On Jan 5, 2009, at 3:20 PM, Guy Smith wrote: > 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.
I think it's a good idea to become familiar with both G and A tunings. I find that chords in flat keys, and also G major of course, fall under the hand better in G tuning, whereas D and A (major and minor) are easier in A tuning. It's initially a question of learning to read bass lines in staff notation on the bass clef, and you can practice that on a renaissance lute in G, as well as on your A instrument. Do you have Nigel North's book on bc playing? davidr [email protected] -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
