I say start relearning. And start enjoying D major and minor and A major and minor as easy chords/tonic home bases. Also, it's good to get used to playing g minor on the theorbo as there is plenty of it (even Caccini and Peri on an A instrument). I think also it's more of an adjustment to use the open strings in the reentrant tuning than to get used to the new pitches of the chords. R. If you still yearn for an instrument in G with long diapasons, you can always get an archlute. R.
-----Original Message----- From: Guy Smith [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:20 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] Theorbo question Although I'm primarily interested in Ren music, I haven't been able to resist the temptation to dabble in continuo a bit (we have a continuo group in Seattle, loosely modeled on Pat's Continuo collective). I'm afraid that I might have finally taken complete leave of my senses, as I am now in possession of one of those overly large lutes with too many strings (on loan, but...). I plan to seek professional assistance soon, but in the interim, a tuning question. The instrument is currently in A. I could retune it to G, so I could more easily transfer my experience with the G lute, or I could leave it in A and relearn a bunch of chords. Any advice on which option is likely to be preferable? FWIW, I don't have to perform on it for around 6 months, so relearning the chords should be manageable, although the next rehearsal or two might be a bit rough. Guy -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
