If I had an English cittern on me, Snail, I'd try plucking (with a feather?!) the very same top-line melodies that I sing - which is all I do on the keyboards (play and sing just the melody).
To HJ - it was English and Germans who brought the recorder back in the early 20th century...why not English folkie string-players, at this early part of the 21st century, reviving the English cittern..?