Guyún was an important guitarist, harmonist and teacher, who tapped into classical guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 techniques to revive the accompaniment of the trova

Trova

Trova is one of the great roots of the Cuban music tree. In the 19th century a group of itinerant musicians known as trovadores moved around Oriente, especially Santiago de Cuba, earning their living by singing and playing the guitar...

. He achieved the finest transcriptions for guitar.

Guyún originally came to Havana to study medicine, but finding the university shut under Gerardo Machado

Gerardo Machado

Gerardo Machado y Morales was President of Cuba and a general of the Cuban War of Independence...

, he started playing the guitar to earn a living. He started studying guitar under Sindo Garay

Sindo Garay

Sindo Garay was born Antonio Gumersindo Garay Garcia . He was the first, the smallest, and perhaps the longest-lived, of the trova artists taught by Pepe Sánchez. Garay was one of the four greats of the trova. Sindo Garay was Spanish & Arawkan descendant...

, and later understudied Severino Lopez, who had an excellent classical training in the Tárrega

Francisco Tárrega

Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea was an influential Spanish composer and guitarist of the Romantic period.-Biography:Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Vila-real, Castelló, Spain...

–Pujol

Emilio Pujol

Emili Pujol Vilarrubí was a composer and the leading twentieth century musicologist and classical guitar teacher.- Biography :...

 tradition in Spain. Guyún developed a modern concept of harmony, and a way to apply classical technique to popular Cuban music. He became more adventurous, yet still in Cuban vein, and in 1938 stopped performing to devote himself to teaching the guitar. This bore fruit, and two generations of Cuban guitarists bear witness to his influence. He wrote a valuable book, La guitarra: su técnica y armonía, and two unpublished works: Diccionario de acordes and Un nuevo panorama de la modulación y su técnica. He was highly praised by Andrés Segovia

Andrés Segovia

Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain...

, on a visit to Cuba, and held various teaching posts. One of his students was the great tresero El Niño Rivera (Andrés Echevarría).