Vihuela in the context of "Guitar"

The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appeared in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted played with a quill plectrum, as can be seen clearly beginning in manuscript illuminations from the thirteenth century. It was also called the guiterna in Spain, guiterne or guiterre in France, the chitarra in Italy and Quintern in Germany. A popular instrument with court musicians, minstrels, and amateurs, the gittern is considered an ancestor of the modern guitar and other instruments like the mandore, bandurria and gallichon.

From the early 16th century, a vihuela-shaped (flat-backed) guitarra began to appear in Spain, and later in France, existing alongside the gittern. Although the round-backed instrument appears to have lost ground to the new form which gradually developed into the guitar familiar today, the influence of the earlier style continued. Examples of lutes converted into guitars exist in several museums, while purpose-built instruments like the gallichon utilised the tuning and single string configuration of the modern guitar. A tradition of building round-backed guitars in Germany continued to the 20th century with names like Gittar-Laute and Wandervogellaute.

The evolution of classical guitars began with the influences of the gittern and vihuela in the 16th century and ended with the modern classical guitar in the mid-19th century.

Romanesca is a melodic-harmonic formula popular from the mid–16th to early–17th centuries that was used as an aria formula for singing poetry and as a subject for instrumental variation. The pattern, which is found in an endless collection of compositions labeled romanesca, perhaps from northern-central Italy, is a descending descant formula within a chordal progression that has a bass which moves by 4ths. The formula was not to be viewed as a fixed tune, but as a framework over which elaborate ornamentation can occur. It was most popular with Italian and Spanish composers of the Renaissance and early Baroque period. It was also used by vihuelistas including Luis de Narváez, Alonso Mudarra, Enríquez de Valderrábano, and Diego Pisador.

The classical guitar, also known as a Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. As an acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the modern steel-string acoustic and electric guitars, both of which use metal strings. Classical guitars derive from instruments such as the lute, the vihuela, the gittern (the name being a derivative of the Greek "kithara"), which evolved into the Renaissance guitar and into the 17th and 18th-century baroque guitar. Today's modern classical guitar was established by the late designs of a 19th-century Spanish luthier, Antonio Torres Jurado.

For a right-handed player, the traditional classical guitar has 12 frets that are clear of the body and is properly held up by the left leg, so that the hand that plucks or strums the strings does so near the back of the sound hole. This is called the classical, or sul ponticello, position. However, the right hand may move to the sul tasto position, closer to the fretboard, to achieve a different tonal quality. To position the classical guitar correctly, the player's left leg is typically raised on a foot rest. The modern steel string guitar, on the other hand, usually has at least 14 frets clear of the body (see Dreadnought) and is commonly held with a strap around the neck and shoulder.