Thanks Daniel, I do come to the lute from the guitar, though with a hiatus of 6 or 7 years in between, so I am not finding the learning curve too steep, even though I was not a particularly accomplished guitar player. Fortunately I'm a freelancer who works from home and so have a lot of time to practice, I've been averaging a couple hours or so a day (great for my playing, not so much for my work). I did find the 8-course I played a little awkward, but I only played it for briefly so didn't have much of a chance to get used to it. But I as I have been exploring the entire lute repertoire through CDs, I have really fallen in love with the early Renaissance music, as well as Dowland and some of the Elizabethan stuff which was what had first attracted me to the lute. A 7 course seems like a good compromise to play all this (I considered also and 8c or even a 6c to start, but perhaps it's best to split the difference and go with 7?). Besides, I'm only 28 and hope to have many lute-playing year! s ahead of me, and it seems I am already quite infected with this malady, so to speak, so I'm sure this won't be the last lute I buy.
Best, Joshua On May 2, 2012, at 6:06 PM, Daniel Winheld wrote: > Your post explains why the 8 course lute was developed, or as I like to call > it, the "Double 7" . I have never found a string material of any sort that > would stand up to a scordatura range exceeding a whole tone. Even going for a > compromise tension (say an ideal E/E-flat) would still be unsatisfactory for > me, but you could try tweaking that one. Some strange remedies to this > conundrum have been attempted- including a mechanical kind of hook through > the neck to pull down the low D at the 3rd fret. Only on some old, heavily > built compromise lutes. > > As a beginner, I would suggest having a 7th course dedicated to F. Unless you > come to the lute with say, an advanced guitar left hand it will take a > considerable amount of time & practice before you are able to fluently finger > a 7th course- much 6 course music is already as difficult as it gets in lute > land anyway. Many beginners find 8 courses confusing, and besides, the > historic 8 course lute was a somewhat short lived version on the > end-of-the-Renaissance lute's march to the 10 course version & beyond. When > you achieve left hand mastery, switching out the low F to a low D will make > for a 7th course that is more accessible anyway, (and a very widespread > historic set-up) and not having to jump over a low F. Some players will > reverse the 2 courses on an 8 course lute for this purpose. > > But, again, for many of us, the 8 course lute just solves more problems than > it creates. If I had my druthers and more money, space, and time than I > deserve I would own both 7 course and 9 course lutes (miss that low C in > some favorite Holborne & R. Johnson pieces) for covering just the late > Renaissance, Elizabethan/post Elizabethan repertoire. > > Good luck with this one. We have dealt with this one before on the list. > > Dan > On May 2, 2012, at 8:39 AM, Joshua Burkholder wrote: > >> Dear lute-listers, >> >> A question from a beginner: >> >> First to introduce myself, my name is Joshua and I've been playing the lute >> for several months now; I have been on the list for a couple weeks and am >> really enjoying following your discussions. I have a rental 7-course and I >> am now in the process of taking the plunge and buying a lute of my own. >> After much reading, pondering and agonizing over the best number of courses >> to start with, I've come to the conclusion that a 7-course best suits my >> needs. So onto to my question: >> >> I know that some people re-tune the 7th course from D to F as needed, but on >> my rental lute this seems quite impossible. The diapason is stung to F and >> if I drop it down to D it becomes far too wobbly and flabby. From this I >> assume that if I were to restring it to D, which I'd prefer on the whole, it >> would likewise be impossible to raise it to F. Currently the lute is strung >> with Pyramid strings so the basses are metal wound. Is it only possible to >> change from D to F on the same string if one uses gut strings (Poulton >> remarks to this effect in her tutor that if it's strung to be tuned at D "it >> will only be possible to raise it to F if gut strings are used")? Otherwise >> I have to re-string? Or does someone use some other stringing solution, >> besides just keeping it D and fingering the third fret for F (or buying an >> 8-course lute...)? I've read enough about stringing lutes to understand that >> it will be a while before I understand anything about stringing lutes... >> >> Thank you for taking the time to help out a newcomer. >> >> Best wishes, >> >> Joshua >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > >
