Corbetta was perhaps the most influential guitarist of his day. As teacher of the young Louis XIV he was largely responsible for establishing the Spanish guitar in France, and later, in London, where he taught Charles II and sparked off a guitar mania. Perhaps his pupil, and his successor at the French court, Robert de Visée was born and died in France. He and Corbetta were regarded as the two greatest guitarists of their time.

Corbetta in particular was a master of special effects and his music lent itself to the depiction of battles, and to feats of great harmonic and instrumental daring. De Visée, who favoured the larger theorbo and the guitar, generally cultivated the use of sustained and interweaving melodic lines. Although his duos were derived from solo pieces, the two instruments converse throughout on equal terms.