acoustic six-string guitar adapted to use metal strings.
• Flamenco guitar is a classical guitar adapted to the needs of the flamenco musical style, characterized by a sharper timbre of sound.
• Jazz guitar (orchestral guitar) is an established name for Gibson archtops and their analogues. These guitars have a sharp sound, clearly distinguishable in a jazz orchestra, which predetermined their popularity among jazz guitarists of the 20s and 30s of the 20th century.

By role in the work performed

• Lead guitar - a guitar designed for performing melodic solo parts, characterized by a sharper and more legible sound of individual notes.

In classical music, a guitar solo is considered to be a guitar without an ensemble, all parts are taken by one guitar, the most difficult type of guitar playing

• Rhythm guitar - a guitar designed for performing rhythmic parts, characterized by a denser and more uniform sound timbre, especially in the low frequencies.

• Bass guitar - a low-range guitar, usually used to play bass parts.

By number of strings

• A four-string guitar (4-string guitar) is a guitar that has four strings. The vast majority of four-string guitars are bass guitars or tenor guitars.
• A six-string guitar (6-string guitar) is a guitar that has six single strings. The most standard and widespread variety.
• A seven-string guitar (7-string guitar) is a guitar that has seven single strings. Most applicable in Russian and Soviet music from the 18th-19th centuries to the present day.
• Twelve-string guitar (12-string guitar) - a guitar with twelve strings, forming six pairs, usually tuned in a classical tuning in an octave or in unison. It is played mainly by professional rock musicians, folk musicians and bards.
• Other - There are a large number of less common intermediate and hybrid forms of guitars with an increased number of strings. This can range from simply adding strings to expand the range of the instrument (for example, five- and six-string bass guitars), or doubling or even tripling several or all strings to obtain a richer sound timbre. There are also guitars with additional (usually one) necks for the convenience of solo performance of some works.

Other

• The Dobro guitar is a resonator guitar invented in 1928 by the Dopera brothers. Currently, “Guitar Dobro” is a trademark owned by Gibson.

• The ukulele is a miniature four-string version of the guitar, invented in the late 19th century in the Hawaiian Islands.

• Tapping guitar (tap guitar) - a guitar designed to be played by sound production tapping.

• Warr's guitar is an electric tapping guitar, has a body similar to a regular electric guitar, and also allows for other methods of sound production. There are options with 8, 12 or 14 strings. Does not have a standard setting.

• Chapman Stick is an electric tapping guitar. Does not have a body, allows play from both ends. Has 10 or 12 strings. Theoretically, it is possible to simultaneously play up to 10 notes (1 finger - 1 note).

Guitar playing technique

Guitarist playing guitar

When playing a guitar, the guitarist presses the strings on the fingerboard with the fingers of his left hand, and produces sound with the fingers of his right hand in one of several ways. The guitar is in front of the guitarist (horizontally or at an angle, with the neck raised to 45 degrees), resting on the knee, or hanging on a belt thrown over the shoulder. Some left-handed guitarists turn the guitar with the neck to the right, tighten the strings accordingly and change the functions of their hands - they pinch the strings with their right hand, and produce sound with their left. The following hand names are given for a right-handed guitarist.

Sound production

The main method of producing sound on a guitar is plucking - the guitarist hooks a string with the tip of his finger or nail, pulls it slightly and releases it. When playing with fingers, two types of plucking are used: apoyando and tirando.

Apoyando(from Spanish apoyando, leaning on) - a pluck, after which the finger rests on the adjacent string. Using apoyando, scale-like passages are performed, as well as cantilena, which requires a particularly deep and full sound. At tirando(Spanish) tirando- pull), unlike apoyando, the finger after plucking does not rest on the adjacent, thicker string, but sweeps freely over it; in the notes, if the special apoyando sign (^) is not indicated, then the piece is played using the tirando technique.

Also, the guitarist can, with little effort, hit all or several adjacent strings at once with three or four fingers “randomly.” This method of sound production is called rasgueado. The name “ches” is also common.

