Classical guitar
A classical guitar, also called a Spanish guitar, is a musical instrument from the guitar family. This instrument is most commonly used by classical guitarists playing classical music, but is also used for folk music.
Background information
The classical guitar is the grandfather of guitars. Its history and repertoire span over four centuries. The popularity of the classical guitar has been sustained over the years by many great players, arrangers, and composers. A very short list might include Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710), Fernando Sor (1778-1839), Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), and Leo Brouwer (1939-).
By using the fingers to pluck instead of a plectrum or bow, the performer can play polyphonic music. It is not uncommon to encounter classical guitar music that sustains two, three, or four musical lines or voices.
Using the right hand fingers to pluck the strings requires more space between the strings over the sound hole which in turn necessitates a fingerboard that is slightly wider than other guitars. Classical guitarists hold the instrument by raising the left leg (with a footstool), placing the guitar on that leg and holding the guitar in place with the right arm. Alternatively the left foot can be placed on the floor and a small support placed between the left leg and the guitar. Either of these positions support the guitar in a way that gives the player greater mobility and access to the strings and the fingerboard. The right hand is a classical guitarist's voice similar to that of a string player's bow. By using a combination of flesh and fingernail to pluck the strings, a classical guitarist is able to generate a wide variety of sounds.
The classical guitar's most characteristic physical feature is the use of nylon strings (which have, largely, supplanted the use of gut strings), although since the mid 1990s carbon fiber or composite treble strings have gained popularity for their nylon-like sound and significantly better reliability. Nylon strings give the classical guitar a unique, varied and rich color palette. The size and shape of the classical guitar have been nearly standard for over 100 years. The finest guitars are built with a solid cedar or spruce top, solid rosewood back and sides, traditionally a cedar or more recently a mahogany neck and an ebony fingerboard.
Physical characteristics
The classical guitar is distinguished by a number of characteristics:
- It is an acoustic instrument. The sound of the plucked string is amplified by the body of the guitar which acts as a resonator.
- It has six strings. A few classical guitars have eight or more strings to expand the bass range, and to expand the repertoire of the guitar.
- The strings are made from nylon, as opposed to the metal strings found on other acoustic guitars. Nylon strings (also called Classical guitar strings) also have a much lower tension than steel strings. The lower three strings ('bass strings') are wound with metal, commonly silver or nickel.
- Because of the low tension of the strings the neck can be made entirely of wood, not requiring a steel truss rod.
- The interior bracing of the sound board can be lighter, due to the low tension of the strings. This can allow for more complex tonal qualities. A common classical guitar bracing pattern is the fan bracing. A center spruce brace is glued on the inside of the soundboard along the center line of the guitar to just before the bridge. Additional braces fan out on ether side of the first brace.
- A typical modern six-string classical guitar has a width of 48-54 mm at the nut, compared to around 42 mm for a modern electric guitar design. The classical fingerboard is normally flat and without inlays, whereas the steel string fingerboard has a slight radius and inlays.
- Classical guitarists use their right hand fingers to pluck the strings. Players shape their fingernails, much the way a clarinetist will shape their reed to achieve a desired tone.
- Strumming is a less common technique in classical guitar, and is often referred to by the Spanish term "rasgueo", or for strumming patterns "rasgueado", and utilises the backs of the fingernails. Rasgueado is integral to Flamenco guitar.
- Tuning pegs (or "keys") at the head the fingerboard of a classical guitar point backwards (towards the player when the guitar is in playing position; perpendicular to the plane of the fretboard). This is in contrast to a traditional steel-string guitar design, in which the tuning pegs point outward (up and down from playing position; parallel to the plane of the fretboard).
History
Instruments similar to what we know as the guitar have been popular for at least 5,000 years. The guitar appears to be derived from earlier instruments known in ancient central Asia as the cithara. Instruments very similar to the guitar appear in ancient carvings and statues recovered from the old Iranian capitol of Susa. The modern word, guitar, was adopted into English from Spanish guitarra, possibly from earlier Greek word kithara. Prospective sources for various names of musical instruments that guitar could be derived from appear to be a combination of two Indo-European roots: guit-, similar to Sanskrit sangeet meaning "music", and -tar a widely attested root meaning "chord" or "string".
