Dear Joshua,
welcome to the gang!
I think you can make the same 7th work in F and D. My example:
7-course Venere, 58 cm, the 7th course:
Aquila's new nylgut octave 94 NNG
Aquila's type D string 195 D
The tensions are (a'=440Hz)
in F 3.657 Kg / 3.935 Kg
in D 2.586 Kg / 2.782 Kg
F is quite tight, but works.
Did you know, you can make the string calculations in my page
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/mus/NewScalc/
And you can see and hear my new Venere in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5lzPnVZl_o&feature=youtu.be
Again: Welcome!
Arto
On 02/05/12 19:06, Joshua Burkholder wrote:
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
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