thank you stewart. this arose from looking at roman's posting of eric's very thoughtful, very generous tab site for medieval lute - i couldn't remember how it was tuned. while looking through various sites trying to get an answer, i began to wonder how all these variations came about.
i've found only one "official" variation for the GG-CC-eE-aa-ee tuning of a charango: DD-GG-Bb-ee-bb. i'm currently playing mine with a double course timple tuning from the canary islands: GG-CC-eE-aa-dd. not too difficult to adapt to; not so stridently "south american" in its sound, but again ... how did it evolve? ... and from what? - bill --- Stewart McCoy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear Bill, > > You are right to say that there are many different > tunings for the > guitar, but stringing an instrument with different > tunings is not a > new idea. > > Lutes also had different tunings, as far back as > Dalza in 1508, but > particularly in the first part of the 17th century. > I don't know off > the back of my head how many different lute tunings > there were > altogether, but there were certainly quite a few. > > The mandora had many different tunings in the 18th > century. I seem > to remember there were about 40 different mandora > tunings, but I'd > need to check. > > What I don't need to check is that there were over > 50 different > tunings for the lyra viol in 17th-century England. > The lyra viol is > another 6-string instrument. > > Biber used several different tunings for the violin. > > I could mention quite a few different tunings for > the 5-string > banjo. > > No doubt there are other instruments too - who > knows? - maybe even > the charango. :-) > > Best wishes, > > Stewart McCoy. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "bill kilpatrick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 4:25 PM > Subject: tuning variation > > > > there's a huge variety of tunings for the guitar. > > given that the renaissance lute also has 6 > strings, > > why do you suppose there isn't such a variety for > it? > > > > some tunings are more versatile while others have > a > > particular effect. given the "do-re-mi-etc." > > progression as a basis for melody, how do you > suppose > > these tunings evolved? > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > ===== "and thus i made...a small vihuela from the shell of a creepy crawly..." - Don Gonzalo de Guerrero (1512), "Historias de la Conquista del Mayab" by Fra Joseph of San Buenaventura. go to: http://www.charango.cl/paginas/quieninvento.htm ___________________________________________________________ Win a castle for NYE with your mates and Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
