Classical guitar
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A classical guitar, also called a Spanish guitar, is a musical instrument from the guitar family. This instrument is most commonly used by classical guitarists playing classical music, but is also used for folk music.
Background information
The history of the classical guitar and its repertoire span over four centuries, including its ancestry the baroque guitar. The popularity of the classical guitar has been sustained over the years by many great players, arrangers, and composers. A very short list might include Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710), Fernando Sor (1778-1839), Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), and John Williams (1941).
By using the fingers to pluck instead of a plectrum or bow, the performer can play polyphonic music. It is common to encounter classical guitar music that sustains two, three, or four musical lines or voices.
Using the right hand fingers to pluck the strings requires more space between the strings over the sound hole which in turn necessitates a fingerboard that is slightly wider than other guitars. Classical guitarists hold the instrument by raising the left leg (with a footstool), placing the guitar on that leg and holding the guitar in place with the right arm. Alternatively the left foot can be placed on the floor and a small support placed between the left leg and the guitar. Either of these positions support the guitar in a way that gives the player greater mobility and access to the strings and the fingerboard. The right hand is a classical guitarist's voice similar to that of a string player's bow. By using a combination of flesh and fingernail to pluck the strings, a classical guitarist is able to generate a wide variety of sounds.
The classical guitar's most characteristic physical feature is the use of nylon strings (which have, largely, supplanted the use of gut strings), although since the mid 1990s carbon fiber or composite treble strings have gained popularity for their nylon-like sound and significantly better reliability. Nylon strings give the classical guitar a unique, varied and rich color palette. The size and shape of the classical guitar have been nearly standard for over 100 years. The finest guitars are built with a solid cedar or spruce top, solid rosewood back and sides, traditionally a cedar or more recently a mahogany neck and an ebony fingerboard.
Physical characteristics
The classical guitar is distinguished by a number of characteristics:- It is an instrument. The sound of the plucked string is amplified by the body of the guitar which acts as a resonator.
- It has six strings. A few classical guitars have eight or more strings to expand the bass range, and to expand the repertoire of the guitar.
- The three treble strings are made from nylon, as opposed to the metal strings found on other acoustic guitars. Nylon strings (also called Classical guitar strings) also have a much lower tension than steel strings. The lower three strings ('bass strings') are wound with metal, commonly silver or nickel.
- Because of the low tension of the strings the neck can be made entirely of wood, not requiring a steel truss rod.
- The interior bracing of the sound board can be lighter, due to the low tension of the strings. This can allow for more complex tonal qualities. A common classical guitar bracing pattern is the fan bracing. A center spruce brace is glued on the inside of the soundboard along the center line of the guitar to just before the bridge. Additional braces fan out on ether side of the first brace.
- A typical modern six-string classical guitar has a width of 48-54 mm at the nut, compared to around 42 mm for a modern electric guitar design. The classical fingerboard is normally flat and without inlays, whereas the steel string fingerboard has a slight radius and inlays.
- Classical guitarists use their right hand fingers to pluck the strings. Players shape their fingernails, much the way a clarinetist will shape their reed to achieve a desired tone.
- Strumming is a less common technique in classical guitar, and is often referred to by the Spanish term "rasgueo", or for strumming patterns "rasgueado", and utilises the backs of the fingernails. Rasgueado is integral to Flamenco guitar.
- Tuning pegs (or "keys") at the head the fingerboard of a classical guitar point backwards (towards the player when the guitar is in playing position; perpendicular to the plane of the fretboard). This is in contrast to a traditional steel-string guitar design, in which the tuning pegs point outward (up and down from playing position; parallel to the plane of the fretboard).
