Russian guitar
A seven-string Russian guitar
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| String instrument | |
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| Classification | Plucked string instrument |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 321.321 (Composite chordophone) |
| Playing range | |
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| Related instruments | |
| classical guitar, 6 string guitar | |
The Russian guitar (sometimes referred to as a "Gypsy guitar") is an acoustic seven-string guitar that was developed in Russia toward the end of the 18th century: it shares most of its organological features with the Spanish guitar. It is known in Russian as the semistrunnaya gitara (семиструнная гитара), or affectionately as the semistrunka (семиструнка), which translates to "seven-stringer." These guitars are most commonly tuned to an Open G chord as follows: D2 G2 B2 D3 G3 B3 D4. In classical literature, the lowest string (D) occasionally is tuned down to the C.
Although in a number of sources the invention of the Russian guitar is attributed to Andrei Sychra (1773–1850), there are strong reasons to believe that the instrument was already in use when Sychra began his career. It is true that Sychra was very influential in creating the school of Russian guitar playing. He left over a thousand compositions, seventy-five of which were republished in the 1840s by Stellovsky, and then again in the 1880s by Gutheil. Some of these were published yet again in the Soviet Union in 1926.
The Russian version of the seven-string guitar has been used by professionals because of its great flexibility, but has also been popular with amateurs for accompaniment (especially Russian bards) due to the relative simplicity of some basic chords and the ease of playing alternating bass lines.
Construction of the Russian is very similar to that of the western 6-string guitar except for the additional string. The same basic components are present: headstock; nut; tuners; neck; fingerboard; frets; inlays; truss rod (in modern instruments); heel; body; bridge & bridge saddle; soundboard (top); sound hole and rosette; back; sides; strings. Woods used and internal bracing layouts are also similar.
There are two basic types of Russian guitar: the "classical" model and the "gypsy" model. The classical model closely resembles the western 6-string classical guitar, and has nylon or gut strings. The gypsy model is steel strung, and resembles the western 6-string steel-string acoustic guitar, although more size and shape variations are found among gypsy guitars.
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Wikipedia