Stewart McCoy wrote: >Dear Ed, > >If you have seven courses spread over an 8-course lute, the strings >would be slightly further apart than they would be with eight >courses. Does this help explain why you have difficulty with that E >flat chord? In other words, does the difficulty arise from wide >string spacing rather than how wide the end of your fingers are? >Just a thought.
I think that explains part of it. However, my A lute is small and it still isn't easy for me. The finger has to be placed very precisely to cover all four strings over two courses. I am not keen on duff notes. If I can't play it cleanly, getting both strings in both courses to sound cleanly, I'd rather look for a different solution. Of course my attitude might change if it were for a more rustic style of music. It is also something I've never practiced, so it is within the realm of possibility that I could develop the precision necessary. I don't know. About my lute, I arrived at the bridge spacing after consultations with Pat Obrien and Grant Tomlinson. I was just getting too many rattles with the old spacing. I don't have enough self restraint to not overplay, I guess. The bridge spacing is fine now, but I spaced the 7 courses at the nut end evenly over the span that was for 8. Paul Odette played my lute recently and I asked him what he thought about the spacing. He thought the bridge was nice but the nut was a bit wide. It's the same dilemma on lute as on guitar: narrow spacing is great for single line work but chords benefit from wider spacing so that the fingers don't touch adjacent strings. To answer Bill's query in a little more detail: I ordered an 8 course, as so many of us do, for my main Renaissance lute because it is kind of a standard. I think that is a kind of modern convention. When you look at the literature, the percentage of music written specifically for 8 course is much smaller than that for 7 course. In my repertoire, it turns out that most instrumentals are for a 7th F and most songs are for a 7th D. I just have to plan my sets so that I group them by 7th course pitch. It doesn't take long to retune, but it is best to retune, play a piece that only requires 6 courses and then go for the 7 course piece in the new tuning. That gives it a few minutes to settle and a quick readjustment is all that is needed. However, I can't tell you how many times I've started performing a piece and then realize that I've forgotten to retune just as I hit that first 7th course note! That's the downside. It IS easier to just worry about one 'extra' course outside of the 6 main courses though. That's the upside. cheers, -- Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
