The most common musical formation 30 years ago in this part of Spain was the “rondalla”, a group of players using bandurrias, laudes and guitars. The guitar was of course the rythmic accompaniment and the smallest (bandurria) was the the solo voice. Dances, parties and any social event would see at the very least a group of three players and in the case of a concert there might be as many as fifty. The larger groups often had a few bass guitars too. Today, choirs, orchestras and marching bands have become more common but you can still see groups, recordings and even festivals dedicated to the spanish string trio.

The relationship between these three instruments was a very important one also for the guitar-maker. Years ago everyone started out building all three instruments but today very few makers build fine bandurrias and laudes.  Very few musicians are looking for a bandurria that costs in the thousands of Euros.

The book that I talk so much about tells the story of Benito Ferrer who played the bandurria for dances and how that led him to starting a workshop which in a way resulted in the consolidation of the Granada School of Guitar-making.

The trade has changed in many ways over the years and this is just one of the things that has been lost in the specialization.  The older guitar-makers here in Granada are fond of telling us how a guitar-maker must know how to choose a standing tree, fell it, cut it up to dry, maximize the number of sets and then store them for seasoning.  Of course these days very few have that luxury or knowledge.  One of the reasons for the excellent tradition in Granada is that almost all of the makers who started in the 70s or earlier came from wood-working trades, specifically cabinet-making.