Jonathan Kerler
Instrument report - Guitar
Dr. Steele
10 November 2014

The guitar is one of the most flexible musical instruments as far as genres. The guitar can play blues, rock, jazz, and metal just to name a few. Many people like playing this instrument and even more love the sounds that it can produce. But this comes with questions, If everyone knows about it, then where did it come from? Who had the ingenious idea to make it? Where are its origins? These questions will be answered in this short essay about what the guitar is, how it works, where it came from, and how long it has been around. The guitar came from Spain during the 16th century and originally had four double courses of strings instead of six strings. During that time the guitar resembled a lute more than a guitar that we would think of today. From the 16th to the 19th century several changes were made to the instrument. A fifth course of strings was added before 1600, and by the 18th century a sixth course was added. Eventually the double courses were replaced by single strings tuned to E-a-d-g-b-e which has been the standard tuning of guitars ever since. Other changes happened to the development of the guitar over time such as, the fret board was changed to mahogany wood instead of ivory, the tuning screws were replaced with pegs and were hid behind the head, the strings were changed to nylon, and the frets were introduced in order to have a clearer sound. Most of these contributions were thought up from a man named Antonio Torres who is considered as the father of the modern guitar. These simple changes made a big difference in the quality of the instrument as well as the clarity of the sound. The guitar increased in popularity during the 17th century because it was not only a great sounding instrument, but it was also cheaper, easier to make, and more expansive than a lute or a vihuela. The only thing that would change about guitars would be new brands and new styles. Some styles of guitars are the original 6 string acoustic, 12 string guitars, electric guitars, bass guitars, multiple neck guitars, and almost every combination of these you can think of. Guitar is also known as one of the world’s most popular instruments. The guitar is widely played in folk and pop music in many different countries. In jazz, it is part of the rhythm section and is occasionally played as a