Mediator

Pinch and strike can be performed with the fingers of the right hand or with the help of a special device called a plectrum (or pick). A plectrum is a small flat plate of hard material - bone, plastic or metal. The guitarist holds it in the fingers of his right hand and plucks or strikes the strings with it.

In many modern styles of music, the slap method of sound production is widely used. To do this, the guitarist either strikes a single string hard with his thumb, or plucks and releases the string. These techniques are called slap (strike) and pop (pick), respectively. Slap is mainly used when playing the bass guitar.

In recent decades, an unusual method of playing has been actively developing, a new method of sound production, when the string begins to sound from light strikes with the fingers between the frets on the fingerboard. This method of sound production is called tapping (when playing with two hands - two-handed tapping) or TouchStyle. When playing with tapping, sound production is reminiscent of playing the piano, in which each hand plays its own independent part.

Left hand

With his left hand, the guitarist grasps the neck from below, resting his thumb on the back of it. The remaining fingers are used to pinch the strings on the working surface of the fingerboard. Fingers are designated and numbered as follows: 1 - index, 2 - middle, 3 - ring, 4 - little finger. The position of the hand relative to the frets is called "position" and is indicated by a Roman numeral. For example, if a guitarist plucks a string 1m finger on the 4th fret, then the hand is said to be in the 4th position. A string that is not clamped is called an “open” string.

Big barre

The strings are pressed with the pads of the fingers - thus, with one finger, the guitarist presses one string on a certain fret. If you place your index finger flat on the fingerboard, then several, or even all, strings on one fret will be pressed. This very common technique is called “barre”. There is a large barre (full barre), when the finger presses all the strings, and a small barre (half barre), when a smaller number of strings are pressed (up to 2). The remaining fingers remain free during the barre setting and can be used to pinch strings on other frets. There are also chords in which, in addition to the major barre with the first finger, it is necessary to take a minor barre on another fret, for which any of the free fingers is used, depending on the “playability” of a particular chord.

Techniques

In addition to the basic guitar playing technique described above, there are various techniques that are widely used by guitarists in different styles of music.

• Arpeggio (picking) - sequential extraction of chord sounds. It is performed by sequentially plucking different strings with one or more fingers.

• Arpeggiato is a very fast, one-movement, sequential production of sounds located on different strings.

"Bend" technique

• Bend (tightening) - increasing the tone by lateral displacement of the string along the fret. Depending on the experience of the guitarist and the strings used, this technique can increase the note played by one and a half to two tones.
  • A simple bend - the string is first struck and then tightened.
  • Prebend - the string is first tightened and only then struck.
  • Reverse bend - the string is silently pulled up, struck and lowered to the original note.
  • Legate bend - strike the string, tighten it, then lower the string to the original tone.
  • Bend grace note - hitting the string with a simultaneous tightening.
  • Unison bend - is struck by striking two strings, then the lower note reaches the height of the upper one. Both notes sound simultaneously.
  • Microbend is a lift that is not fixed in height, approximately 1/4 tone.
• Fight - down with the thumb, up with the index finger, down with the index finger with a plug, up with the index finger.
• Vibrato is a periodic slight change in the pitch of the sound produced. It is performed by oscillating the left hand along the fingerboard, which changes the force of pressure on the string, as well as the force of its tension and, accordingly, the pitch of the sound. Another way to perform vibrato is to consistently periodically perform the “bend” technique to a small height. On electric guitars equipped with a whammy bar (tremolo systems), a lever is often used to perform vibrato.
• Eight (rumba) - index finger down, thumb down, index finger up) 2 times, index finger down and up.
• Glissando is a smooth sliding transition between notes. On a guitar, it is possible between notes located on the same string, and is performed by moving the hand from one position to another without releasing the finger pressing the string.

• Golpe (Spanish) golpe- strike) - a percussion technique, tapping a fingernail on the soundboard of an acoustic guitar, while playing. Used mainly in flamenco music.

