Us Classical guitarists know that you don't have to be a Flamenco guitarist to play melody and rhythm at the same time. Just a little Villa-Lobos will change your thinking for ever about the subject. Sure the guitar is tempermental, but it's better by a long shot than a piano in my book. I've had so much trouble with midis and such, because they're all based on the piano, and incapable of strumming. Also guitar chords are set up better than how they are played on the piano. A friend of mine, after hearing me talk about how much I love major seventh chords, play one on the piano. She said it sounded really dissonant, but when I played it on the guitar, it all made sense. Also, the guitar is responsible for many musical firsts, e.g the first anthology of music for for guitar, the first method for instrument playing was for the guitar, the first music with dynamics written in the score was for guitar. I could go on and on. Why did the guitar lose it's huge popularity? Because somebody had to go and invent the piano, and everyone was so interested in that, everyone forgot about guitar. Now we can't even play in orchestras because we're not loud enough. Sorry, the guitar, both Classical and folk, have been a major part of my life for the past six years. LONG LIVE THE GUITAR! Even after a nuclear holocaust, I bet the guitar would be the only instrument not to perish!

--Mbo