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 technique finger) and plucking the string with the ring finger or thumb of the right hand. In the left hand, each finger is responsible for exactly one fret. For each hand-position of four frets, the left hand is stationary while its fingers move. Consequently, three hand-positions (of frets 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12) cover the 12-fret octave of each string. In common with other classical stringed instruments, classical guitar playing and notation use formal positions of the left hand. The 'nth position' means that the hand is positioned with the first finger over the nth fret. There are many exercises that can