Cool guitar

Ethimologically, the designation of Guitar comes from the greek vocable Kythara, wich later on, latin people converted into Cithara. A legend says that this name comes from Cyterón, the name of a mountain placed somewhere beetween Beócia and Atica. But there are those who, discording this opinion, defend that it dervies from Cythara, the ancient name of the greek island Cerigo, wich was considered as the paradise of poetry and love, and in wich existed a temple dedicated to Venus.

The guitar is one of the most dominant instruments in the realm of instrumental music covering tunes of light music, western, Indian or classical music. Its melody and extraordinary range of variations keep the people spell bound the world over. We Indians feel our senses purified and dance mesmerizingly at the tunes of the guitar. Most of the music exponents attribute the guitar as a western instrument but quite a few know that guitar was played in the ancient days in India during the Vedic period; the form of music was Samgan. The kachhapi veena was used in this period for solo performances and also as an accompanying instrument. This instrument later on is believed to have migrated to different parts of the world and acquired different names while it vanished from India. The kachhapi veena was one of the famous instruments of that period. The birth of the guitar can be linked to kachhapi veena which was used for Samgan (Geet) thus got its name as guitar. The mystery of the origin of the guitar probably is hidden in its name. The western name ‘guitar’ is derived from the syllogism. If we write guitar as Geetar, Geet + Tar means an instrument with tar or strings that can be played for any geet or song. The word ‘Geet’ is an Indian name for song in Sanskrit.

Guitars can be classified into 3 kinds: the classical guitar, the acoustic guitar and finally the electric guitar.

The classical guitar (also referred to as the Spanish guitar) is the most common between the three kinds of guitar. This kind of guitar has a hollow body with a hole that acts as a resonator of the sound produced by plucking and strumming the strings. It normally has six strings made of nylon. These nylon strings have less tension when compared to steel strings thus making this kind of guitar easy to pluck or strum. It is assumed that it is to be played only with a persons fingers and not with a pick. It is also normally used without amplifiers but classical guitar owners can equip one or just play the guitar in front of a microphone. This kind of guitar is used mainly for classical, Latin and Flamenco music.