• Legato is a continuous performance of notes. Played on the guitar using the left hand.
  • Rising (percussive) legato - an already sounding string is clamped with a sharp and strong movement of the finger of the left hand, while the sound does not have time to stop. The English name for this technique is also common - hammer, hammer-on.
  • Downward legato - the finger is pulled from the string, slightly picking it up. There is also an English name - pool, pull-off.
  • Trill is a rapid alternation of two notes performed with a combination of hammer and pool techniques.

• Pizzicato is a game played with plucking movements of the right hand. The string is grabbed with the right hand between the index and thumb, then the string is pulled back a certain distance and released. Usually the string is pulled back a short distance, which gives a gentle sound. If the distance is large, then the string will hit the frets and add percussion to the sound.

• Muting with the palm of the right hand is playing with muffled sounds when the right palm is placed partly on the stand (bridge) and partly on the strings. The English name for this technique, widely used by modern guitarists, is “palm mute”. mute- mute).

• Pulgar (Spanish) pulgar- thumb) - technique of playing with the thumb of the right hand. The main method of sound production in flamenco music. The string is struck first by the side of the pulp and then by the edge of the thumbnail.

• Sweep (English) sweep- sweep) - sliding a pick up or down along the strings when playing an arpeggio, or sliding a pick up or down along muted strings, creating a scraping sound before the main note.

• Staccato - Short, abrupt sound of notes. It is performed by loosening the pressure on the strings with the fingers of the left hand, or by muting the strings of the right hand, immediately after playing a sound or chord.

• Tambourine is another percussion technique that involves tapping the strings near the bridge, suitable for hollow body, acoustic and semi-acoustic guitars.

• Tremolo is a very fast, repeated plucking motion, without changing notes.

• Flajolet - muting the fundamental harmonic of a string by touching the sounding string exactly at the place dividing it into an integer number of parts. There are natural harmonics, performed on an open string, and artificial ones, performed on a clamped string. There is also a so-called mediator harmonic, which is formed when the sound is produced simultaneously by the mediator and the flesh of the thumb or index finger holding the mediator.

Guitar notation

In a guitar, most of the sounds available can be produced in several ways. For example, the first octave E might be played on the 1st open string, on the 2nd string on the 5th fret, on the 3rd string on the 9th fret, on the 4th string on the 14th fret, on 5th string at the 19th fret and 6th string at the 24th fret (on a 6-string guitar with 24 frets and standard tuning). This makes it possible to play the same piece in several ways, extracting the desired sounds on different strings and pressing the strings with different fingers. In this case, a different timbre will prevail for each string. The placement of the guitarist's fingers when playing a piece is called the fingering of that piece. Different harmonies and chords can also be played in many ways and also have different fingerings. Several approaches are used to record guitar fingerings.

Musical notation

In modern musical notation, when recording works for guitar, a set of conventions is used that allows you to indicate the fingering of the work. Thus, the string on which it is recommended to play a sound is indicated by the string number in a circle, the position of the left hand (fret) - by Roman numerals, the fingers of the left hand - by numbers from 1 to 4 (open string - 0), the fingers of the right hand - by Latin letters p, i, m And a, and the direction of the blow with the pick - with the icons (down, that is, away from you) and (up, that is, towards you).

In addition, when reading notes, you should remember that the guitar is a transposing instrument - works for guitar are always written an octave higher than they sound. This is done in order to avoid a large number of additional lines at the bottom.

Tablature

An alternative way of notating works for guitar is tablature notation, or tablature. Guitar tablature does not indicate the pitch, but the position and string of each sound of the piece. Also, in tablature notation, finger symbols similar to those used in musical notation can be used. Tablature notation can be used either independently or in conjunction with musical notation.

Listen to this tablature

Fingering

There are graphical representations of fingerings commonly used in learning to play the guitar, also called fingerings. Such fingering is a schematically depicted fragment of the guitar neck with the places where the fingers of the left hand are placed indicated by dots. Fingers can be designated by their numbers, as well as the position of the fragment on the fingerboard.

There is a class of software products “guitar chord calculator” - these are programs that for a given chord can calculate and graphically show all possible fingerings.

