Guitar strings may be plucked individually with a pick (plectrum) or fingertip, or strummed to play chords.

[4] Modern guitar-shaped instruments were not seen until the Renaissance era, when the body and size began to take a guitar-like shape.

The earliest string instruments related to the guitar and its structure were broadly known as vihuelas within Spanish musical culture.

Fernando Ferandiere's[6] book Arte de tocar la Guitarra Española por Música (Madrid, 1799) describes the standard Spanish guitar from his time as an instrument with seventeen frets and six courses with the first two 'gut' strings tuned in unison called the terceras and the tuning named to 'G' of the two strings.

Torres' design greatly improved the volume, tone, and projection of the instrument, and it has remained essentially unchanged since.

[9] No amplification occurs in this process, because musicians add no external energy to increase the loudness of the sound (as would be the case with an electronic amplifier).

The soundboard increases the surface of the vibrating area in a process called mechanical impedance matching.

holes, like a violin family instrument (a trait found in some electric guitars such as the ES-335 and ES-175 models from Gibson).

The guitar—as an acoustic system—colors the sound by the way it generates and emphasizes harmonics, and how it couples this energy to the surrounding air (which ultimately is what we perceive as loudness).

Solid body electric guitars (with no soundboard at all) produce very low volume, but tend to have long sustain.

All these complex air coupling interactions, and the resonant properties of the panels themselves, are a key reason that different guitars have different tonal qualities.

Classical gut-string guitars lacked adequate projection, and were unable to displace banjos until innovations introduced helped to increase their volume.

These innovations allowed guitars to compete with and often displace the banjos that had previously dominated jazz bands.

In the 1960s, Ovation's parabolic bowls dramatically reduced feedback, allowing greater amplification of acoustic guitars.

[14] In the 1970s, Ovation developed thinner sound-boards with carbon-based composites laminating a thin layer of birch, in its Adamas model, which has been viewed as one of the most radical designs in the history of acoustic guitars.

Piezo pickups are generally mounted under the bridge saddle of the acoustic guitar and can be plugged into a mixer or amplifier.

Grand Concert – This mid-sized body shape is not as deep as other full-size guitars, but has a full waist.

Because of the smaller body, grand concert guitars have a more controlled overtone and are often used for their sound projection when recording.

It was designed by Gibson to compete with the dreadnought, but with maximum resonant space for greater volume and sustain.

Guitarists can also alternate patterns or emphasize strums on specific beats to add rhythm, character, and unique style to a song.

Guitarists use their thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers, which are notated as "p" (as in pulgar), "i" (as in indice), "m" (as in medio), and "a" (as in annular), respectively, based on the Spanish language.

[21] When strings are plucked downward, this technique produces a clear and articulate sound that adds movement and melody to a song.

[22] An example of a song featuring the fingerstyle technique is "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac, where you hear plucked moving notes rather than full strums.