Hello New boy, RT has given you the answers, but as usual they are rather cryptic. Having played guitar for over 55 years now, and the lute for about a year and a half, I may be able to help on your questions.
Firstly unless you are you are incredibly talented you aren't a guitar player yet (in 9 months). The guitar, unlike the lute family, is a standardized instrument. But guitar music is far from standardized. Modern guitar, as used in Rock and much of folk and jazz, is a chorded instrument. One can strum the full six strings (although my play over the years has been the "finger pickin' " folk accompanyment. But there is also the older and more traditional Spanish and Classical. (Lute list, please forgive me for the simplification). You don't say how you are using your guitar. I have to assume that you are using it for modern styles of chording rather than the more careful playing of the individual strings as in the Classical guitar. The lute is more difficult than a "strummed guitar", but not more difficult than a well played one. I'll go to your specific questions (which RT has properly answered). > Questions: > > Why are frets made with 'gut' on a lute? Does this mean they wear out, if so > how do you fix them yourself or do you need to be a professional? I assume that you are referring to the contrast between the fixed metal frets of the guitar and the tied frets of the lute, whether they are gut or nylon. The lute is a traditional instrument dating back to before the days of a fixed "equal temperament" and so the ability to slightly move the tied frets allows one to use a different tempering of the scale so as to better match the sound of historic times. If your musicology is not sufficient to understand this please ask me directly. BTW, metal frets (aside from being fixed) do ruin the sound. > > Do you use gut string with lutes? Will nylon ruin the sound? You can use gut, nylon or Nylgut. The sound and the feel is a bit different between them, but none will "ruin" the sound except for the particular ear that prefers gut. > > How bad are the old-style tuners? I heard they go out of tune a lot. Is this > true, if so does it ruin the whole thing? Old style? Like on a violin? As RT says a well shaped peg is quite satisfactory (and aesthetically pleasing). > > If you get anything other than a 6 course lute, will it ruin your guitar > playing? Or not? I still want to play guitar There is no relationship between the 6 courses of a lute and those of a guitar. One doesn't strum full chords on a lute, although there is chording. (And for the Spanish and Classical guitarists on the list I'm referring to the "common" guitar of today, not your machine). Other than the skills with the fingers the practice and technique is quite different. I am trying to break folk guitar habits in learning the lute. > > Is a 6 course easier to play than 7-8 course? Or not? RT said it, a 13 course is easier - but as is typical of him (with all due respect RT) he left it cryptic. The lute is a 6 course instrument in a sense. The courses below that are tuned a tone or a half tone off the string above them and are normally played open. If I want to play a piece written for 10 course lute on my 7 course I have to down tune the 7th course and recast the tab to finger the notes in between on that 7th course. So, in a sense, the more strings below the 6th course the easier to play pieces that use the lower harmonies. > > How much more difficult is it to play a lute versus a guitar? They are the same, as are all instruments. It depends on what you want to play. The early lute was a melody instrument played with a pick (sorry purists, a quill plectrum - and you might not call that a "lute"). But as music developed the play of the lute changed and became polyphonic. A chorded guitar is more difficult than a "single string" lute, but a lute played as in the late medieval and from then one is harder than a "strummed guitar". I play penny whistle, it is an easy instrument to play slowly in ballad form, but an extremely difficult one to play as a virtuoso. A beginner can make credible music on a guitar, or on a lute, but the music written for lute is a bit more demanding of accuracy than the guitar when it is used for accompanyment. Best, Jon (PS, comment solicited from the list - I just pontificated without half the knowledge of any of you). To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
