guitantologia
The history of the guitar.
The history of the guitar lies in a rather vague past. We usually assume that when there is written music, we can take a global year in which we are certain that an instrument actually existed. (otherwise no music was written for it) With the guitar there are only some pictures and paintings on which guitar-like instruments are depicted. We are talking about the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In Spain a poem is written that calls the instruments "guitarra moresca" and "guitarra latina". On the "guitarra moresca" they mainly played solos and on the "guitarra latina" especially chords as accompaniment to songs. For the sake of clarity: in the 13th and 14th century the Netherlands consisted of a number of separate counties, united in seven provinces. About a century later in the 14th and 15th centuries, the "guitarra moresca" and "guitarra latina" fell into disuse and a new but related instrument appeared; the vihuela. You had these in three types: the vihuela de mano, the vihuela de arco and the vihuela da peñola. These names struck the way they played. The vihuela de mano is played with the fingers, the vihuela de arco is played with a bow and the vihuela da peñola is played with a plectrum. The countries where these instruments were played are both Spain and Italy. In the rest of the world actually not. The fact that the vihuela was played both in Spain and Italy was because these two countries had a lot of contact with each other. We limit ourselves to the vihuela de mano.
The first known book for the vihuela appeared in 1535. "El Maestro" by Luis Milan. This book appeared in Spain. Some time later in Italy "Intavolatura de viola about Lauto ..." by Francesco da Milano appeared. The vihuela is a guitar-like instrument that is covered with so-called cords. These are double strings that are right next to each other. The vihuela has six cords of the intestine and the ferrets (also of intestine) are knotted by the neck. The vihuela remains popular until about 1560/1570, after which it disappears. The vihuela has been of great importance for the style of writing (composing). The vihuela was in those days one of the few instruments on which you could play more than one voice at a time (polyphonic). That way you could also play solo and you did not need several people for a piece of music. For the vihuela complex music was written by people like Narváez, Mudarra, Valderrabano and Fuenllana.
We are now talking about the time from about 1500. In order to give you an idea of how the world worked then the following. Charles V was born in 1500. In 1517 Luther proclaimed his 95 theses in Münster. In 1530 Copernicus states for the first time that the earth revolves around the sun. Some years later William of Orange was born. It was the time of the recounting and the iconoclasm (1566).
Almost simultaneously with the vihuela, another instrument emerges: the four-chord guitar. This is described as a small vihuela. This guitar became very popular in France. Much of the music written for this instrument consisted of dances that were played together with other instruments. The highlight of the popularity of the four-chord guitar was between 1550 and 1560. After that, the popularity dropped and the four-chorus guitar disappeared in the early seventeenth century.
From the 16th century, a chorus was added to the four-chorus guitar and the five-chorus guitar was created. This was available in two types. The "chitarra battente", especially in Italy, and the ordinary (in France popular) five-string guitar or baroque guitar. The chitarra battente distinguished itself from the baroque guitar by its steel strings (sometimes triple), the curved back, a kinked top, strings that run over the comb and are attached at the back and busy decorations. The chitarra battente was mainly used for guidance of dances and music (battere = store). A kind of percussion guitar was played on it. The way of striking was by means of strokes, called rasgueados. You can still see this in the flamenco, where a lot of use is also made of the rasgueado. The French five-chord guitar was played in the ponteado or punctuado game. That means that each note was struck separately. One of the champions was Foscarini. Fuenllana wrote in 1554 the first music for the five-chord guitar in his "Orphenica lyra". (Duelete de mi señora) The way of writing also changed, instead of separate pieces, so-called suites were written, works with a number of parts that together formed one whole. One of the first to write such a suite was Bartelotti in 1640.
In the time we are talking about, the 80-year war broke out in the Netherlands, Cervantes wrote his Don Quixote between 1605 and 1615. It was the time of Louis the 14th. In 1668 La Fontaine wrote the first part of his fables. The Netherlands was in the Golden Age, many artists flee to the Netherlands because of the relative freedom of religion. It was the time of Shakespeare, Piet Heyn, Vondel, Newton and many others. At that time many inventions were made and many painters made famous canvases. Dutch polders were drained. Also in 1640 the youngest son of William of Orange (Frederik Hendrik) climbed the throne together with his wife Amalia van Solms.
