Just What Is A Guitar Anyway?

The guitar as we know it has a long history and there will be many an argument to its true origins and it begs us to ask what is a guitar anyway?

The Basic Design And Origins
The basic design of a guitar goes all the way back to many civilizations.  As far back as ancient Persia and the Indus valley regions there were people who strung a piece of string or animal gut or hair across a hollowed out gourd and made sounds.  As civilizations evolved they played with the basic design of a body with long neck attached with strings of varying materials are strung from the top of the neck down over the body allowing the strings to be plucked producing combinations of sounds.  These sounds produced by the guitar become music.

There literally is no telling who invented the basic guitars but we can trace the modern guitar's roots to various cultures around the world.  It appears that trade and conquest accelerated the design of the guitar to what it is today.  From ancient India to Persia, to African countries such as Egypt and Timbuktu, to Greece, Rome and more, the path of the guitar is clearly seen yet its modern manifestation is something quite to take note of. 

The Renaissance And Antonio de Torres Jurado
Mainly the guitar got its major once over during the years of the Renaissance and then from the area we call Spain.  Actually when all is said and done, it finally turns out the Spanish hold the banner of having developed the guitar to what we use today.  It was a man named  Antonio de Torres Jurado who was born in the 1800s he spent his life developing the guitar to what we know of today which lead to the classical, acoustic, electric guitars.  He is literally the father of guitars.  The added sixth string then enabled for greater range and more manipulation of the guitar.  So now instead of five strings it is six strings and changed the way theory and practical are applied today. 

Noted Maestros
It is funny that from earlier instruments we now have such renown players such as Jimi Hendrix, Slash, Les Paul who revolutionized the electric guitar first developed in the 1930s,  Carlos Santana who has kept the Spanish tradition of masterful performances, are all descendents of the earlier masters of guitar like Agustin Barrios from South America. 

Needless to say, the guitar has a great history and will continue to do so.

Thank you to EasilyPlayGuitar for giving us the information that was used into todays article, without them we would not have been able to write for you today.