LUTE TUNING

 

Comparitive Tunings (from lowest pitch string to highest)

Rennaissance Lute	Baroque Lute	Modern Guitar	Violin	Mandolin	Banjo	Ukele	Cello
GCFADG	ADFADF	EADGBE	GDAE	GDEA	GDBGD	GCEA	CGDA
lower open courses:	lower open courses:
F or D	ABCDEFG

The lute as played by the late Elizabethans was typically of six courses and eleven strings (like a modern twelve string guitar, except that the course of highest pitch had only one string). The strings of every course were tuned in unison, and overall had a tuning of GCFADG. For those who like mnemonics, you may try to remember German Courtiers Flee A Drunken Guitarist. If you possess a classical guitar, and wish to give yourself a similar tuning, tune your G string down a semitone to F#. If you want the exact tuning (for instance, when you are playing as an accompanist), put a capo on the third fret.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century lower courses started being added to the lute. The seventh course was tuned to either a D or an F. Obviously to read tablature you will need to determine which tuning is being used. The only sure way to do this is to look at the chords being used while the seventh fret is being played, and use this to determine which tuning makes sense. A quick rule of thumb is that if the seventh course is fingered above the first fret then it is probably tuned to D. Most books printed at the time will only use the one tuning for the seventh course throughout (Dowland's airs had the seventh course tuned to D, Campion's airs had the seventh course tuned to F), but there are a number of exceptions, including Thomas Robinson's School of Musicke which uses both. The presence of an eighth course could also alter the tuning of the seventh (usually to F).

 

click above image to contact us