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2550 BCE
Lyre of Ur
The first ever stringed instrument was a Lyre or Ur. In a way the Lyre was building block for what stringed instruments are like today. It was a plucked Chordophone carved to look like a bull. It came from the earliest of human civilization in the middle east. Its 11 strings were to be plucked by a pick or by hand and made a calm and beautiful noise. -
1500 BCE
Lyre to pear shaped stringed instruments
1500 BCE is when the closest representation of a modern guitar during history went from a Lyre to a Tanbur in the middle east and central asia. This was a crucial change because the Lyre had been a harp like instrument. However, the tanbur was pear shaped with a long neck, similar to the guitar. Around the same time guitar like instruments were popping up all over the world such as:
The Hitte from Turkey.
The Kithara from Greece.
The Chartar from persia.
The Sitar from India. -
How the name was created
Around the 1600s something important happened for the guitar. The name started looking more like the modern word. The name “guitar” originally came from the Persian word “tar” meaning “string”. Then words like guitarra, chitarra, and gutierrez emerged in Spain, Italy, and France. -
First written guitar music
The first written guitar music was for the Chitarra in Spain during the 16th century. This is when writing down music became more popular. At this point most guitar versions had 4 or 5 coarsed strings and 8 frets. (coarsed strings are double strings that are played as one) -
Guitar Repitior
The late 1600s is when five coarsed strings with movable frets became super popular. Lots of repertoire was being made for this instrument. This change was caused by guitars being produced all over Europe. -
Spanish guitar
during the late 18th century the Spanish version of the guitar had changed to 6 courses of strings, 17 frets, and a slim waist. This is very similar to the modern guitar! -
Early 19th century
This version of the guitar is almost identical to the modern acoustic guitar. It changed when a Spanish musician adjusted the guitar by giving it a smaller waist and a bigger body. Then he changed the wood pegs to mechanical. These changes made the guitar have a louder, thicker, anhd richer noise. Because of the amazing noise this design became very popular and is now the acoustic guitar we all know and love -
The Modern Acoustic Guitar
The acoustic guitar is a very popular isntrument. Surveys say that there are over 50 million guitar players in the word. There are 3 main types of acoustic guitar: the clasical (nylon stringed Spanish), the steel stringed guitar, and the jazz guitar. The modern guitar has 19 frets and 6 six strings. There is currently loads of guitar books including some popular ones like the RCM, Hal Leanord, and Suzuki. Overall, the guitar has come a long way to become the amazing instument that it is today.
