The Lute Online Resources Portal (LORP): Frequently Asked Questions

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, HINTS AND TIPS WEBPAGES

If you have a specific question or area of interest, the simplest thing may be to contact one of the lute societies, or join one of the online discussion groups An enormous store of advice and information can be found in the archived emails of the lute discussion groups; see Wayne Cripps’s page www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html#ftp

On the website of The Lute Society: www.lutesociety.org/pages/advice, See also: www.lutesociety.org/pages/thinking-of-taking-up-the-lute
On the website of the Societa del Liuto: ‘per chi inizia’: societadelliuto.it/?page_id=42
On Wayne Cripps’s personal website: www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute/lute.html
A general (mostly mediaeval) Early Music FAQ site: www.medieval.org/emfaq/
John Buckman’s renaissance lute beginner page: john.redmood.com/lutebeginner.html

SPECIFIC TOPICS, listed alphabetically

Note that the archive of discussions on Wayne Cripps’ Lutenet: can be searched by topic.

Care of your lute

On Jiri Cepelak's website: www.lute.cepelak.cz/care.pdf
Booklet on care of your lute by David van Edwards, available from The Lute Society: www.lutesociety.org/pages/catalogue#n
Didier Jarny, Guide d'entretien de votre luth, Societe francaise de luth: www.sf-luth.org/en/?%26nbsp%3BMusical_Publications/Other_Publications

Fret placement for different temperaments

See also 'Tuning and temperament' below.

Beier string and fret calculator: www.musico.it/lute_software/bsfc/index.html
Hoffmann fret calculator: www.modoantiquo.com/temperatur/temperatur_desc_en.html
Alexander Hopkins fret placement calculator: www.hopkinslutes.com/fret.html
Jeff Lee’s lute fret calculator www.shipbrook.net/jeff/frets.html
Lute Society of America fret calculator spreadsheet: cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/download/index.html
Niskanen Lutes free calculator: www.niskanenlutes.com/index.php?p=frets
Theatre of Music tunings and temperaments page: www.theaterofmusic.com/temperaments.html
Olive Wadsworth fret page: www.wadsworth-lutes.co.uk/frets.htm

Fret tying

Advice on tying on frets can be found at:
Paolo Busato: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aItqGZ0zJs
Gamut Music: www.gamutmusic.com/tying-lute-frets/
David van Edwards: www.vanedwards.co.uk/fretknot.htm
John Redmood: john.redmood.com/lutefret.html
Oliver Wadsworth:www.wadsworth-lutes.co.uk/frets.htm
Ning Early Guitar (nylon frets): earlyguitar.ning.com/forum/topics/tying-nylon-lutebaroque-guitar
Youtube film of tying on frets:www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aItqGZ0zJs
There is a section on tying frets in David van Edwards's booklet on The Care of your Lute, available at: www.lutesociety.org/pages/catalogue#n

Improving a poor quality, cheap lute

On John Buckman’s pages: john.redmood.com/improvebargainlute.html

Musicians’ injuries: repetitive strain injury, carpal tunnel syndrome etc.

An ordinary websearch reveals plenty of websites, for instance:
Guitar.about.com: guitar.about.com/od/beginners/a/rsi_guitar.htm
Musicians and injuries: rsi.unl.edu/music.html
Musicians’ Injuries: musiced.about.com/od/beginnersguide/a/injuries.htm
Musicians Health.com: www.musicianshealth.com/whyrsi.htm
The Treatment of overuse injuries in musicians: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1291799/

Ornamentation

Each of the printed tutors under teaching materials has an account of ornamentation in lute music.
Especially useful studies are:

Martin Shepherd ‘The interpretation of signs for graces in English lute music’ The Lute (1996) available at www.lutesociety.org/pages/journal
George Torres, ‘Performance practice technique for the baroque lute: an examination of the introductory avertissements from seventeenth-century sources’ JLSA xxxvi (2003)available from
www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/publications/JLSA-Index.html
Per Kjetil Farstad, ‘Ornaments in 18th century German Lute Music’ in Die Laute ii (1998)available from
www.lautengesellschaft.de/ under Jahrbuecher

Performance practice

Links to historical writings on performance practice: www.symbol4.de/theory.htm
On the website of the Sociedad de Vihuela, bibliography on performance practice: www.sociedaddelavihuela.com/recursos/bibliografia/interpretacion/

Pickups

On John Buckman’s pages: john.redmood.com/lutepickupfaq.html
Fomrhi Quarterly 137, 139, www.fomrhi.org/pages/communications

Pitch

A standard work on historical pitch is Bruce Haynes, A History of Performing Pitch, The Story of A (2002), widely available for purchase online.
Other significant papers have appeared in Fomrhi Quarterly, fomrhi.org and in the Galpin Society Journal, galpinsociety.org/journal.htm

Historical pitch on Martin Shepherd’s site: www.luteshop.co.uk/Historical_pitch.html

Right-Hand Technique

On Martin Shepherd's site: www.luteshop.co.uk/Right-hand_technique.html
Extracts from the treatises on Wayne Cripps site: www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/hand/Technique.html
Brian MacEvoy essay on right-hand technique: www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/publications/MacEvoy/MacEvoyLuteTechnique.pdf
Ralph Maier essay on dedillo: www.ralphmaier.com/index_files/Page318.htm
Historic paintings illustrating technique on Jean-Marie Poirier's site: le.luth.free.fr/
Essays on right-hand technique have appeared in Lute News 54, 94, 101, 102, 106, www.lutesociety.org/pages/lute-news-back-issues
Evidence for nail technique on Richard Sweeney's website: richardsweeney.com/the-best-way-of-play/

Tuning and temperament

See also 'Fret placement for different temperaments' above

A standard work is Mark Lindley, Lutes, Viols & Temperaments (Cambridge University Press, 1984) available at books.google.co.uk/books?id=oXE5AAAAIAAJ&q=

Ross Duffin on Vallotti temperament, Case Western Reserve site: www.scribd.com/doc/209591608/Valotti-Temperament
On Kyle Gann’s website: www.kylegann.com/histune.html
Joe Monzo, Tonalsoft encyclopedia of microtonal lute theory, ‘John Dowland’s Lute Fretting’: www.tonalsoft.com/monzo/dowland/dowland.aspx
Tuning systems by Catherine Schmidt-Jones www.kylegann.com/histune.html
David van Ooijen on meantone, home.planet.nl/~ooije006/david/writings/meantone_f.html
On Martin Shepherd’s site: www.luteshop.co.uk/Tuning_%26_Temperament.html
Scala, software for experimenting with temperaments, Huygens-Fokker website: www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/index.html

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