The five-chord guitar continues to exist for a long time. It was not until the end of the 18th century that after much experimentation he was replaced by first the six-chord guitar and then the six-string guitar. The first six-string guitar was created in France around 1780. France and Italy switched to the six-string guitar pretty quickly. In Spain, six-chorus guitars were built for a long time. Probably the six-string guitar was only in normal use around 1820. Simultaneously with the advent of the six-string guitar, many methods were developed, of which those of Sor and Aguado were one of the more important. Aguado wrote his Escuela de Musica in 1825.
In the time we are talking about, the following happened. 1789 French Revolution, 1778 construction of the Scala in Milan, 1776, invention of the steam engine, July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence of America. In 1830 Belgium broke away from the Netherlands, in 1818 Mary Shelly wrote her Frankenstein, Napoleon crowned herself emperor in 1804. The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen wrote their fairy tales.
One of the reasons to switch to the six-string guitar was easier tuning. The guitars were built in an 8-shape, narrower in the middle and rounder at upper and lower width. The head of the guitar was a reflection of the sound box. That is to say an 8-shape. Many improvements have been made over the years. The wooden tuning pins were replaced by mechanics, the test ran through on the top, the placement of vocal bars behind the top, etc. Because of these many experiments there were also many types of guitars. Namely the octave guitar, the third guitar, the quarter guitar and the fifth bass guitar. There was also (but not much) music written for these guitars. Yet these variants did not really hit and the development focused mainly on the ordinary guitar. One of the most important builders was Antonio de Torres. In 1850 he built the first guitar that is known as a modern classical guitar.
In Europe we are two years after the revolution year 1848. It was the time of Karl Marx, Nietsche and the construction of the Eiffel Tower. In 1859 Darwin comes with his theory about the origin of the species.
After Torres, many types and sizes of guitars were built that elaborated on the ideas of Torres. The intention was to get both a larger volume out of the guitar and to create an even balance between the high and low tones. Gradually, the human hour (the string length) became longer until it stabilized at 65 cm. In the sixties and seventies of the last century guitars were made of 66.5 cm scale, but in practice they demanded too much of the hands of the guitarists to actually play virtuoso. The fan structure introduced by Torres was improved and in the long run each builder had his own favorite shape. The number of singing bars differs from builder to builder and is now between five and nine. Some builders designed a grid shape to distribute the sound as evenly as possible over the entire top. Not only the scale became larger, the sound box was also enlarged. In the end there were roughly two different models, the Madrid model (from Madrid) and the Granadese model, (from Granada). The Madrid model mainly had a large cabinet and a large volume, especially in the basses. The Granadese model was somewhat smaller, had less volume, but projected the sound better. In general, the Granadian guitars sounded a bit warmer than the Madrilenian.
The construction of the guitar
Guitars are made of wood. The type of wood that is used is ultimately decisive for the sound quality, volume and playability of the guitar. In general, the top is the most decisive for the timbre of the guitar. In general, there are two types of wood that are used for this purpose: fichte and cedar. The difference between these two types of wood is that cedar sounds warmer and is easier to address. The tones also sound more intertwined. Cedar wood resonates somewhat faster than fichte, but can sometimes sound a bit thin in the high tones. Fichte is a bit harder than cedar and therefore must first be played half a year before the guitar has come loose. Until then, the guitar will sound "close". Fichte provides warm tones especially in height. The tones are somewhat looser than the cedar tops.
The side and back leaves are made of rosewood. Two types of rosewood are used, Riopalissander from Brazil and Indian rosewood from India. Riopalissander is somewhat harder and also more expensive than Indian rosewood. Rosewood is used because the side and back leaves should resonate and resonate as much as possible. This achieves better projection. Rosewood also gives a somewhat warmer sound than other wood species. Flamenco guitars should sound more bright and are therefore made of cypress wood. Wood species such as mahogany, bubinga and maple are used on cheap guitars. Also, veneer is often used (thin layers of rosewood stuck to another type of wood). The key of the guitar is made of ebony. This is somewhat harder than rosewood and therefore more durable. The neck and head of the guitar are made of cedrela, and kind of cedar.
Eventually the guitar is either sprayed with paint or polished. Painting is cheaper and faster, but gives a somewhat firm and hard sound to the guitar. Most hand-built guitars are therefore also polished, although this is less durable, but allows the guitar to resonate better.
