Hello everyone. I just recently got a lute. It has eleven strings, but the strings don’t make any sense. The order they are in seems to be random. I mean, they aren’t “in order” on the tuning pegs. For example, the first string doesn’t go on the first tuning peg. Can someone shed some clarity on this? Do I have to restring the lute?

Hey Reddit,

After almost 4 years of rare on and off practicing and being discouraged very quickly after picking up the lute, I’ve decided to dedicate more time to practicing lute and try to learn every piece slowly and methodically. The “problem” is; I believe some of the fingering positions are unnecessarily complicated and weird to play. An example would be in “Sellinger’s round” where I’d have to play d d a [3 3 0] (second, third, fourth course) with my pinky and ring finger which seems totally unnecessary as I could just take my first and second finger and sound just as good if not better.

My Question: should I learn the annoying fingering as to set me up mechanically for harder pieces in the future or should I stick to my more convenient methods?

Thanks in advance

In my experience with other instruments in the lute family I've found you can usually turn a note down as much as a step without causing issues (never tried going further).

With the lute I was looking as the layout of the bas notes and noticed it's almost a harp with how the notes are so close together, like G,F, and D for the bottom notes on an eight corse (turned in g). My thought is I could probably get away with tuning it to A, E, and C to give myself just a tiny bit more range and versatility. Not sure I'd even be able to reach far enough to fret those notes, but I like to do this kind of theory.

I've been wondering, as I explore early music, largely late baroque lute music: do you folks who play from tablature (i.e., presumably, nearly everyone?) notice the chords going by and see in your mind the music theory as you read tablature? How do you think about it, if so? Is it, that set of numbers or letters make up an A chord, with the 7th in the bass at G? I play from standard notation, on 10-string guitar in baroque tuning, so I can see as I play or try to analyze the music, ok, that's E7, A, D, G, F#m7, C#m, etc. (My questions on theory now have been, why those chords in that order, and how do the chords carry the melody along from a theory standpoint? (there seems to be a lot of subsequent chords going through the circle of fifths, in Weiss). )

But if I had numbers or letters, as with tablature, I am not sure I'd find it easy to map to chords and then theory in my mind or on paper, especially when different sets of numbers or letters might be used for a given chord in different octaves or positions on the fretboard (is that how it is reading tablature?). As I try to understand anything about the chord composition going on in, say, Weiss, I wonder this, among other things. Naturally most approaches have their plusses and minuses.

I've played guitar for three years and I wanna pick up the lute but where can I start? Thanks in advance for answers!

The 1200€ archlute from Thomann has gained very favourable reviews (although only a relatively small number), but a genuinely good instrument at that price seems too good to be true. Does anyone have any live experience of it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNbkHP1Mhns

I just bought a cheap lute (Roosebeck travel) and once i get past a certain pitch, it refuses to stay in tune. Like immediately untunes itself. Pegs moving backwards on multiple strings before I can get to standard lute tuning.

For example - on the "G" string (highest) I can't go past midway between F and F# to get to G.

Was there just not enough slack in the strings before they strung them or did I buy a lemon?

One of my strings snapped, I replaced it with the backup I had, then it snapped again (I've discovered it was more an issue with the peg being a bit too loose). Where would be the best place to buy replacement strings?

I tried googling it but all I get is guitar ones. I found these http://www.emclute.com/download/tab/tabscar.html

But they seem to be wrong. Maybe they're for a different instrument idk.

Thanks for any help

I’ve been playing the guitar for a while but I’ve always wanted to play the Lute as well. The biggest problem is that I have no idea where I should start. I wouldn’t know when to get a lute, how to learn to play, or really anything. If y’all could give me some advise it would be greatly appreciated.

i wonder about this string is important or not

cuz...... my gut is not tight and move easy when i play lute

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I'm trying to identify a piece of music. I believe its time is circa 1600. The melody of the A section is 3| do si do re mi fa | sol mi fa sol | la sol fa | mi re mi | do si do re mi fa | sol fa mi re | do do si | do |

(si is the bottom note and la the top.)

Anyone recognize this?

Hello,

I am looking to buy a renaissance lute and wondered if anyone here know where to find one, either new or used? I have looked at Thomann and Muzikkon but have read mixed reviews and would be willing to spend a bit more to get a better instrument. Any ideas or suggestions?

So I recently went back to college and decided to take my lute with me. Due to me not being able to take it with me on the plane and not wanting to risk it as a carry on in a soft case i decided to ship it and boy was that a mistake. received it today with the box looking like someone sat on it opening it the neck is snapped at the base with cracking on the face as shown in the pictures. I'm currently filing a claim with usps thankfully i had insurance but my question is this repairable or should i be looking at replacing. I have no clue where to start in terms of looking for repairs. I've looked around and called a few music shops around me and I've had no luck at anything local. I live in Alaska so my options are pretty limited

https://imgur.com/a/GLkrmpI