Accessories

Capo on fretboard

Origin

The earliest surviving evidence of stringed instruments with a resonant body and neck, the ancestors of the modern guitar, dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. e. Images of the kinnor (a Sumerian-Babylonian string instrument, mentioned in the Bible) were found on clay bas-reliefs during archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia. Similar instruments were also known in Ancient Egypt and India: nabla, nefer, zither in Egypt, veena and sitar in India. The dombra is also an ancient stringed instrument; during excavations in ancient Khorezm, terracotta figurines of musicians playing plucked instruments were found. Scientists note that Khorezm two-string instruments, which existed at least 2000 years ago, have a typological similarity to the Kazakh dombra and were one of the most common stringed instruments among the early nomads who lived in Kazakhstan. And in Ancient Greece and Rome the instrument cithara was popular.

The guitar's predecessors had an elongated, round, hollow, resonating body and a long neck with strings stretched across it. The body was made in one piece - from dried pumpkin, tortoise shell, or hollowed out from a single piece of wood. In the III-IV centuries AD. e. in China, instruments appeared zhuan (or yuan) and yueqin, in which the wooden body was assembled from the upper and lower soundboard and the shell connecting them. In Europe, this gave rise to the appearance of Latin and Moorish guitars around the 6th century. Later, in the 16th century, the vihuela instrument appeared, which also influenced the formation of the design of the modern guitar.

origin of name

As the guitar spread from Central Asia through Greece to Western Europe, the word “guitar” underwent changes: “cithara (ϰιθάϱα)” in Ancient Greece, Latin “cithara”, “guitarra” in Spain, “chitarra” in Italy, “guitare” in France, "guitar" in England and, finally, "guitar" in Russia. The name “guitar” first appeared in European medieval literature in the 13th century.

Spanish guitar

Russian seven-string guitar

Since the beginning of the 19th century, the seven-string guitar has rapidly spread in Russia, combining the design features of the English guitar and the Spanish guitar. In 1819, the first school in Russian for playing the seven-string guitar, Ignatius de Gelda, was published, with additions by S. N. Aksenov. The instrument (dubbed the “Russian guitar”) owes its popularity in the first half of the 19th century largely to the activities of the composer (author of more than a thousand works and arrangements), guitarist and teacher Andrei Osipovich Sihra, who lived at that time. In those same years, the outstanding virtuoso Mikhail Timofeevich Vysotsky, student of A. O. Sihra Semyon Nikolaevich Aksyonov, Ludwig Sihra and other composers wrote for the Russian guitar.

Classical guitar

Classical guitar is included in the program of the youth Delphic Games in Russia.

Electric guitar

Other types of guitars

In addition to the classical guitar and electric guitar, pop guitars with metal strings are widespread, among which are the folk guitar, travel guitar, etc. In addition, along with the electric and acoustic guitar, there are hybrid options - an electro-acoustic guitar (acoustic guitar with built-in sensors for connecting to equipment; English acoustic electric guitar) and semi-acoustic guitar (an electric guitar with a hollow body that allows you to play it without connecting; English semi-acoustic guitar).

Design

Main parts

The guitar has a body with a long neck called the "neck". The front, working side of the neck is flat or slightly convex. Strings are stretched parallel along it, fixed at one end to the base of the body, and the other to the tuning box at the end of the neck. On the base of the body, the strings are tied or fixed motionlessly using wings, on the headstock using a tuning mechanism that allows you to adjust the tension of the strings.

The string lies on two saddles, lower and upper, the distance between them, which determines the maximum length of the working part of the string, is the scale length of the guitar. The nut is located at the top of the neck, near the headstock. The lower one is mounted on a stand on the body of the guitar. So-called “saddles” can be used as a nut - simple mechanisms that allow you to adjust the length of each string.

The main way to control the pitch of a sound when playing a guitar is to change the length of the vibrating part of the string. The guitarist presses the string against the fingerboard, causing the working part of the string to shorten and the tone emitted by the string to increase (the working part of the string in this case will be the part of the string from the bottom to the nut of the fret on which the guitarist's finger is located). Cutting the length of the string in half causes the pitch to rise an octave.