Parts of the guitar
- 1. Headstock
- 2. Nut
- 3. Machine heads (or pegheads, tuning keys, tuning machines, tuners)
- 4. Frets
- 5. Truss rod
- 6. Inlays
- 7. Neck and fretboard
- 8. Heel (acoustic or Spanish)- Neckjoint (electric)
- 9. Body
- 10. Pickups
- 11. Electronics
- 12. Bridge (saddle)
- 13. Pickguard
- 14. Bottom deck
- 15. Soundboard (=top deck)
- 16. Body sides
- 17. Sound hole, with Rosette inlay
- 18. Strings
- 19. Bridge
Headstock
The headstock is located at the end of the guitar neck furthest from the body. It is fitted with machine heads that adjust the tension of the strings, which in turn affects the pitch. Traditional tuner layout is "3+3" in which each side of the headstock has three tuners. In this layout, the headstocks are commonly symmetrical. Some guitars feature other layouts as well, including six-in-line.Nut
The nut is a small strip of bone, plastic, brass, graphite, corian, or other medium-hard material, at the joint where the headstock meets the fretboard. Its grooves guide the strings onto the fretboard, giving consistent lateral string placement. It is one of the endpoints of the strings' vibrating length. It must be accurately cut, or it can contribute to tuning problems due to string slippage, and/or string buzz.Fretboard
Also called the fingerboard is a piece of wood embedded with metal frets that comprises the top of the neck. It is flat or slightly curved. The curvature of the fretboard is measured by the fretboard radius, which is the radius of a hypothetical circle of which the fretboard's surface constitutes a segment. The smaller the fretboard radius, the more noticeably curved the fretboard is. Pinching a string against the fretboard effectively shortens the vibrating length of the string, producing a higher tone (a string, unfingered, will vibrate from the saddle to the nut; once fingered, it will vibrate only along the distance between the saddle and the fret directly before the finger). Fretboards are most commonly made of ebony.Frets
Frets are metal strips (usually nickel alloy or stainless steel) embedded along the fretboard which are placed in points along the length of string that divide it mathematically. When strings are pressed down behind them, frets shorten the strings' vibrating lengths to produce different pitches- each one spaced a half-step apart on the 12 tone scale. For more on fret spacing, see the Strings and Tuning section below. Frets are usually the first permanent part to wear out on a heavily played guitar. They can be re-shaped to a certain extent and can be replaced as needed. Frets also indicate fractions of the length of a string (the string midpoint is at the 12th fret; one-third the length of the string reaches from the nut to the 7th fret, the 7th fret to the 19th, and the 19th to the saddle; one-quarter reaches from nut to fifth to twelfth to twenty-fourth to saddle). This feature is important in playing harmonics. Frets are available in several different gauges, depending on the type of guitar and the player's style.Guitars have frets on the fingerboard to fix the positions of notes and scales, which gives them equal temperament. Consequently, the ratio of the widths of two consecutive frets is the twelfth root of two [\sqrt[12]], whose numeric value is about 1.059463. The twelfth fret divides the string in two exact halves and the 24th fret (if present) divides the string in half yet again. Every twelve frets represents one octave.
There are several styles of fret, which allow different sounds and techniques to be exploited by the player.
Truss rod
The truss rod is an adjustable metal rod that runs along the inside of the neck, adjusted by a hex nut or an allen-key bolt usually located either at the headstock (under a cover) or just inside the body of the guitar, underneath the fretboard (accessible through the sound hole). Most classical guitars do not have truss rods, as the nylon strings do not put enough tension on the neck for one to be needed. The truss rod counteracts the immense amount of tension the strings place on the neck, bringing the neck back to a straighter position. The truss rod can be adjusted to compensate for changes in the neck wood due to changes in humidity or to compensate for changes in the tension of strings. Tightening the rod will curve the neck back and loosening it will return it forward. Adjusting the truss rod affects the intonation of a guitar as well as affecting the action (the height of the strings from the fingerboard). Some truss rod systems, called "double action" truss systems, will tighten both ways, allowing the neck to be pushed both forward and backward (most truss rods can only be loosened so much, beyond which the bolt will just come loose and the neck will no longer be pulled backward).Neck
A classical guitar's frets, fretboard, tuners, headstock, and truss rod, all attached to a long wooden extension, collectively comprise its neck. The wood used to make the fretboard will usually differ from the wood in the rest of the neck. The bending stress on the neck is considerable, particularly when heavier gauge strings are used (see Strings and tuning), and the ability of the neck to resist bending (see Truss rod) is important to the guitar's ability to hold a constant pitch during tuning or when strings are fretted. The rigidity of the neck with respect to the body of the guitar is one determinant of a good instrument versus a poor one. The shape of the neck can also vary, from a gentle "C" curve to a more pronounced "V" curve.Neck joint or '
This is the point at which the neck is either bolted or glued to the body of the guitar. Almost all acoustic guitars, with the primary exception of Taylors, and Greg Smalmann have glued (otherwise known as set) necks.