Previously, the strings of the guitar consisted of gut for the higher strings and wrapped silk thread for the basses. Nowadays, the intestine has been replaced by nylon and / or carbon and the silk thread by nylon thread. This keeps the strings their purity and lasts many times longer.
The guitar family.
The guitar as we know it has, as said, some brothers and sisters like the octave guitar, the fifth bass guitar and the acoustic bass guitar. Besides the guitar, the lute, the theorbo and the mandolin existed. These instruments are still used, mainly in early music, but no music is actually written for it. The heydays of the lute and the theorbo were between 1600 and 1750. The mandolin was created around 1511 and music is still being written for it. There are many other guitar and lute instruments outside of Europe. To mention them all is too much work, but the most important are the ud (a kind of lute without ferrets) from the Middle East, the quatro (a four-string guitar) from South America, the buzuki from Greece and the saz (a guitar-like instrument suitable for oriental tonality) from Turkey / Egypt / Middle East. Especially in South and Central America there are many different instruments that look a lot like a small guitar.
The attitude of the guitarist.
Guitarists have had different ways to hold the guitar through the ages. Images show that the guitar was often on the right leg and that the right arm was clipped around the sound box. In practice, this did not always work. That is why sometimes the band was tied to the head of the guitar, which was attached again through a loop around the head and shoulders of the guitarist. Other guitarists used a band as nowadays use electric guitar players. They also played standing. From Giuliani there is an image on which he plays standing. This does not mean that he always played standing, but that this was sometimes customary. Still others played as the lute players do; with the left leg bent over the right leg and the guitar placed in the created cavity. Sor always played with one side of the guitar on a table, so that he had his hands free. Aguado designed a kind tripod (tripod) that fully supported the guitar. As a result, his body had little or no contact with the guitar, so that he could resonate freely. Sor was so enthusiastic about this, that he suggested in his last major work that it sounded the best on the invention of Aguado. Tàrrega introduced the footstool that we still use in principle. Due to the further attention to physical complaints, new objects were created to save the back and still maintain good posture. One of the most famous designs was the pillow. In addition, there were supports that lay on the upper leg and were screwed or glued to the guitar. Problem with these fittings was always the contact with the guitar. Or the prosthesis moved over the leg, or it was too low, or the confirmation with the guitar did not work. That is why most guitarists still prefer to play on a footstool, then with other means. An exception is the flamenco guitarists, who have the wide part of the guitar on their right leg and with their right arm the guitar against them. Because of this it is also possible to play standing without a band, this still happens quite a lot in South American countries.
Nails or no nails.
That is the question. Nowadays, most guitarists play with nails. They do this to get a larger volume, create more sound possibilities and get a clearer attack. In the time of Sor, opinions were very divided. Sor was a proponent of playing without nails, because the tone with nails "never sang in the soft passages and in the strong passages his soundfulness was lost. Aguado, on the other hand, was an advocate of playing with nails, although he later filed his thumbnail under the influence of Sor. He played with nails because, with good use, the tone is "clean, clear and sweet". Sor and Aguado were respecting friends. Not everyone was so involved, between supporters of the Carullis and supporters of the Molino's, the opinions were so high that they started to fight and throw guitars.
Notation
In the time of the vihuela, the four-, five- and six-chord guitar, the music was not written down in notes, but in so-called tablature. This is a system in which there are so many horizontal lines as there are strings or choirs on the instrument. So the four-chorus guitar had four lines, the five-chord five etc. On these lines were now numbers or letters written that each a box on the guitar key. So if you played in the indicated box you played the good note. There were different types of tablature, but the most important were the French, who represented the boxes by letters, and the Italian, who represented the boxes by numbers. The rhythm was written above the horizontal lines. If you only wanted to play chords on the five-string guitar, this was done via the so-called "alfabeto" system. This meant that every chord had a letter of the alphabet. This was pretty randomly written down, so the A chord in the alphabet system had nothing to do with our A chord. To give a few examples:
A = G agree
B = C agreed
C = D chord
This seems very complicated, but compare it with our own chord system, if you see a letter there is a certain grip. This was something like that. This system was developed by Amat in 1596.
It was not until about 1763 that music for guitar was published in modern note notation. In the beginning it happened that both tabulations were recorded and in notation. From that first notation, the design remained the same, except that more attention was paid to voting by Giuliani and Sor.
