The only really compelling reason to put a capo on is if you are playing something like a lute song or consort part, where you have to have the instrument at a specific pitch to make the tab match the parts that are written in staff notation (although singers typically don't mind if the pitch is a bit lower than written). Otherwise, just tune the third string down and think of it as an E lute.
Guy -----Original Message----- From: Daniel Winheld [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 9:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] Re: is it true? "The music will sound much more lute-like at that pitch." This statement is misleading. Why would a Terz guitar (guitars scaled to "G", built in the early 19th century and also sometimes seen in Mariachi bands) or a capoed E instrument sound more "lute-" like than my old E bass lute? Even a "G" lute at historic pitch levels (another can of worms to be sure) will really be f# at its highest pitch, and possibly as low as E if you credit A=370 as a legitimate historic pitch. At G, (A=440) you actually have an A lute at an historic pitch- nothing wrong with that, of course. Just don't pretend that a particular pitch has anything whatsoever to do with defining an instrument or its timbre. The only reason to capo a guitar would be to accommodate left hand fingerings if a particular performer needs it (hopefully while waiting for his 58cm lute to be built) but it seems that all dedicated guitarists who like to include Renaissance lute music in their repertoires have no trouble with the stretches. -Dan >Adding one tiny thing to Charles' instructions: since the tuning of >a guitar is a third lower than the 6 course lute in g, you can place >a capo at the 3rd fret to raise the guitar to the same pitch as the >lute. The music will sound much more lute-like at that pitch. > >Jim Parker -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
