PLAYING THE GUITAR

The guitar is a string instrument of the chordophone family

 constructed from wood and strung with either nylon or steel

strings. The modern guitar was preceded by the lute, vihuela,

four-course renaissance guitar and five-course baroque guitar,

 all of which contributed to the development of the modern

 six-string instrument.

There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the

 classical guitar (nylon-string guitar), the steel-string

acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of an

acoustic guitar is produced by the vibration of the

strings, which is amplified by the body of the guitar,

 which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical

 guitar is often played as a solo instrument using

 a comprehensive fingerpicking technique.

Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, use an amplifier that

 can electronically manipulate and shape the tone. Early

 amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but a solid body

was eventually found more suitable, as it was less prone to

 feedback. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound

 influence on popular culture. Guitars are recognized as a

primary instrument in genres such as blues,

 bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi,

 metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul, and many forms of pop.

Guitar playing as a hobby

If you are looking for a new exciting hobby, one that you can do

 whenever you want, with friends or by yourself, then learn to play the

guitar. Because playing guitar is like riding a bike; once you learn it,

you'll never forget. It will be something you can take with you for the

 rest of your life.

Playing the guitar is one of the most popular hobbies worldwide.

Millions play the guitar as a leisure activity, as it is one of the easiest

musical instruments to learn. Anybody can pick up the guitar and play

some of their favorite songs in no time, if they just stick with it for a little

while, learn a few guitar chords and practice for only a short period of

 time each day.

History

Similar instruments to what we know today as the guitar have been popular for at

 least 5,000 years. Clay plaques excavated from Babylonia dated around 1850 b.c.

 show drawings of musical instruments similar to a guitar with a distinctly

differentiated body and neck. Evidence from ancient Egypt indicates an

instrument with marked frets on the neck. A similar stringed instrument

from ancient Rome was found with a wood soundboard and five

groups of small sound holes.

The word guitar could be derived from a combination of two Sanskrit

words: guit- (from 'sangeet' meaning "music") and -tar a widely attested

root meaning "chord" or "string". Many string instruments exist in

Central Asia to this day which have been used in almost unchanged form

for several thousand years. Many have names that end in "-tar", with a

prefix indicating the number of strings. For example Dotar

 (a 2-string instrument), Setar (a 3-string instrument) or Chartar

(an instrument with 4 strings from Persia).

The Spanish guitarra could be derived from the ancient Greek word 'kithara' -

 a square-framed lap harp, or "lyre" with 4 strings.

The 1600's guitar (the vihuela) had lute style tuning and a guitar like body.

Its construction had as much in common with the modern guitar as with its

contemporary four-course renaissance guitar. The earliest extant six

 string guitar was built in 1779 by Gaetano Vinaccia in Naples, Italy.

Modern dimensions of the classic guitar were established by Antonio

Torres Jurado, in Seville in the 1850's. He perfected a guitar with three

 gut and three metal-spun silk strings. Nylon or other plastic was

later used in place of the gut.

The creation of the electric guitar began somewhere in the early 1920s

 when the Big Band music become popular. Acoustic gut or nylon string

 guitars of the time were just not loud enough to compete with the other

instruments in the band. The first step toward a louder guitar was the

introduction of steel strings. A metal rod was placed inside the neck which

counteracted the bigger tension by pulling it in the opposite direction.

This innovation allowed steel strings to become the new standard.