The history of the guitar lies in a rather vague past. We usually assume that when there is written music, we can take a global year in which we are certain that an instrument actually existed. (otherwise no music was written for it) With the guitar there are only some pictures and paintings on which guitar-like instruments are depicted. We are talking about the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In Spain a poem is written that calls the instruments "guitarra moresca" and "guitarra latina". On the "guitarra moresca" they mainly played solos and on the "guitarra latina" especially chords as accompaniment to songs. For the sake of clarity: in the 13th and 14th century the Netherlands consisted of a number of separate counties, united in seven provinces. About a century later in the 14th and 15th centuries, the "guitarra moresca" and "guitarra latina" fell into disuse and a new but related instrument appeared; the vihuela. You had these in three types: the vihuela de mano, the vihuela de arco and the vihuela da peñola. These names struck the way they played. The vihuela de mano is played with the fingers, the vihuela de arco is played with a bow and the vihuela da peñola is played with a plectrum. The countries where these instruments were played are both Spain and Italy. In the rest of the world actually not. The fact that the vihuela was played both in Spain and Italy was because these two countries had a lot of contact with each other. We limit ourselves to the vihuela de mano.
The first known book for the vihuela appeared in 1535. "El Maestro" by Luis Milan. This book appeared in Spain. Some time later in Italy "Intavolatura de viola about Lauto ..." by Francesco da Milano appeared. The vihuela is a guitar-like instrument that is covered with so-called cords. These are double strings that are right next to each other. The vihuela has six cords of the intestine and the ferrets (also of intestine) are knotted by the neck. The vihuela remains popular until about 1560/1570, after which it disappears. The vihuela has been of great importance for the style of writing (composing). The vihuela was in those days one of the few instruments on which you could play more than one voice at a time (polyphonic). That way you could also play solo and you did not need several people for a piece of music. For the vihuela complex music was written by people like Narváez, Mudarra, Valderrabano and Fuenllana.
We are now talking about the time from about 1500. In order to give you an idea of how the world worked then the following. Charles V was born in 1500. In 1517 Luther proclaimed his 95 theses in Münster. In 1530 Copernicus states for the first time that the earth revolves around the sun. Some years later William of Orange was born. It was the time of the recounting and the iconoclasm (1566).
Almost simultaneously with the vihuela, another instrument emerges: the four-chord guitar. This is described as a small vihuela. This guitar became very popular in France. Much of the music written for this instrument consisted of dances that were played together with other instruments. The highlight of the popularity of the four-chord guitar was between 1550 and 1560. After that, the popularity dropped and the four-chorus guitar disappeared in the early seventeenth century.
From the 16th century, a chorus was added to the four-chorus guitar and the five-chorus guitar was created. This was available in two types. The "chitarra battente", especially in Italy, and the ordinary (in France popular) five-string guitar or baroque guitar. The chitarra battente distinguished itself from the baroque guitar by its steel strings (sometimes triple), the curved back, a kinked top, strings that run over the comb and are attached at the back and busy decorations. The chitarra battente was mainly used for guidance of dances and music (battere = store). A kind of percussion guitar was played on it. The way of striking was by means of strokes, called rasgueados. You can still see this in the flamenco, where a lot of use is also made of the rasgueado. The French five-chord guitar was played in the ponteado or punctuado game. That means that each note was struck separately. One of the champions was Foscarini. Fuenllana wrote in 1554 the first music for the five-chord guitar in his "Orphenica lyra". (Duelete de mi señora) The way of writing also changed, instead of separate pieces, so-called suites were written, works with a number of parts that together formed one whole. One of the first to write such a suite was Bartelotti in 1640.
In the time we are talking about, the 80-year war broke out in the Netherlands, Cervantes wrote his Don Quixote between 1605 and 1615. It was the time of Louis the 14th. In 1668 La Fontaine wrote the first part of his fables. The Netherlands was in the Golden Age, many artists flee to the Netherlands because of the relative freedom of religion. It was the time of Shakespeare, Piet Heyn, Vondel, Newton and many others. At that time many inventions were made and many painters made famous canvases. Dutch polders were drained. Also in 1640 the youngest son of William of Orange (Frederik Hendrik) climbed the throne together with his wife Amalia van Solms.
