History of the classical guitar 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 morisca and guitarra latina. Instruments called "guitars" were first mentioned in literature in the 13th century, though many
Classical guitar strumming of the string by the fingers in reverse order employing the back of the fingernail—a familiar characteristic of Flamenco. Flamenco technique, in the performance of the rasgueado also uses the upstroke of the four fingers and the downstroke of the thumb: the string is hit not only with the inner, fleshy side of the fingertip but also with the outer, fingernail side. This was also used in a technique of the vihuela called dedillo which has recently begun to be introduced on the classical guitar. Some modern guitarists, such as Štěpán Rak and Kazuhito Yamashita, use the little finger