How to Read Baroque Lute Music

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Foti Lycouridis, and on behalf of Expert Village I will talk to you about reading Baroque Lute music. The music that you will be learning to read when you start to play the lute is in tablature. That means that it's a kind of shorthand that composers used at the time to write music. There's very, very little instances where actually composers wrote the notes on the five line staff. Instead they use a six line staff for the very first six courses, and then the lower courses are added below that line. And the rhythm of the courses, the rhythm of the music is actually given on the top of the staff. And the way it's used, it's four frets, they notate A as open, B as second, R you will see as third, D for three, E for four, and so on and so forth. And then when you see an A, you play any one of these. The thirteenth course is notated as six. This course, twelve, is notated as five. The C is notated as four. And then this is an A with three lines below it, this is an A with two lines below it, this is an A with one line below it. And this is just an A. And then we go into the tablature."