> As I was deleting another repetitive pain in the ass flame post in the ongoing > battle between the > greedy billionaire lute publishers and the brave Trotskyist proletariat > struggling to free the > world's tablature I think I noticed an estimate of about 4000 lute players > worldwide. Is this a > reasonable estimate? No. I estimated a maximum of 3000.
> Would these range from serious players to people with a > lute in the attic they > haven't touched in 15 years? Include guitarists who tune their g string down a > half step? Include the > pipa and oud? Those people with a Lute Olsen signed basketball? No. It is based on membership lists of lute societies and Google sightings of unaffiliated players, with an added roach assumption that there is 1 more invisible lutenist to 2 already visibles. Also numbers of lute teachers and luthiers are taken into account. The number is expected to grow because several schools put out lutenists at a steady rate. RT ______________ Roman M. Turovsky http://turovsky.org http://polyhymnion.org
