Eugene, Well I have considered (and tried) an 8-course, and understand their advantages, but the music I'm most interested in is mostly 6 and 7 course, and so I feel like I don't really need the extra course. In any case, let's leave aside my choice of lute for the moment (though your advice is certainly welcome), because I'm quite curious to know whether it's practicable to retune the 7th course without re-stringing. (Perhaps I've overstated things a bit anyways, my question is more of a curiosity than a dilemma: I actually think a a 7th course in D and fingering the third fret will work fine for me in the majority of stuff I want to play, at least going by what I've seen so far). It's just that I often see mentioned in descriptions of 7-course lutes something to the effect of the player having to tune to either D or F according to the piece one wants to play, but in my (admittedly very limited) practical experience this doesn't seem very feasible without changing the string. So I'! m just wondering whether perhaps I am not missing something?
Joshua On May 2, 2012, at 5:48 PM, Braig, Eugene wrote: > It's beginning to sound like an 8-course might actually better suit your > needs. While short lived in period, they seem pretty ubiquitous today. > > Best, > Eugene > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of Joshua Burkholder > Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 11:40 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [LUTE] Re-tuning the diapason of a 7c > > Dear lute-listers, > > A question from a beginner: > > First to introduce myself, my name is Joshua and I've been playing the lute > for several months now; I have been on the list for a couple weeks and am > really enjoying following your discussions. I have a rental 7-course and I am > now in the process of taking the plunge and buying a lute of my own. After > much reading, pondering and agonizing over the best number of courses to > start with, I've come to the conclusion that a 7-course best suits my needs. > So onto to my question: > > I know that some people re-tune the 7th course from D to F as needed, but on > my rental lute this seems quite impossible. The diapason is stung to F and if > I drop it down to D it becomes far too wobbly and flabby. From this I assume > that if I were to restring it to D, which I'd prefer on the whole, it would > likewise be impossible to raise it to F. Currently the lute is strung with > Pyramid strings so the basses are metal wound. Is it only possible to change > from D to F on the same string if one uses gut strings (Poulton remarks to > this effect in her tutor that if it's strung to be tuned at D "it will only > be possible to raise it to F if gut strings are used")? Otherwise I have to > re-string? Or does someone use some other stringing solution, besides just > keeping it D and fingering the third fret for F (or buying an 8-course > lute...)? I've read enough about stringing lutes to understand that it will > be a while before I understand anything about stringing lutes... > > Thank you for taking the time to help out a newcomer. > > Best wishes, > > Joshua > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > >
