One of The World's Oldest Guitars

Submitted by ub on

The guitar is an ancient and noble instrument, whose history can be traced back over 4000 years. Many theories have been advanced about the instrument's ancestry. It has often been claimed that the guitar is a development of the lute, or even of the ancient Greek kithara. Research done in the 1960s showed these claims to be without merit. It indicated that the lute is a result of a separate line of development, sharing common ancestors with the guitar, but having had no influence on its evolution. The influence in the opposite direction is undeniable, however - the guitar's immediate forefathers were a major influence on the development of the fretted lute from the fretless oud which the Moors brought with them to Spain.

In China, GuZheng was developed nearly 3 thousand years ago. Maestro Yirong Chen Soto plays this 2,600+-year-old Chinese instrument, GuZheng, one of the world's oldest guitars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAIc7_hre3k