Modern Western music uses an equal-tempered 12-note scale. To make playing this scale easier, the guitar uses so-called “frets”. A fret is a section of the fingerboard with a length that causes the sound of the string to rise by one semitone. At the border of the frets in the neck, metal fret thresholds are strengthened. In the presence of frets, changing the length of the string and, accordingly, the pitch of the sound becomes possible only in a discrete manner.

The distance from the nut to the nut of the nth fret is calculated by the formula:

Where n (\displaystyle n)- fret number, and d (\displaystyle d)- guitar scale.

Strings

Modern guitars use steel, nylon or carbon strings. The strings are numbered in order of increasing string thickness (and decreasing pitch), with the thinnest string being number 1.

A guitar uses a set of strings - a set of strings of different thicknesses, selected in such a way that, with the same tension, each string produces a sound of a certain pitch. The strings are installed on the guitar in order of thickness - thick strings, which give a lower sound, on the left, thin strings on the right (see picture above). For left-handed guitarists, the string order may be reversed. Currently, a large number of varieties of string sets are produced, differing in thickness, manufacturing technology, material, sound timbre, type of guitars and area of ​​application.

Build

The correspondence between the string number and the musical sound produced by this string is called the “guitar tuning” (guitar tuning). There are many tuning options to suit different types of guitars, different genres of music and different playing techniques, such as:

*The E-flat tuning is perfect for Soviet guitars made at the Chernigov Factory of Musical Instruments.

Sound amplification

The vibrating string itself sounds very quiet, which is unsuitable for a musical instrument. To increase volume in a guitar, two approaches are used - acoustic and electric.

In the acoustic approach, the body of the guitar is designed as an acoustic resonator, allowing it to achieve volumes comparable to the volume of the human voice.

In the electric approach, one or more pickups are mounted on the body of the guitar, the electrical signal from which is then amplified and reproduced electronically. The volume of the guitar's sound is limited only by the power of the equipment used.

A mixed approach is also possible, where a pickup or microphone is used to electronically amplify the sound of an acoustic guitar. In addition, the guitar can be used as an input device for a sound synthesizer.

Approximate specifications

Materials

Simple and cheap guitars have a body made of plywood, while higher quality instruments and therefore more expensive ones have a body traditionally made of mahogany or rosewood, and maple is also used. There are exotic options such as amaranth or wenge. In the manufacture of electric guitar bodies, craftsmen enjoy greater freedom. Guitar necks are made from beech, mahogany and other durable woods. Some electric guitar makers use other materials. Ned Steinberger founded the Steinberger Sound Corporation in 1980, which manufactured guitars from various graphite composites.

Classification

The large number of varieties of guitars that currently exist can be classified according to the following criteria:

By sound amplification method

• An acoustic guitar is a guitar that amplifies the sound of vibrating strings using an acoustic resonator, which is the body of the guitar.
  • A resonator guitar (resophonic or resophonic guitar) is a type of acoustic guitar in which metal acoustic resonators built into the body are used to increase the volume.
• An electric guitar is a guitar in which mechanical vibrations of the strings are converted into an electrical signal by an electromagnetic pickup. The electrical signal is usually fed to a separate audio amplifier and sounded by a speaker system.
• A semi-acoustic electric guitar is an electric guitar, but in addition to a string pickup, it has a hollow acoustic body that allows the guitar to sound without an electric amplifier. (This should not be confused with an electro-acoustic guitar, in which a piezo pickup is mounted, which removes sound vibrations from the body and not from the strings).
• An electro-acoustic guitar is an acoustic guitar that has a built-in piezo pickup (piezo sensor) that converts vibrations of the body of the acoustic resonator of the guitar into an electrical signal.
  • Electro-acoustic bass guitar - like an electric bass guitar, it often has 4 strings, but with a body in the form of an acoustic resonator and a built-in piezo pickup.
• Synthesizer guitar (MIDI guitar) is a guitar intended for use as an input device for a sound synthesizer.

