Guitarra Portuguesa

The guitarra portuguesa is not a guitar in the Spanish sense. It is pear-shaped, with six courses of doubled steel strings - twelve in all - tuned by a fan-shaped mechanical peg assembly called the leque, and it is played with fingerpicks in a style that runs constant ornamented countermelody around the singer rather than chording behind them. It descends from the European cittern rather than from the guitar family. Two forms exist: the Lisbon model, smaller and brighter, and the Coimbra model, larger, deeper, with a scroll head, used in the academic fado tradition. In performance it is paired with a viola, the classical guitar that carries the bass and rhythm. A small number of luthiers in both cities build them by hand, a trade of perhaps a dozen people nationally, and the Museu do Fado in Alfama covers the instrument and the music together.

What you actually see

• The instrument - a pear-shaped body with twelve strings and a fan-shaped tuner.
• The two models - Lisbon smaller and brighter, Coimbra larger with a scroll head.
• The playing - constant ornamented countermelody rather than chordal accompaniment.
• The luthiers - perhaps a dozen makers nationally, building by hand.

When to go

Year-round. Fado houses run nightly in Lisbon; Coimbra's academic fado is heard at venues and during the May Queima. Luthier visits need arranging.

Honest expectations

Many Lisbon fado venues aimed at tourists charge heavily for a set meal with a short performance - the better places are smaller and later. Luthiers are working craftspeople, not open workshops. Instruments are expensive and take months to build.

Nearby

The Museu do Fado is in Alfama; Coimbra's fado venues are in the upper town.