The five-chord guitar continues to exist for a long time. It was not until the end of the 18th century that after much experimentation he was replaced by first the six-chord guitar and then the six-string guitar. The first six-string guitar was created in France around 1780. France and Italy switched to the six-string guitar pretty quickly. In Spain, six-chorus guitars were built for a long time. Probably the six-string guitar was only in normal use around 1820. Simultaneously with the advent of the six-string guitar, many methods were developed, of which those of Sor and Aguado were one of the more important. Aguado wrote his Escuela de Musica in 1825.
In the time we are talking about, the following happened. 1789 French Revolution, 1778 construction of the Scala in Milan, 1776, invention of the steam engine, July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence of America. In 1830 Belgium broke away from the Netherlands, in 1818 Mary Shelly wrote her Frankenstein, Napoleon crowned herself emperor in 1804. The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen wrote their fairy tales.
One of the reasons to switch to the six-string guitar was easier tuning. The guitars were built in an 8-shape, narrower in the middle and rounder at upper and lower width. The head of the guitar was a reflection of the sound box. That is to say an 8-shape. Many improvements have been made over the years. The wooden tuning pins were replaced by mechanics, the test ran through on the top, the placement of vocal bars behind the top, etc. Because of these many experiments there were also many types of guitars. Namely the octave guitar, the third guitar, the quarter guitar and the fifth bass guitar. There was also (but not much) music written for these guitars. Yet these variants did not really hit and the development focused mainly on the ordinary guitar. One of the most important builders was Antonio de Torres. In 1850 he built the first guitar that is known as a modern classical guitar.
In Europe we are two years after the revolution year 1848. It was the time of Karl Marx, Nietsche and the construction of the Eiffel Tower. In 1859 Darwin comes with his theory about the origin of the species.
After Torres, many types and sizes of guitars were built that elaborated on the ideas of Torres. The intention was to get both a larger volume out of the guitar and to create an even balance between the high and low tones. Gradually, the human hour (the string length) became longer until it stabilized at 65 cm. In the sixties and seventies of the last century guitars were made of 66.5 cm scale, but in practice they demanded too much of the hands of the guitarists to actually play virtuoso. The fan structure introduced by Torres was improved and in the long run each builder had his own favorite shape. The number of singing bars differs from builder to builder and is now between five and nine. Some builders designed a grid shape to distribute the sound as evenly as possible over the entire top. Not only the scale became larger, the sound box was also enlarged. In the end there were roughly two different models, the Madrid model (from Madrid) and the Granadese model, (from Granada). The Madrid model mainly had a large cabinet and a large volume, especially in the basses. The Granadese model was somewhat smaller, had less volume, but projected the sound better. In general, the Granadian guitars sounded a bit warmer than the Madrilenian.
The construction of the guitar
Guitars are made of wood. The type of wood that is used is ultimately decisive for the sound quality, volume and playability of the guitar. In general, the top is the most decisive for the timbre of the guitar. In general, there are two types of wood that are used for this purpose: fichte and cedar. The difference between these two types of wood is that cedar sounds warmer and is easier to address. The tones also sound more intertwined. Cedar wood resonates somewhat faster than fichte, but can sometimes sound a bit thin in the high tones. Fichte is a bit harder than cedar and therefore must first be played half a year before the guitar has come loose. Until then, the guitar will sound "close". Fichte provides warm tones especially in height. The tones are somewhat looser than the cedar tops.
The side and back leaves are made of rosewood. Two types of rosewood are used, Riopalissander from Brazil and Indian rosewood from India. Riopalissander is somewhat harder and also more expensive than Indian rosewood. Rosewood is used because the side and back leaves should resonate and resonate as much as possible. This achieves better projection. Rosewood also gives a somewhat warmer sound than other wood species. Flamenco guitars should sound more bright and are therefore made of cypress wood. Wood species such as mahogany, bubinga and maple are used on cheap guitars. Also, veneer is often used (thin layers of rosewood stuck to another type of wood). The key of the guitar is made of ebony. This is somewhat harder than rosewood and therefore more durable. The neck and head of the guitar are made of cedrela, and kind of cedar.
Eventually the guitar is either sprayed with paint or polished. Painting is cheaper and faster, but gives a somewhat firm and hard sound to the guitar. Most hand-built guitars are therefore also polished, although this is less durable, but allows the guitar to resonate better.