According to the housing design

• Classical guitar - acoustic six-string guitar designed by Antonio Torres (19th century).
• Flattop is a folk guitar with a flat top.
• An archtop is an acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a convex front soundboard and f-shaped sound holes (f-holes) located along the edges of the soundboard. In general, the body of such a guitar resembles an enlarged violin. Developed in the 20s of the 20th century by Gibson.
• Dreadnought (Western) is a folk guitar with an enlarged body of a characteristic “rectangular” shape. It has increased volume compared to the classic case and a predominance of low-frequency components in the timbre. Developed in the 20s of the 20th century by Martin.
• The jumbo is a larger version of the folk guitar, developed in 1937 by Gibson and becoming popular among country and rock guitarists.
• The Gypsy Jazz Guitar is an acoustic guitar developed by guitar maker Mario Maccaferri in the 1930s. Distinctive features are the convex soundboards and the arrangement of springs in the body, characteristic of a mandolin. There are two types of this guitar, differing in the shape of the rosette: the large D-shaped and the small O-shaped, which in France are called grand bouchet and petit bouchet, respectively. This guitar is designed to use metal strings and has a characteristic loud sound with a predominance of mid-frequency overtones. Another quite popular name for these guitars is from the name of the company that first put these instruments on sale - Selmer.
• Dobro - has a metal resonating cone instead of sound holes, it produces the metallic tone that can be heard in country music. Some dobro guitars have a neck with a square cross-section (square necks) and very large frets, are played with a flat instrument in the hand, a glass or metal plate (slide), and are often called slide guitars.

By range

• An ordinary guitar - in the so-called “classical” (“Spanish”, “standard”) tuning, from mi major octave C before third octave (for a guitar with 20 frets). This range may vary depending on the number of frets, number of strings, and tuning. Using a tremolo machine on electric guitars allows you to significantly expand the range in both directions. The range of the guitar without additional equipment is about four octaves.
• A bass guitar is a guitar with a low-range sound, usually one octave lower than a regular guitar. Developed by Fender in the 50s of the 20th century.
• Tenor guitar is a four-string guitar with a short scale, range and banjo tuning.
• A baritone guitar is a guitar with a longer scale than a regular guitar, allowing it to be tuned to a lower tone. Invented by Danelectro in the 1950s.

By the presence of frets

• An ordinary guitar is a guitar that has frets and frets, adapted for playing in equal temperament.
• A fretless guitar is a guitar that does not have frets. In this case, it becomes possible to extract sounds of arbitrary height from the range of the guitar, as well as smoothly change the height of the extracted sound. Fretless bass guitars are more common.
• Slide guitar (slide guitar) is a guitar designed for playing with a slide; in such a guitar the pitch of the sound smoothly changes with the help of a special device - a slide, which is moved along the strings.

By country (place) of origin

• The Spanish guitar is an acoustic six-string guitar that appeared in Spain in the 13th - 15th centuries.
• Russian seven-string guitar - appeared in Russia in the 18th-19th centuries.
• The Hawaiian guitar is a slide guitar that operates in a “lying” position, that is, the body of the guitar lies flat on the guitarist’s lap or on a special stand, while the guitarist sits on a chair or stands next to the guitar as if at a table.

By music genre

• Classical guitar - acoustic six-string guitar designed by Antonio Torres (19th century).
• Folk guitar is an acoustic six-string guitar adapted to use metal strings.
• Flamenco guitar is a classical guitar adapted to the needs of the flamenco musical style, characterized by a sharper timbre of sound.
• Jazz guitar (orchestral guitar) is an established name for Gibson archtops and their analogues. These guitars have a sharp sound, clearly distinguishable in a jazz orchestra, which predetermined their popularity among jazz guitarists of the 20s and 30s of the 20th century.

By role in the work performed

• Lead guitar - a guitar designed for performing melodic solo parts, characterized by a sharper and more legible sound of individual notes.

In classical music, a guitar solo is considered to be a guitar without an ensemble, all parts are taken by one guitar, the most difficult type of guitar playing.

• Rhythm guitar - a guitar designed for performing rhythmic parts, characterized by a denser and more uniform sound timbre, especially in the low frequencies.
• Bass guitar - a low-range guitar, usually used to play bass parts.

