History of the Lute

Series Summary

Contrary to what many people think (who have never seen a lute), the lute is actually not a woodwind instrument but rather a stringed instrument. Playing the lute is not wholly unlike playing the guitar, due to the many similarities between the instruments. In fact the lute and the guitar look so much alike it is easy to mistake them from afar. The lute is easy to learn how to play especially if you have a strong back ground in playing the guitar. If you would like to learn how to play the lute, you can learn from one of our experts.

In this free video series of music lessons, learn how to play the Baroque Lute from professional musician Foti Lycourdis. Foti will teach you about the history of the Lute and what exactly is a Baroque Lute. He will demonstrate how to tune a Baroque Lute, how to read Baroque Lute music, how to play the Baroque Lute with your right and left hand. Foti will also show you proper Baroque Lute playing technique to help you learn how to play the Baroque Lute.

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Foti Lycouridis. I am a guitar and a lute player, and, on behalf of Expert Village, I will talk to you a little bit about the baroque lute today. First of all, let's discuss the origin of the instrument. The baroque lute, and the lute in general, came to us from the ud. The ud, or al ud as it's known is was a middle-eastern instrument and came to Europe from the Arabs of North Africa when they invaded medieval Spain. The ud was smaller than this instrument, but generally it's the same shape as the lute. As the instrument spread then to northern Europe, then it was adopted to and modified to fit the music of that period, and many lute players starting appearing in Italy, France, Germany, and England. Lute music became very popular very fast in all these countries and lutanists were seen everywhere playing solo pieces or singing and accompanying themselves as the traveling troubadours and minstrels, and were also accompanying other large ensembles of instruments."