Please forgive me, Raedwulf. I gather that you are a lute player?

Well I figure if Imma gonna hang around this here Mudcat, I betta learn more about all these folkie type instruments that I never heard of or I only heard about a long time ago when I was in school or maybe heard some mention of when I was skimming one of them educationalble channels on my teevee..

So I said "Google, don't fail me now!" and I wrote in the word "lute" and "Lordy be!", "God Bless America", what did I see?!"

There were lots of places I could go to learn about that there old lute instrument.

So I picked one, and went a-lookin to see what I could see.

And I'm glad I picked that page cause they even have some pretty pictures. Here's some of what was written there:

"The Roman lute predates the Medieval lute, the true forerunner of the guitar, but was itself preceded by the Greek and the Egyptian lute.The lute, the true forerunner of the guitar (kithara), is considered a medieval instrument but was played by the ancient Romans. The Roman lute had three strings and was not as popular as the lyre or the kithara, but was easier to play"..

end of quote.

And they go on to talk about some other types of lutes [but why they don't just call them a guitar I don't know]

Oh well, maybe I gotta go back here

and read more..Then I guess I'll understand it better by and by.

;O)