A Brief History of the Classical Guitar

The exact history is tough to come by, but there is a consensus that the modern classical guitar comes from two older instruments, the Vihuela, and the Baroque guitar. The Vihuela is a guitar-shaped instrument from the 15th and 16th century in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, while the Baroque Guitar is a 17th-century design with five-course strings. Courses are double strings that are plucked or strummed in unison.

The first incarnation of what we would consider a modern guitar began showing up during the Renaissance. It had four pairs of strings (i.e. courses) but was phased out by the five-course guitar a few years later. The standard tuning was A, D, G, B, E for the top five strings, which continues to this day. Also, around this time, the frets were increased from eight to ten, and finally twelve.

A little later in Italy, the six-course guitar became commonplace, but by the mid-18th century and early 19th century, the guitar evolved into a six-string instrument, which dropped the course-string design. However, these guitars were still smaller than the modern classical guitar.