The guitar, in its myriad forms, resonates across genres and generations. From electrifying rock riffs to delicate classical melodies, its versatility is undeniable. Modern guitar heroes captivate audiences worldwide, often unaware that their beloved instrument boasts a history stretching back millennia. But Where Was The Guitar Invented? The answer isn’t straightforward, as the guitar’s origins are shrouded in the mists of time, evolving from a lineage of stringed instruments across various ancient civilizations.
The very word “guitar” hints at its ancient roots, likely derived from the Greek word “kithara.” Greek mythology credits Hermes, the messenger god, with crafting the first kithara from a tortoise shell. Depictions of Apollo, the god of music and light, frequently feature him playing this instrument, highlighting its cultural significance in ancient Greece. The kithara featured a wooden soundboard and a box-shaped body acting as a resonator. Extending from this resonator were two hollow arms connected by a crossbar. Initially strung with three strings anchored from the crossbar to the base, passing over a bridge on the soundboard, later iterations expanded to as many as twelve strings.
Ancient Kithara
Musicians in antiquity typically employed a plectrum, a precursor to the modern guitar pick, to pluck the kithara’s strings. The left hand served to dampen unwanted string vibrations and, at times, fret the strings to create harmonies. Solo performers occasionally plucked strings with both hands. The playing posture of the kithara closely mirrored that of a modern guitar, with musicians often utilizing a strap slung over the shoulder for support.
Tracing the Guitar’s Ancestry: From Oud to Lute
Delving deeper into the question of “where was the guitar invented,” we find its history intertwined with instruments like the oud and the lute, predating recorded history. The oud, a pear-shaped, stringed instrument prominent in Middle Eastern music, is considered a significant ancestor of the guitar. Legend attributes its design to Lamech, a figure from biblical genealogy, inspired by the shape of his deceased son’s body hanging from a tree. The oud journeyed westward with the Moors when they entered Southern Spain in 711 AD, marking a crucial step in the guitar’s evolution in Europe.
The lute, another key predecessor, flourished in diverse shapes and sizes, generally characterized by a rounded back. Its lineage traces back through the Egyptians and Greeks to the Romans, who disseminated it across Europe. Archaeological evidence reveals lute-like instruments even earlier. A pictorial record from Southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), dating back to 3500-3200 BCE, depicts a woman on a boat playing a stringed instrument, showcasing the instrument’s ancient presence in the region. Mesopotamian and Egyptian art throughout history features both long-necked and short-necked lutes, examples of which are preserved on clay tablets and papyrus in museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the British Museum.
The Emergence of the Guitar Shape in Spain
By the Renaissance, the lute had evolved considerably, sometimes featuring as many as 30 strings. However, the lute’s characteristic shape began to wane in popularity. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Spain became a pivotal location in guitar history. Spanish musicians started favoring instruments with the curved figure that we now readily recognize as the guitar’s form. These emerging instruments were the Baroque guitars.
Baroque guitars gained prominence between roughly 1600 and 1750, effectively supplanting the lute as the preferred stringed instrument among musicians. Innovations like five courses of gut strings and movable frets enhanced playability. Concurrently, the vihuela, popular in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, also contributed to the guitar’s development with its hourglass-shaped body. A version of the vihuela is still played by Mariachi groups today, demonstrating its enduring legacy.
The Spanish guitar’s evolution largely solidified by the 1790s. These instruments possessed a standard body shape and six courses of strings, resembling the modern guitar but in a smaller size. A transformative figure emerged in the mid-1800s: Spanish musician and guitar maker Antonio de Torres Jurado. Often hailed as “one of the single most important inventors in the history of guitar,” Torres Jurado revolutionized guitar design, creating the blueprint for all subsequent guitars.
Torres Jurado’s innovations included broadening the guitar body, thinning the belly, and increasing the waist’s curvature. He also replaced traditional wooden tuning pegs with mechanically geared heads. His groundbreaking approach to body construction and fan bracing—the internal system of wooden supports—imparted a distinctive, rich tone to his classical guitars. Influential Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia championed Torres’ classical guitar, establishing it as a concert instrument and composing seminal works now considered “classical guitar” music.
The Guitar Crosses the Atlantic and Embraces Steel
Around the same period, European immigrants carried a steel-string version of the Spanish guitar to America. This transatlantic journey marked another critical chapter in guitar history. In America, the modern guitar diversified into new forms, including the flat-top acoustic guitar, the archtop guitar, and, most significantly, the electric guitar.
The flat-top acoustic guitar remains the most prevalent acoustic guitar type nearly two centuries after its inception. Christian Frederick Martin, a German-born American luthier, is credited with its creation. Martin replaced the older fan bracing with X-bracing, enabling the guitar body to withstand the increased tension of modern steel strings, a challenge for Torres-style guitars. The steel strings of the flat-top guitar also necessitated a change in playing technique, with guitarists increasingly using picks. This shift towards pick-based playing styles profoundly influenced the music created on these instruments, moving from the delicate precision of classical guitar melodies to the bright, chord-driven sounds facilitated by steel strings and picks. The widespread use of picks also led to the development of the pickguard, now a standard feature on flat-top guitars.
Orville Gibson is widely recognized for pioneering the archtop guitar. Characterized by F-holes, an arched top and back, and an adjustable bridge, the archtop guitar offered enhanced tone and volume. Gibson’s designs, resembling cellos in body construction, produced a louder sound that resonated with jazz and country musicians. Big bands and swing bands readily adopted archtop guitars alongside flat-tops.
The electric guitar era commenced with George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker securing the first patent for an electric guitar in 1931. Simultaneously, numerous inventors and luthiers were exploring electric amplification for stringed instruments. Les Paul pioneered the solid-body electric guitar manufactured by Gibson Guitars, while Leo Fender introduced the Fender Telecaster in 1951. The Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, and Gibson SG models collectively represent pivotal steps in the evolution of guitars from their historical predecessors to the solid-body electric guitars that continue to dominate contemporary music.
Sources
https://www.ancient.eu/Kithara/
http://www.guitarhistoryfacts.com/guitar-inventor/antonio-torres-jurado/
