Guitar is one of the most influential instruments in today's culture. Besides for piano, the acoustic guitar is among the most popular instruments today and many musicians it Many people can recognize the image and sound of the acoustic guitar, but a few people know its true history. Stringed instruments date back far in time, as far back as the ancient Egyptians. The guitar slowly attained its well-known shape over years 5,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians drew pictures of stringed instruments over a bowl and stretched down a plank of wood. It didn't look like a guitar, but was the foundation for the modern guitar. Several other ancient civilizations created similar instruments, including the lute and the vihuela. These instruments went from having 4 courses of strings, to five. A course of strings is two strings paired together that have the same note but in different octaves, and is meant to be played at the same time. The lute is where the ideas of a guitar truly began to form. The oud was an instrument that was popular in Northeast Africa by the Moors. The Moors brought it to Spain and developed into another popular instrument called the lute. Ukeleles were inspired from the lute. The first guitars were very small and Each pair of strings was called a course. While the lute was still very popular in the 16th century, because of the the popularity of faster, more complex music, Spanish people had to make the lute better. They called it the 'guitarra' it still had 4 strings. The earliest known music for the four-course "chitarra" was written in Spain. This is significant because the guitar was not considered a 'serious' instrument, until the guitarra.
By the 17th century, the guitar had 5 strings. It is also known as the Baroque guitar. It isn't as popular as the vihuela, but it looked like the modern day guitar. Italians first made the 5 course guitar. Even more music became available.
