Biblioteca de la Guitarra y Cuerda Pulsada

Viola caipira, viola sertaneja, viola de dez cordas, viola cabocla, viola de arame, viola nordestina, viola de repente, viola brasileiraare some of the names we find to describe this instrument that has gradually become one of the voices of Brazil’s backlands.
Despite all these very typical attributes that reinforce its ‘Brazilianness’ character, the viola is in fact an instrument of Portuguese origin, and so old that its sounds are lost in time. Looking at the acoustic guitar, an instrument of the same family and ancestry as the plucked string instruments enables us to establish some parameters that will show us what this viola we are talking about actually is. The guitar has six strings, the viola usually has ten, often grouped into pairs,but the number of strings can vary from five to fifteen in a single instrument. The guitar, as we know, dates back about 250 years; the ancestor of the viola, in turn, is close to eight hundred years old.
Although it refers to the rural world, the viola has an urban past, both in Portugal and in Brazil Despite all these very typical attributes that reinforce its ‘Brazilianness’ character, the viola is in fact an instrument of Portuguese origin, and so old that its sounds are lost in time. Looking at the acoustic guitar, an instrument of the same family and ancestry as the plucked string instruments enables us to establish some parameters that will show us what this viola we are talking about actually is. The guitar has six strings, the viola usually has ten, often grouped into pairs, but the number of strings can vary from five to fifteen in a single instrument. The guitar, as we know, dates back about 250 years; the ancestor of the viola, in turn, is close to eight hundred years old. Although it refers to the rural world, the viola has an urban past, both in Portugal and in Brazil.

The singing guitar, yo