By number of strings

• A four-string guitar (4-string guitar) is a guitar that has four strings. The vast majority of four-string guitars are bass guitars or tenor guitars.
• A six-string guitar (6-string guitar) is a guitar that has six single strings. The most standard and widespread variety.
• A seven-string guitar is a guitar that has seven single strings, for example, a Russian seven-string guitar. Most applicable in Russian and Soviet music from the 18th-19th centuries to the present day.
• Twelve-string guitar (12-string guitar) is a guitar with twelve strings forming six pairs, usually tuned in a classical octave or unison tuning. It is played mainly by professional rock musicians, folk musicians and bards.
• Other - There are a large number of less common intermediate and hybrid forms of guitars with an increased number of strings. This can range from simply adding strings to expand the range of the instrument (for example, five- and six-string bass guitars), or doubling or even tripling several or all strings to obtain a richer sound timbre. There are also guitars with additional (usually one) necks for the convenience of solo performance of some works.

Other

• The Dobro guitar is a resonator guitar invented in 1928 by the Dopera brothers. Currently, “Guitar Dobro” is a trademark owned by Gibson.
• The Russian acoustic new guitar (GRAN) is a twelve-string version of the classical guitar, containing two sets of strings at different heights from the neck - nylon and metal.
• The ukulele is a miniature four-string version of the guitar, invented in the late 19th century in the Hawaiian Islands.
• Tapping guitar (tap guitar) - a guitar designed to be played by sound production tapping.
• The Warra guitar is an electric tapping guitar, has a body similar to a regular electric guitar, and also allows for other methods of sound production. There are options with 8, 12 or 14 strings. Does not have a standard setting.
• Chapman's stick is an electric tapping guitar. Does not have a body, allows play from both ends. Has 10 or 12 strings. Theoretically, it is possible to simultaneously play up to 10 notes (1 finger - 1 note).

Playing technique

When playing a guitar, the guitarist presses the strings on the fingerboard with the fingers of his left hand, and produces sound with the fingers of his right hand in one of several ways. The guitar is in front of the guitarist (horizontally or at an angle, with the neck raised to 45 degrees), resting on the knee, or hanging on a belt thrown over the shoulder. Some guitarists, mostly left-handed, turn the guitar with the neck to the right, pluck the strings accordingly and change the functions of their hands - they pinch the strings with their right hand, and produce sound with their left. Below, the names of the hands are given for a right-handed guitarist, because a left-handed person should perceive “right” as “left” and vice versa.

Sound production

The main method of producing sound on a guitar is plucking - the guitarist hooks a string with the tip of his finger or nail, pulls it slightly and releases it. When playing with fingers, two types of plucking are used: apoyando and tirando.

Apoyando(from Spanish apoyando , leaning on) - a pluck, after which the finger rests on the adjacent string. Using apoyando, scale-like passages are performed, as well as cantilena, which requires a particularly deep and full sound. At tirando(Spanish) tirando- pull), unlike apoyando, the finger after plucking does not rest on the adjacent, thicker string, but sweeps freely over it; in the notes, if the special apoyando sign (^) is not indicated, then the piece is played using the tirando technique.

Also, the guitarist can, with little effort, hit all or several adjacent strings at once with three or four fingers “randomly.” This method of sound production is called rasgueado (Spanish. rasgueado). The name “ches” is also common.

Pinch and strike can be performed with the fingers of the right hand or with the help of a special device called a plectrum (or pick). A plectrum is a small flat plate of hard material - bone, plastic or metal. The guitarist holds it in the fingers of his right hand and plucks or strikes the strings with it.

In many modern styles of music, the slap method of sound production is widely used. To do this, the guitarist either strikes a single string hard with his thumb, or plucks and releases the string. These techniques are called slap (strike) and pop (pick), respectively. Slap is mainly used when playing the bass guitar.

