I have been following this thread to see the many varied replies to a straightforward question, which I understood to be, "Would chord-windows be useful to a lutenist?"
IMHO, they would be to a beginner lute-player learning the common chord-shapes/names that crop up in tablature. But most often these are 'broken chords' where some of the middle strings, maybe top or bottom strings are missed. Also, another musician may want to play along with the lute-player and ask, "What key are you in?" What do you say? "This part is in Cm.now Ab...etc. Bb7 and resolving to Eb. (The simple version). The etcetera part is often more complicated! Could we think in that way whilst playing from tablature? Could your accompanist then improvise in two or three-flats? My two answers only ask more questions! I don't take offence to over-simplistic answers. I respect the fact that there are newbies to this list that could find scholastic answers from musicologists go right over-their-heads. We must be patient and tolerant to both types. Best Wishes Ron (UK) -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
