The first time you tune a lute, the instrument argues with you. The pegs are tapered and friction-fit, the strings are thin, and the intervals are not the ones your guitar-playing fingers expect. Then a course settles, the gut stops sliding, and the whole instrument rings with a sound closer to a harp than to a guitar. Tuning is not the chore before playing; on gut strings, tuning is playing, and a player who tunes well simply sounds better than one who doesn't.
What follows is a straightforward path for a beginner with a six-course Renaissance lute: how to string it, what to use as a pitch reference, and how to tune the whole instrument by ear using methods a sixteenth-century player would have recognised.
A Renaissance lute is strung in courses, not single strings. A course is one or two strings played together. On a beginner's six-course instrument, the first five courses are usually pairs tuned in unison, while the sixth may be a single string or a pair, depending on how the instrument was built. Some players string the lower courses with an octave pair — one thick string and one thin one an octave above — which gives the bass a bright, buzzing edge.
The strings themselves may be gut or a synthetic substitute; both behave differently, and it matters which you have. Gut responds to the weather, stretches over weeks, and sounds warm but goes dull as it ages. Synthetics hold pitch more stubbornly and last longer, though many players find them less characterful. Know before you start, because a gut string wants to be brought up slowly and a synthetic one can take more of a turn.
Look at the pegs. Lute pegs are tapered and held by friction alone, pushed into the pegbox rather than geared. Look at the bridge, where strings are knotted or looped. Look at the tied frets around the neck — loops of gut or nylon that you can move, which is one of the lute's great advantages. All of these details affect how the instrument tunes and how long it stays in tune.
Change strings one course at a time where you can. Taking every string off at once is fine when the instrument needs cleaning, but the neck and soundboard are happier under steady tension, and replacing one course at a time keeps you playing while new strings stretch in.
Work from the bass courses upward. Tie or knot each string at the bridge exactly as your instrument requires, then run it over the nut and into the pegbox. Wind it neatly onto the peg, turning so the string coils from the inside of the peg outward, with at least three or four full turns before it comes up to pitch. Long, tidy coils hold better than a messy heap. Leave a short tail; trim it once the string has settled, not before.
You need one trustworthy note before you can tune anything else. A tuning fork, a pitch pipe, a keyboard, or a tuning app on a phone all work as a reference; you only need the reading for a single course. What matters is that you trust the source and use it consistently.
Modern players often tune a lute in G, meaning the first course sounds the G above middle C. Historical pitch was far from uniform — it shifted by city and by decade, and surviving instruments were built for whatever was current where they were made. For a beginner playing alone, pick a pitch that suits the instrument and your ear. If the strings feel tight and wiry, tune a semitone lower. If you are playing with a singer or another instrument, the ensemble's pitch wins, always.
A useful habit: set your reference on the first course, since it is the thinnest string and the one you will hear most clearly, and keep the fork or pipe within reach while you work down the instrument.
A six-course Renaissance lute is tuned mostly in fourths, with one major third interrupting the pattern between the third and fourth courses. Rising from the lowest course, that gives a fourth, a fourth, a major third, a fourth, and a fourth. In G tuning the courses run like this:
Lutes were also built for A tuning and other pitches. The absolute notes matter less than the pattern: fourths, with that third between the fourth and third courses. Learn the shape once and you can apply it at any pitch.
The oldest method is also the most reliable: fret a note on one course and match it against the open string of its neighbour. On a lute with tied frets, the fifth fret gives a fourth above the open string, which is exactly the interval between most adjacent courses. The fourth fret gives a major third, which is what you need for the one exception.
One pass is rarely enough. Check the instrument against itself: the open first course and the open sixth course should be exactly two octaves apart, a clean and easy comparison. The seventh fret of the sixth course should sound a fifth above the open sixth, which puts it an octave below the open second course — a good way to confirm that the bottom of the instrument agrees with the top.
If a bass course is strung with an octave pair, tune the thin string to the twelfth-fret harmonic of its thick partner. That harmonic sounds an octave above the open string, so the two should lock together without any waver.
Treat the tied frets as a rough guide rather than a laboratory instrument. Their positions reflect tuning systems that do not match modern equal temperament exactly, so a fretted check can leave you a hair off. Unisons, octaves and harmonics are the checks to trust.
Gut moves. A warm room, a cold church, a damp afternoon and a dry radiator all pull it in different directions, and a lute tuned perfectly at noon may need attention by four o'clock. This is not a fault. Players of the period tuned constantly and thought nothing of it.
When a peg slips, do not simply force it. Push it gently inward as you turn, so the taper seats in the hole. A little peg compound or dry soap helps a peg that sticks or jumps. Tune in short passes rather than one long session, playing a phrase between adjustments so the strings settle under real use. If a course refuses to stay put, check whether the string is binding in its nut slot before blaming the peg.
Before you practise, tune quickly from the top course down and then check one octave and one unison. Play a chord, listen, adjust. After ten minutes of playing, tune again — that second pass is where the instrument really settles. Wipe the strings and the soundboard when you finish, loosen nothing, and leave the lute in its case away from radiators and windows.
New strings will wander for days; expect it, tune through it, and resist the urge to over-tighten. Within a week or two the instrument will hold far better, and the ear you build by tuning it every day will serve you more than any electronic tuner. Tune slowly, play often, and let the lute teach you what it wants.
Photo: Anthony Rahayel / Pexels
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