How to Tune a Baroque Lute

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Foti Lycouridis, and today on behalf of expert village, I will talk to you about the baroque lute tuning. The baroque lute itself has a tuning that sets it apart from any other lute that you will play. It came from the French Lutanists in the 16oo's who started tuning their lutes in a very different way than the renaissance tuning of that time. The renaissance tuning, starting with a C below middle C is C, D, E, F, G, C, F, A, B, G. Now, for the baroque tuning, we have A, B flat, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, F, A, B, F. So as you can see, the six top courses (as the strings are called because they are double strings) form a D minor chord. Now, the A that they used at the time was not the A 440 cycles per second cycles that we use today, but it was a 415, so I strongly recommend that you get a tuner that has that particular A. If you tune you lute to A 440, then you are having a lot more pressure exerted on the sound board than you need, and it might come off. Also, if you are planning to play with other people in other baroque ensembles, I would also recommend that you get a tuner that has different temperaments which are ways that you tune intervals between notes, and that will enable you to tune better with other instruments of the period."