An Early History of the Seven String Guitar

Guitars have been in constant flux ever since their first predecessors were created some 2,500 years ago. It was in the 1600s that the guitar in Spain started to look more like its modern version, but guitars were still subject of experimentation between the 17th and 18th century.

“The seventeenth century was a period during which the guitar went through any number of structural changes”

-Bellow

By the 1800s, six string guitars had been established as the norm, but seven-string, or heptachords, and other extended-range guitars were still around in the hands of luthiers and guitar players. In its early forms, additional strings in seven-string and other extended range guitars were not fretted, but attached to the side of the neck. These guitars are often referred to as harp guitars

The additional strings in these guitars were plucked only as open strings, as seen in the composition “La Zuyderzee” by French composer Napoleon Coste. Tunings for the additional string varied. In “La Zuyderzee” for example, the extra string is a low D. Several sources, including the Doisy method of 1801, speak of guitars and lyre guitars with up to 9 courses on the fingerboard, some single strung, some double and some even triple. The Russian guitar, which was a fretted seven string, was also popular early in the 18th century, and it is likely that it is closely related to its cousins in classical European music.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic ocean, the violão de sete cordas was gaining relevance in choro music in Brazil. The seven string’s origin in Brazil is enigmatic.

“Well, there are two hypotheses. One says that when Pixinguinha’s group, Os oito batutas, went to France for a very important gig around 1920, they saw a seven-string guitar and brought it from there back to Brazil. And there is the other theory, which says that groups of gypsies visiting Brazil from Russia or the Ukraine brought the instrument.”

-Euclides Marques

In choro music, the approach to the seven string developed slowly as bass lines became increasingly elaborate. They would be approached in a scalar movement and define important chord tones. Dino 7 Cordas was a choro guitar player who helped popularize the sete cordas guitar. Here you can see and hear Dino and experience how counterpoint was used and enriched by the seven-string guitar: