On Oct 5, 2005, at 9:20 AM, saw 192837 wrote: > If you get anything other than a 6 course lute, will it ruin your > guitar > playing?
Not unless you stop practicing the guitar. You might possibly want to get a lute with similar spacing, but I think you get used to playing different pieces on different instruments, just as you would between a mandoline and a guitar or violin or whatever. I have to admit I get a little messed up trying to switch between four different lutes. For what it is worth, I believe Julian Bream had his lute made to the same scale as his guitar, way back when. > Is a 6 course easier to play than 7-8 course? Yes, a bit. However, I would recommend getting a 7 course lute if you want to keep it easy. The reason I recommend 7 over 8 courses is because that opens up soooooo much more repertoire for you. 8 course music is MUCH rarer than the numbers of modern 8 course lutes would lead you to believe. Almost all of Dowland's music can be played on 7 course instruments, for instance. Of course you have to switch between tuning the 7th course to F or D, but that can be done pretty quickly. I find that English song repertoire usually requires a D and almost everything else F. (given a lute nominally in G) cheers, Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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