In recent decades, an unusual playing technique has been actively developing, a new method of sound production, when the string begins to sound from light strikes with the fingers between the frets on the fingerboard. This method of sound production is called tapping (when playing with two hands - two-handed tapping) or TouchStyle. When playing with tapping, sound production is reminiscent of playing the piano, in which each hand plays its own independent part.

Left hand

With his left hand, the guitarist grasps the neck from below, resting his thumb on the back of it. The remaining fingers are used to pinch the strings on the working surface of the fingerboard. Fingers are designated and numbered as follows: 1 - index, 2 - middle, 3 - ring, 4 - little finger. The position of the hand relative to the frets is called "position" and is indicated by a Roman numeral. For example, if a guitarist plucks a string 1m finger on the 4th fret, then the hand is said to be in the 4th position. A string that is not clamped is called an “open” string.

The strings are pressed with the pads of the fingers - thus, with one finger, the guitarist presses one string on a certain fret. If you place your index finger flat on the fingerboard, then several, or even all, strings on one fret will be pressed. This very common technique is called “barre”. There is a large barre (full barre), when the finger presses all the strings, and a small barre (half barre), when a smaller number of strings are pressed (up to 2). The remaining fingers remain free during the barre setting and can be used to pinch strings on other frets. There are also chords in which, in addition to the major barre with the first finger, it is necessary to take a minor barre on another fret, for which any of the free fingers is used, depending on the “playability” of a particular chord.

Techniques

In addition to the basic guitar playing technique described above, there are various techniques that are widely used by guitarists in different styles of music.

• Picking - extracting sound using sequential alternation (picking) of strings. It is performed by sequentially plucking different strings with several fingers. Most commonly used for playing arpeggios, but not limited to them.
• Arpeggiato is a very fast, one-movement, sequential production of sounds located on different strings.

• Bend (tightening) - increasing the tone by lateral displacement of the string along the fret. Depending on the experience of the guitarist and the strings used, this technique can increase the note played by one and a half to two tones.
  • A simple bend - the string is first struck and then tightened.
  • Prebend - the string is first tightened and only then struck.
  • Reverse bend - the string is silently pulled up, struck and lowered to the original note.
  • Legate bend - strike the string, tighten it, then lower the string to the original tone.
  • Bend grace note - hitting the string with a simultaneous tightening.
  • Unison bend - is struck by striking two strings, then the lower note reaches the height of the upper one. Both notes sound simultaneously.
  • Microbend is a lift that is not fixed in height, approximately 1/4 tone.
• Fight - for example, down with your thumb, up with your index finger, down with your index finger with a cap, up with your index finger.
• Vibrato is a periodic slight change in the pitch of the sound produced. It is performed by oscillating the left hand along the fingerboard, which changes the force of pressure on the string, as well as the force of its tension and, accordingly, the pitch of the sound. Another way to perform vibrato is to consistently periodically perform the “bend” technique to a small height. On electric guitars equipped with a whammy bar (tremolo systems), a lever is often used to perform vibrato.
• Glissando is a smooth sliding transition between notes. On a guitar, it is possible between notes located on the same string, and is performed by moving the hand from one position to another without releasing the finger pressing the string.
• Golpe (Spanish) golpe- strike) - a percussion technique, tapping a fingernail on the soundboard of an acoustic guitar, while playing. Used mainly in flamenco music.
• Legato is a continuous performance of notes. Played on the guitar using the left hand.
  • Rising (percussive) legato - an already sounding string is clamped with a sharp and strong movement of the finger of the left hand, while the sound does not have time to stop. The English name for this technique is also common - hammer, hammer-on.
  • Downward legato - the finger is pulled from the string, slightly picking it up. There is also an English name - pool, pull-off.
  • Trill is a rapid alternation of two notes performed with a combination of hammer and pool techniques.
• Pizzicato is a playing technique in which abrupt, muffled sounds are produced. The right hand is placed with the edge of the palm on the strings near the stand, and the thumb makes sounds.
• Muting with the palm of the right hand is playing with muffled sounds when the right palm is placed partly on the stand (bridge) and partly on the strings. The English name for this technique, widely used by modern guitarists, is “palm mute” (English mute - “jam”).
• Pulgar (