Classical Guitar - Flamenco Guitar - What's the Difference?

There is some confusion amongst music lovers and guitar players about the difference between classical and flamenco guitars. To the untrained eye they look similar to each other and to any "folk" guitar you will see in your local music store.

Classical guitars were developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries specifically to play classical music on. Flamenco guitars were developed a little earlier than classical guitars to accompany flamenco singers and dancers.

Classical guitars and flamenco guitars are both six string guitars that are fitted with nylon strings. They are both descended from the same line of stringed instruments but they have different sounds and different "actions" - the way they feel when you play them.

The most obvious difference to anybody looking at a classical and a flamenco guitar standing side-by-side is that the flamenco guitar is fitted with a tapping plate, or golpeador. This is a piece of thin plastic stuck to the body of the guitar just below the sound hole. Flamenco guitar music was originally developed as the accompaniment to flamenco singing and dancing and part of that accompaniment consists of the guitarist tapping on the body of the guitar, either between strumming strokes with the index finger of the right hand or in unison with rest strokes with the thumb.

Another difference between classical and flamenco guitars which has been gradually phased out over the past thirty or forty years is the use by flamenco guitar makers of wooden tuning pegs. These pegs are much lighter than the machine heads found on other guitars, which was very helpful for guitar players who held their guitars in the traditional flamenco position which meant the guitar rested on the guitarist's right thigh and the left hand supported the neck.

The flamenco way of holding the guitar was abandoned in the nineteen sixties and seventies when the "new wave" flamenco guitarists adopted a position where the guitar player sits with legs crossed, with the guitar resting on the left and right thighs.

Classical and flamenco guitars are made of two different types of wood to give each kind of guitar its distinctive sound. Classical guitars have a deep, sonorous tone and are usually made from cedar or spruce and rosewood. Flamenco guitars have a drier, thinner sound and are usually made from spruce and maple or sycamore. In recent decades, though the flamenco guitar players have experimented with a more classical sound.

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