Essential skills and knowledge covered in this beginners course:

Essential knowledge

Introduction

I am a big fan of Guitar and I have played guitar for many years. I have some friends who are guitar teachers. They told me that some guitar learners lack basic knowledge of guitar, and a lot of guitar players have bad play habits, even for some skilled guitar players. I think this is because they didn’t have a good habit from the beginning. So I plan use 5 blog entries to share some basic knowledge of guitar and help the guitar learners master some basic knowledge of guitar and develop good play habits. The content of these five blog entries will include a brief history of the guitar, different types of guitar, definition of guitar’s functional parts and how to hold a guitar in a proper way.

A Brief History of Guitar

The guitar is an ancient and noble instrument, whose history can be traced back over 4000 years.The English word “guitar” comes from the Spanish word guitarra. Prior to that, it likely was formed from the Latin word “cithara” and an ancient Sanskrit “tar”, which meant string. Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as being an instrument having a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides. The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas.

Ancient Guitars

TanbursThe earliest stringed instruments known to archaeologists are bowl harps and tanburs. Since prehistory people have made bowl harps using tortoise shells and calabashes as resonators, with a bent stick for a neck and one or more gut or silk strings.

 

H

Har-Moses instrumentThe oldest preserved guitar-like instrument is 3500 years old.
It belonged to the Egyptian singer Har-Mose. Har-Moses instrument had three strings and a plectrum suspended from the neck by a cord.
The sound-box was made of beautifully polished cedarwood and had a rawhide “soundboard”.

Although the development of the earliest “guitars” is lost in the history of medieval Spain, two instruments are commonly cited as their most influential predecessors,

 

 

 

 

LuteThe European lute and its cousin, the four-string oud. The Lute came to Europe between the 6th and the 9th century in many forms. It was brought to the Byzantine Empire as the Barbat. Later it showed up Spain from the Moors who brought the Oud. These instruments became the Lute which was a popular instrument in the European Middle Ages.

 

 

 

Modern Guitar

6-string guitar by George Louis Panormo, 1832At the beginning of the 19th century, the modern guitar beginning to take shape.

6-string guitar by George Louis Panormo, 1832

The modern “classical” guitar took its present form when the Spanish maker Antonio Torres increased the size of the body, altered its proportions, and introduced the revolutionary “fan” top bracing pattern, in around 1850.

Tuning your guitar Learning to tune your guitar is a skill like any other on the guitar. It takes time to perfect. I highly recommend that beginner guitarists purchase a guitar tuner – similar to, either of these 2 suggestions: the first suggestion, is a clip on guitar tuner, which clips onto the headstock of the guitar and works by vibration through the headstock. The second one, that you can put on your lap, table, or music stand works by the microphone picking up the notes as you pluck each guitar string in turn, to tune. It is a lot more inspiring to play when your guitar is in tune and it actually sounds nice – well worth the few pounds one will cost..!!!. Tuning instructions can be found here: 

Using Your Accessories

Reading and Writing, Notation etc.

Guitar Maintenance

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