The word guitar may also be a Persian loanword to Iberian Arabic. The word qitara is an Arabic name for various members of the lute family that preceded the Western guitar. The name guitarra was introduced into Spanish when guitars were brought into Iberia by the Moors after the 10th century. (See related article).
Instrument
The Spanish vihuela appears to be an intermediate form between the ancestral guitar and the modern guitar, with lute-style tuning and a small, but guitar-like body. It is not clear whether this represents a transitional form or simply a design that combined features from the two families of instruments. In favor of the latter view, the reshaping of the vihuela into a guitar-like form can be seen as a strategy of differentiating the European lute visually from the Moorish oud. (See the article on the lute for further history.) The Ancient Iranian lute, called tar in Persian also is found in the word guitar. The tar is thousands of years old, and could be found in 2, 3, 5, and 6 string variations.
Technique
Repertoire
See main article about the Baroque guitar
The six strings guitar
The earliest extant six string guitar was built in 1779 by Gaetano Vinaccia (1759 - after 1831) [1] [2] in Naples, Italy. The Vinaccia family of luthiers is known for developing the mandolin. This guitar has been examined and does not show tell-tale signs of modifications from a double-course guitar. [3]
Instrument
Technique
Repertoire
The first 'Golden Age' of the classical guitar repertoire was the 19th century.
External link
Instrument
Technique
Repertoire
In the 20th century, many non-guitarist composers wrote for the instrument, which previously only players of the instrument had done.
Instrument
Modern concert guitars often follow the Smallman design which replaces the fan braces with a much lighter balsa brace attached to the back of the sound board with carbon fiber. The balsa brace has a honeycomb pattern and allows the (now much thinner) sound board to support more vibrational modes. This leads to greater volume and longer sustain.
Technique
Classical guitar technique can be organised broadly into subsections for the right hand, the left hand, and miscellaneous. The hands are reversed for left-handed players.
Right hand technique
The thumb and three largest fingers of the right hand pluck the strings. The normal position is for the hand to be shaped as if it were loosely holding an apple with the wrist slightly bent, the forearm resting on the upper large bout of the guitar, and the fingers near the strings. Plucking the strings usually involves making contact first with the fleshy part of the fingertip and then letting the string flick past the fingernail as the string is plucked. The two primary plucking techniques are:
- Rest-stroke (apoyando), in which the finger that plucks the string rests on the next string afterwards; and
- Free-stroke (tirando), in which the finger hits nothing after plucking the string.
Rest-stroke produces a more "deliberate" sound and is good for bringing the melody out in music where the harmony competes for attention. Free-stroke sounds "lighter" and makes it possible to play fast passages more easily.
One of the tenets of right hand technique is alternation. That is, no right hand finger should be used to play two notes in a row (excluding the thumb, which is often called upon to play a sequence of bass notes). Typically, for scale-like passages the index and middle fingers alternate. When an arpeggiated harmony is being played with the thumb (p), index (i) and middle (m) fingers, the ring finger (a) plays the melody. In the tremolo technique (which has nothing to do with the "tremolo bar" on electric guitars) the thumb plays a bass note followed by the fingers which play the same treble note three times: pima, pima, pima etc (Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Tarrega is a famous example of this technique).
The position of the right hand can be used to influence the tone of the sound produced by a classical guitar. The wealth of sonic possibilities enables performers to add contrast and color to their performances well beyond the simple volume changes available to, say, pianists. If the strings are plucked close to the bridge (this position is called ponticelli) the notes sound "twangy". At the other end (when the strings are plucked closer to the neck of the guitar) the tone becomes "sweet" - this is called dolce. The angle at which the fingers hit the strings can also affect the sound.
The term pizzicato simply refers to plucking the strings in music for bowed instruments. In classical guitar however, it refers to placing the side of the hand below the little finger across all of the strings very close to the bridge and then plucking the strings with the fingers. This produces a muted sound and is referred to as palm-muting in electric guitar parlance. Tambor is the technique where many or all of the strings are played at once by hitting them (usually near the bridge) with the side of the (outstretched) thumb. Both tambor and pizzicato can be heard in Aconquija by Barrios.
The right hand fingers are used to stop notes from ringing past their duration as indicated by the music. This is more often an issue with open string bass notes which tend to ring on for some time. To stop the notes the right hand thumb (usually) rests on the ringing string to stop it. This can pose a significant challenge to the guitarist as he or she needs to play each bass note twice, once to start it and once to stop it. The same technique can be used to create a staccato effect.
