GUITAR

The Instrument

Guitar has come a long way. From the ancient Mesopotamia and their “tar” family of instruments, to Arabic oud and later to European lute. In the renaissance it evolves in a variety of different instruments and in the baroque we finally get the guitar – the baroque guitar. Torres then cements our “modern” guitar in the 19th century.

A long time guitar’s predecessors were fretless instrument, which made chord playing very difficult. The oldest fretted instrument was discovered in in China from 3rd century. Arabic oud however, which is the instrument guitar evolved from, got it’s frets only in the Renaissance – essentially becoming lute. These frets were made of gut (animal intestines). With later technological developements frets became metal and permanent.

Modern classical fretless guitar was invented by Erkan Oğur in 1976, making it the youngest member of the guitar family. One might think of it as an oud. It is not. Fretless guitar is a special instrument in it’s own right.