ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the ways in which musicians engage physically with the guitar and the means by which they organize their movements around it and upon it. It aims fleshing-out of the sensual world of the guitar, providing an exploration of the ways in which we use our senses to engage with the instrument and how we are able to move around upon it. Guitar performance, like other instrumental performance, happens in certain places at certain times as dictated by consensus or convention. In his report of nine-year-old Sharon Isbin's first introduction to the guitar, John von Rhien notes that 'The resonance of the guitar, the sensual contact of fingers against the strings — everything about the instrument appealed to her at once'. The diagrams in Sor's Method for the Spanish Guitar lead the author to suggest that Sor also draws attention to links between culture and cognition in guitar playing.
