GUITAR LESSONS

Early versions of the guitar called the “oud” and the “lute” both predate written history, and depictions of these instruments have been found from as far back as 3500 BCE. A brief overview of the facts:

• These instruments spread through ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, and they manifested themselves in Ancient Greece as the kithara. 
• The word “guitar” comes from the Greek word “kithara,” in fact.
• The Greek god of music, Apollo, was frequently depicted playing a guitar-like instrument, but credit for inventing the first guitar typically goes to his half-brother, Hermes, who made a kithara by pulling strings over a tortoise shell. 
• Guitars have maintained this basic design for thousands of years. 
• These ancient guitars featured a box-shaped body that worked as a resonator, a hollow arm extending from the resonator, and several strings for making music. 
• The Greeks brought kitharas to the Romans, who eventually brought them to Europe, and around the same time, the Moors brought the oud to southern Spain. 
• Musicians refined these instruments over the years by adding strings, changing the shape of the resonator, experimenting with different materials and adding moveable frets. 

Modern-day guitars take advantage of these design elements in different ways, and lovers of this stringed instrument can now choose from classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass guitars, steel guitars, and more. They can also pick up cousins of this instrument, such as banjos and ukuleles.