ABSTRACT
The new guitarscape is of course, heavily reliant on teaching and learning practices to sustain and disseminate practical knowledge of the guitar. Any discussion of the new guitarscape must include not only the ways in which the guitar travels around the world but also, quite literally, the ways in which it is held in place by those who design it, make it, play it, touch it, feel it, photograph it, paint it, varnish it, polish it, and so on. A historiography of musical instruments — from Curt Sachs in 1942 to Margaret Kartomi in 1990 — tends to reveal and insist that a broader perspective be adopted in any attempt to understand their raison d'etre. A growing field of studies draws attention to the relationship between music, technology and culture as found in societies around the world. Harvey Turnbull's The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day remains the significant publications on the historical development of the guitar.