Normally trills are played with the left hand (see below), however cross-string trills are played with the right hand. In this case the trill usually takes the form of low-high-low and is played thus: The left hand stops, say the D# on the fourth fret of the second string, the right hand middle finger plays that note then the index finger "strums" the first and second strings producing: D#-E-D#. The difference between a cross-string trill and an ordinary trill is that the cross-string trill leaves both notes ringing. This technique is often used in Baroque music.
There are various strumming techniques (need edit here).
Left hand technique
The fingers of the left hand press on the strings to shorten their effective length and change the pitch of the notes that the right hand plays. In musical notation the fingers are referred to as 1-4 from index to little fingers, with 0 indicating an open string. The basic position for the left hand is much the same as that of the right, except upside down. Unlike steel-string and electric guitars, which have thin necks, the classical guitarist does not place her or his left hand thumb over the top of the neck, instead placing it directly behind the neck, usually opposite the middle finger.
To play a note cleanly the fingertips of the left hand should be pressed against the string just behind (to the headstock side of) the appropriate fretwire. Oftentimes the left hand fingers are all required at once and many (sometimes awkward) hand positions are necessary. The problem of having four fingers to stop six strings is solved with bar-chords. The guitarist places the index finger across all of the strings at a particular fret and uses the remaining three fingers to play other notes.
Slurs, trills and other ornaments are played entirely with the left hand. In the simple case of an ascending slur a note might be played with the left hand index finger stopping a string at the fifth fret for example. Then, without the right hand doing anything, the middle finger is pressed at the sixth fret of the same string, raising the tone of the still-ringing note by a semitone. A descending slur is simply the opposite of the above, although it is common for the higher note finger to pluck the string. If this is repeated a few times the result is a trill. Because the note is being plucked repeatedly it is possible to continue a trill indefinitely. Often the upper note in such a trill is played by alternating fingers thus: 2-1-3-1-2-1-3-1...
Vibrato is possible with a classical guitar by pushing the left hand finger back and forth along the string axis (not across it as for a "bend" in rock or blues music) producing a subtle vibration effect without noticeably altering the tone of the note being played. When vibrato is required at the first or second fret it is beneficial to push the string across its axis as it produces a more noticeable vibrato sound there.
When playing notes on the treble strings above the twelfth fret (where the shoulders of the guitar meet the neck) the left shoulder is dropped down a little and the thumb is placed on the underside of the fingerboard to the left of the other fingers. For example if the middle finger is playing an F# at the fourteenth fret of the first string the thumb would be pressing upwards somewhere near the eleventh fret.
Miscellaneous
Harmonics can be played by resting a left hand finger on a string, without pressing it down, and then playing the note with the right hand. The positions of both the left and right hand are very important here. The left hand must be placed on a node of the desired harmonic. The simplest example would be when the left hand finger divides the string in two and is placed at the twelfth fret. The note then played would be one octave higher than the open string. If the string is divided in three (left hand finger near the seventh fret) the note played is one octave and one fifth above the open string. In this case the player must be careful not to pluck the string at the other node (near the soundhole) otherwise the harmonic will not sound. This can be easily demonstrated by resting a left hand finger on the fifth fret and trying to play the note by plucking the string at the twelfth fret with the right hand - no note will be produced. Ideally the right hand should pluck the string at an antinode.
So-called artificial harmonics can be played by stopping the string as usual with the left hand then resting (not pressing) the index finger of the right hand on the string twelve frets above the left hand finger and plucking the string with the ring finger of the right hand.
Repertoire
See also the article Selected contemporary repertoire for guitar.
Bibliography
- Wade, Graham, Traditions of the Classical Guitar, London : Calder, 1980.
- Wade, Graham, A Concise History of the Classic Guitar, Pacific : Mel Bay, 2001.
- Turnbull, Harvey, The guitar, from the Renaissance to the present day, New York : C. Scribner's Sons, 1974.
External links
- Classical Guitar Illustrated History
- the Classical Guitar Museum A collection of fine classical and flamenco guitars.
 | This article relating to musical instruments is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- ^ The Classical Mandolin by Paul Sparks (1995)
- ^ Early Romantic Guitar
- ^ Stalking the Oldest Six String Guitar