Classical guitar

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Image:ClassicalGuitar.jpg A classical guitar, also called a Spanish guitar, is a musical instrument from the guitar family.

1 Background information
2 History of the classical guitar
3 See also
4 External links

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Background information

The term classical guitar is a recent one, neccessary only with the introduction of guitars with steel strings, electric amplification, and the slightly diverged form of the modern Flamenco guitar which led to a plethora of guitar forms.

The classical guitar is distinguished by a number of features:

It is an acoustic instrument. The sound is amplified by a sound box.
It has six strings. A few classical guitars have eight or more strings to expand the bass scale, even out overtone production, and allow lute music written for lutes with more than six courses of strings to be played.
The strings are usually made from nylon (formerly catgut, which is made from sheep intestine, despite the name), as opposed to the metal strings found in some other forms of guitar. These strings have a much lower tension than steel strings. The lower three strings ('bass strings') are wound with metal, commonly silver or nickel. Some less common stringings use a fourth wound string.
Because of the low tension of the strings the neck can be made entirely of wood, not requiring a steel truss rod.
Also because of the low tension of the strings, the interior bracing of the sound board can be lighter, which allows more complex tonal qualities. The spruce top or sound board of each type has a different bracing pattern. A common classical guitar bracing pattern in is called fan bracing. A center spruce brace is glued on the inside of the soundboard along the center line of the guitar under the bridge. Additional braces fan out on ether side of the first brace. The extreme tension of steel-strings requires stronger bracing. A common steel-string pattern is called X bracing and was first developed by C.F. Martin & Co. X bracing consists of two larger braces crossed under the sound board of a steel-string guitar. The center of the X is usually centered between the underside of the bridge and the sound hole.
The neck tends to be broader than with steel string guitars, making more complex fingerwork easier, but which may require a more exacting left hand position. A typical modern six-string classical guitar has a width of 48-54 mm at the nut, compared to around 42mm for a modern electric guitar design. The classical fingerboard is normally flat, whereas the steel string fingerboard has a slight radius.
The strings are usually plucked with the fingers. Most players shape their fingernails so that they contact the string in a certain way to achieve the desired tone. Strumming is an unusual technique in classical guitar, and 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.
Traditionally, the 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).
Classical guitars are typically built without pickguards. A pickguard is a piece of plastic affixed just below the strings on steel-string guitars to protect the sound board of the guitar from damage by aggressive strumming with a pick. It is assumed that a classical guitar will be played only with the fingers, and that a pick-guard is unnecessary. On flamenco guitars a tapping, or golpe board is attached to the front of the guitar, below the sound hole to allow the use of techniques that would normally damage a classical guitar.

Classical guitars are normally played without amplification of any sort but they can be equipped with an electronic pickup, which is sometimes used by performers in noisy environments. Either a piezoelectric pickup is placed under the bridge, or a microphone is suspended within the body.

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History of the classical guitar

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The Golden Age

The first 'Golden Age' of the classical guitar repertoire was the 19th century. Some notable guitar composers from this period are:

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Guitarist-composers of the 20th century

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Composers for the classical guitar

In the 20th century, many non-guitarist composers wrote for the instrument, which previously only players of the instrument had done. These include:

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Modern performers

Guitarists also often play transcriptions of music originally written for other instruments. Lute transcriptions from the Renaissance and Baroque eras are common.

Some players of the classical guitar: