It doesn’t matter whether you call the Spanish guitar the Spanish guitar, the classical guitar, or you have your own name for it. All that is important is that you don’t confuse the Spanish guitar with the flamenco guitar, as you could be in trouble if you do! While most people recognise the iconic sound of the Spanish guitar and might even know some Spanish guitar songs, they probably haven’t heard of the most famous Spanish guitar players.

Here are the top five.

Paco de Lucia

Paco de Lucia is known for his flamenco playing and being a pioneer of the new flamenco style, but he is also one of the best Spanish guitar players to ever live. De Lucia is well known around the world as he is one of the few Spanish guitarists to enjoy mainstream success, with praise coming from the likes of guitar legend Eric Clapton and Dennis Koster, who has called him one of the greatest guitarists ever, in any genre.

Now in his 60’s, de Lucia is still hugely popular in Spain and in Latin American countries, and continues to record and perform live.

Paco Pena

Paca Pena doesn’t perform as often as he used to, which is understandable for a man into his eighth decade, but he still stands on a pedestal alongside de Lucia as one of the very best Spanish guitar players ever. He hasn’t enjoyed the mainstream success, exposure, or praise that de Lucia has, but that takes nothing away from his ability. Pena made it big in the 1960s when he decided he was no longer going to be an accompaniment for flamenco singing and dancing, but a successful artist on his own.

Vicente Amigo

Vicente Amigo is famous for his fearless approach to experimentation with music. While he is predominantly a successful Spanish and flamenco guitar player, he often collaborates with other artists from a variety of genres within the music spectrum. He is also a Latin Grammy award winning guitarist.

Juan Martin

Juan Martin is famous for his music across Spain, but for guitar students around the world who are looking to bring as many styles as possible into their repertoire he is probably better known as an author of a number of method books. Martin had a UK Top 10 hit in 1984 with “Love Theme from The Thom Birds.”

Jose Luis Encinas

Famous for playing guitar from the age of 13 and being seemingly brilliant at it from day one, Jose Luis Encinas isn’t as busy as at the height of his popularity during the mid-2000s, but his records still sell in large quantities and he remains one of the leading Spanish guitar players of all time.

Image Authors: montuno, Harold Kuiper