learn to play the lute

is slowly getting better. Maybe I can take up playing my guitar again in 2-3 weeks!

I recently rediscovered my love for Elizabethan music. I don’t own a lute yet, financing it will be tricky as my income now is, but someday I will play this wonderful instrument!

Actually, I love any stringed instrument, especially historical ones. Be it harp, hurdy-gurdy, viola da gamba, or cembalo. But since I learned classical guitar since I was 9 years old (gave it up about 14 years ago due to lack of time), lute is somehow nearer to me than, say, hurdy-gurdy.

My first step will be to refurbish my guitar skills. I’m currently fighting with an injured ringfinger (having a computer job doesn’t make it better), so I will have to put off playing any instrument until this one is healed.

I received an 8 course Renaissance Lute for Christmas, and am slowly learning to play it. I have a modest handicap in that I cannot supinate my left wrist, so I hold the lute in an upright position something like a cello. I can play basic melodies and basic chords, but am not really able to change chords without looking at my fingers and taking a moment to get them all in place. But what a lot of fun it is to play the lute!