Previously, the strings of the guitar consisted of gut for the higher strings and wrapped silk thread for the basses. Nowadays, the intestine has been replaced by nylon and / or carbon and the silk thread by nylon thread. This keeps the strings their purity and lasts many times longer.
The guitar family.
The guitar as we know it has, as said, some brothers and sisters like the octave guitar, the fifth bass guitar and the acoustic bass guitar. Besides the guitar, the lute, the theorbo and the mandolin existed. These instruments are still used, mainly in early music, but no music is actually written for it. The heydays of the lute and the theorbo were between 1600 and 1750. The mandolin was created around 1511 and music is still being written for it. There are many other guitar and lute instruments outside of Europe. To mention them all is too much work, but the most important are the ud (a kind of lute without ferrets) from the Middle East, the quatro (a four-string guitar) from South America, the buzuki from Greece and the saz (a guitar-like instrument suitable for oriental tonality) from Turkey / Egypt / Middle East. Especially in South and Central America there are many different instruments that look a lot like a small guitar.
The attitude of the guitarist.
Guitarists have had different ways to hold the guitar through the ages. Images show that the guitar was often on the right leg and that the right arm was clipped around the sound box. In practice, this did not always work. That is why sometimes the band was tied to the head of the guitar, which was attached again through a loop around the head and shoulders of the guitarist. Other guitarists used a band as nowadays use electric guitar players. They also played standing. From Giuliani there is an image on which he plays standing. This does not mean that he always played standing, but that this was sometimes customary. Still others played as the lute players do; with the left leg bent over the right leg and the guitar placed in the created cavity. Sor always played with one side of the guitar on a table, so that he had his hands free. Aguado designed a kind tripod (tripod) that fully supported the guitar. As a result, his body had little or no contact with the guitar, so that he could resonate freely. Sor was so enthusiastic about this, that he suggested in his last major work that it sounded the best on the invention of Aguado. Tàrrega introduced the footstool that we still use in principle. Due to the further attention to physical complaints, new objects were created to save the back and still maintain good posture. One of the most famous designs was the pillow. In addition, there were supports that lay on the upper leg and were screwed or glued to the guitar. Problem with these fittings was always the contact with the guitar. Or the prosthesis moved over the leg, or it was too low, or the confirmation with the guitar did not work. That is why most guitarists still prefer to play on a footstool, then with other means. An exception is the flamenco guitarists, who have the wide part of the guitar on their right leg and with their right arm the guitar against them. Because of this it is also possible to play standing without a band, this still happens quite a lot in South American countries.
Nails or no nails.
That is the question. Nowadays, most guitarists play with nails. They do this to get a larger volume, create more sound possibilities and get a clearer attack. In the time of Sor, opinions were very divided. Sor was a proponent of playing without nails, because the tone with nails "never sang in the soft passages and in the strong passages his soundfulness was lost. Aguado, on the other hand, was an advocate of playing with nails, although he later filed his thumbnail under the influence of Sor. He played with nails because, with good use, the tone is "clean, clear and sweet". Sor and Aguado were respecting friends. Not everyone was so involved, between supporters of the Carullis and supporters of the Molino's, the opinions were so high that they started to fight and throw guitars.
Notation
In the time of the vihuela, the four-, five- and six-chord guitar, the music was not written down in notes, but in so-called tablature. This is a system in which there are so many horizontal lines as there are strings or choirs on the instrument. So the four-chorus guitar had four lines, the five-chord five etc. On these lines were now numbers or letters written that each a box on the guitar key. So if you played in the indicated box you played the good note. There were different types of tablature, but the most important were the French, who represented the boxes by letters, and the Italian, who represented the boxes by numbers. The rhythm was written above the horizontal lines. If you only wanted to play chords on the five-string guitar, this was done via the so-called "alfabeto" system. This meant that every chord had a letter of the alphabet. This was pretty randomly written down, so the A chord in the alphabet system had nothing to do with our A chord. To give a few examples:
A = G agree
B = C agreed
C = D chord
This seems very complicated, but compare it with our own chord system, if you see a letter there is a certain grip. This was something like that. This system was developed by Amat in 1596.
It was not until about 1763 that music for guitar was published in modern note notation. In the beginning it happened that both tabulations were recorded and in notation. From that first notation, the design remained the same, except that more attention was paid to voting by Giuliani and Sor.
©Daan van der Vliet 2003