On Classical guitars, this portion is known as the 'heel' because it looks like a Spanish type shoe heel. Set necks usually feature dovetail joints, which offer stability and sustain. Other commonly used neck joints include mortise-and-tenon joints (such as those used by CF Martin & Co. guitars), and Classical heel style neck joints (commonly found in classical guitars). Bolt-on necks, though they are historically associated with cheaper instruments, do offer greater flexibility in the guitar's set-up, and allow easier access for neck joint maintenance and repairs.
Body
The body of the instrument is a major determinant of the overall sound variety for acoustic guitars. The guitar top, or soundboard, is a finely crafted and engineered element often made of spruce, red cedar or mahogany. This thin (often 2 or 3 mm thick) piece of wood, strengthened by different types of internal bracing, is considered to be the most prominent factor in determining the sound quality of a guitar. The majority of the sound is caused by vibration of the guitar top as the energy of the vibrating strings is transferred to it. Different patterns of wood bracing have been used through the years by luthiers (Torres, Hauser, Ramirez, Fleta, and C.F. Martin being among the most influential designers of their times); to not only strengthen the top against collapsing under the tremendous stress exerted by the tensioned strings, but also to affect the resonation of the top. The back and sides are made out of a variety of woods such as mahogany, Indian rosewood and highly regarded Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra). Each one is chosen for their aesthetic effect and structural strength, and can also play a significant role in determining the instrument's timbre. These are also strengthened with internal bracing, and decorated with inlays and purfling.
The body of an classical guitar is a resonating chamber which projects the vibrations of the body through a sound hole, allowing the acoustic guitar to be heard without amplification. The sound hole is normally a round hole in the top of the guitar (under the strings), though some may have different placement, shapes or multiple holes.
As an instrument's maximum volume is determined by how much air it can move.
Binding, Purfling, and Kerfing
The top, back and rim of a classical guitar body are very thin (1-2 mm), so a flexible piece of wood called kerfing (because it is often scored, or kerfed to allow it to bend with the shape of the rim) is glued into the corners where the rim meets the top and back. This interior reinforcement provides 5 to 20 mm or solid gluing area for these corner joints.During final construction, a small section of the outside corners is carved or routed out and then filled binding material on the oustide corners and decorative strips of material next to the binding, which are called purfling. This binding serves to seal off the endgrain of the top and back. Binding and purfling materials are generally made of either wood or high quality plastic materials.
Bridge
The main purpose of the bridge on a classical guitar is to transfer the vibration from the strings to the soundboard, which vibrates the air inside of the guitar, thereby amplifying the sound produced by the strings. The bridge holds the strings in place on the body.Tuning
A variety of different tunings is used. The most common by far, known as "standard tuning" (EADGBE), is as follows:
- sixth (lowest tone) string: E (a minor thirteenth below middle C—82.4 Hz)
- fifth string: A (a minor tenth below middle C—110 Hz)
- fourth string: D (a minor seventh below middle C—146.8 Hz)
- third string: G (a perfect fourth below middle C—196.0 Hz)
- second string: B (a minor second below middle C—246.92 Hz)
- first (highest tone) string: E (a major third above middle C—329.6 Hz)
Bibliography
See also Classical guitar bibliography- Wade, Graham, Traditions of the Classical Guitar, London : Calder, 1980.
External links
- [link] The classical guitar museum, collection of fine classical and flamenco guitars.
- [link] "A guide to nylon-strings guitars" by Stephen Dick and Dan Zeff on Acousticguitar.com.
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