Classical guitar Classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar, or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music. It is an acoustic wooden guitar with strings made of gut or nylon, rather than the metal strings used in acoustic and electric guitars. For a right-handed player, the traditional classical guitar has twelve frets clear of the body and is properly held on the left leg, so that the hand that plucks or strums the strings does so near the back of the sound hole (this is called the classical position). The modern steel
Classical guitar technique the left hand is much the same as that of the right, except upside down. Unlike many players of steel-string and electric guitars, which have a narrower neck and fingerboard, classical guitarists do not place their left hand thumbs over the top of the neck. Instead, they place them behind the neck, usually behind the second finger. The thumb then rolls back so that the thumb plays 'off the bone'. The bone of the thumb 'hangs' off a shoulder that is carved into the back of the neck of the guitar and, eventually, a hard, dry callus forms on the