History of the classical guitar (now much thinner) sound board to support more vibrational modes. This leads to greater volume and longer sustain. History of the classical guitar The evolution of classical guitars began with the influences of the vihuela and gittern in the sixteenth century and ended with the modern classical guitar in the mid nineteenth century. While the precise lineage of the instrument is still unclear, historians believe that the guitar is the descendant of the Greek kithara, gittern, lyre, European and Middle Eastern lutes, and the Spanish vihuela. The poem "The Book of Good Love" [circa 1330] describes two early instruments, guitarra
Classical guitar technique to stop strings from above (as may be done on other guitars): the neck of a classical guitar is too wide and the normal position of the thumb used in classical guitar technique do not make that possible. Scores (contrary to "tablature") do not systematically indicate which string is to be plucked (although in most cases the choice is obvious). When indication of the string is required, the strings are designated 1 to 6 (1 for the high E, to 6 the low E) with the string number inside a circle. The fret/position where the first finger of the left