campanella

It is not true that campanella technique is a guitar technique adopted by the ukulele.

Campanella technique was used long before the classical guitar existed. In fact it was used on instruments that were very similar to the ukulele. Some of them were even tuned in GCEA tuning just like the "modern ukulele". There are even roughly 500 years old tabs for those instruments which can be directly played with the ukulele.

Best Regards
Wilfried

Wilfried, I didn't know this. Thank you. Your videos on YouTube are absolutely fabulous!

Booli, I love it when you use words like "magisterium", it's so sexy! It's a lot snazzier word than "bullsh-t"!
 
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The Renaissance Guitar was roughly the size of a tenor ukulele and had seven strings in four course. It was typically tuned gGCCEEA with the G strings in octaves.

I use basically that tuning on a 8 string ukulele for accompanying myself singing songs from (mainly) 17th century broadsides.
As far as I know, no actual examples of Renaissance guitars have survived so modern makers have to depend on pictures. They seem to go for a slightly longer scale length than a tenor uke but not as long as a baritone. The proportions of the Renaissance Guitar are different with a longer body and shorter neck. From the pictures and examples I've seen they seem to have just eleven frets to the body. The body join is where the twelfth fret would be but as the frets were strips of gut tied round the neck it wasn't possible to place one there.
I believe music for them has survived but in much smaller quantities than for the Lute. As with the Lute, the surviving music is in the form of tab
 
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The Renaissance Guitar was roughly the size of a tenor ukulele and had seven strings in four course. It was typically tuned gGCCEEA with the G strings in octaves.

I use basically that tuning on a 8 string ukulele for accompanying myself singing songs from (mainly) 17th century broadsides.
As far as I know, no actual examples of Renaissance guitars have survived so modern makers have to depend on pictures. They seem to go for a slightly longer scale length than a tenor uke but not as long as a baritone. The proportions of the Renaissance Guitar are different with a longer body and shorter neck. From the pictures and examples I've seen they seem to have just eleven frets to the body. The body join is where the twelfth fret would be but as the frets were strips of gut tied round the neck it wasn't possible to place one there.
I believe music for them has survived but in much smaller quantities than for the Lute. As with the Lute, the surviving music is in the form of tab

That sounds like a cool guitar!
 
The Renaissance Guitar was roughly the size of a tenor ukulele and had seven strings in four course. It was typically tuned gGCCEEA with the G strings in octaves.

I use basically that tuning on a 8 string ukulele for accompanying myself singing songs from (mainly) 17th century broadsides.
As far as I know, no actual examples of Renaissance guitars have survived so modern makers have to depend on pictures. They seem to go for a slightly longer scale length than a tenor uke but not as long as a baritone. The proportions of the Renaissance Guitar are different with a longer body and shorter neck. From the pictures and examples I've seen they seem to have just eleven frets to the body. The body join is where the twelfth fret would be but as the frets were strips of gut tied round the neck it wasn't possible to place one there.
I believe music for them has survived but in much smaller quantities than for the Lute. As with the Lute, the surviving music is in the form of tab
This is fascinating! Ever since discovering the sound of campanella, I've been practicing it on my sopranos. The short scale allows me to span more frets with my short fingers. Last night, I decided to try campanella on my Cocobolo tenor and wow! The sound is more rich and harp-like than I would have imagined.

But...

It's harder to reach all those frets! LOL! Having one finger on the first fret and another on the fifth is quite the challenge. I'll keep working and stretching. I'm determined! Now knowing that the original renaissance guitar was closer to a tenor, I am even more inspired.
 
Yeah, I like the sound better on my tenor, too! And interestingly (is that even a word?!), I find the tenor easier to hold than the smaller ones. But the finger stretch is a little harder.
 
Yeah, I like the sound better on my tenor, too! And interestingly (is that even a word?!), I find the tenor easier to hold than the smaller ones. But the finger stretch is a little harder.

Agree on the "easier to hold" aspect of the tenor. I have developed tendonitis (tennis elbow, aka ukulele elbow!) from gripping the soprano, even with a strap. The tenor can rest on my lap.

It's all about keeping that neck stable so you can place your fingers precisely where they need to be to get the pure tone. My next plan is to try it on my baritone with the re-entrant strings I ordered from Southcoast.
 
Hello,

Just to add an important historic information : the music for renaissance guitar never calls for the campanella style. Some baroque music use extensively campanella scale, because the baroque guitar is re-entrant (actually, there are four ways of stringing it) when the renaissance guitar is mainly linear (the couple of high G and low G lets you play some high notes on the last string, but it's almost impossible to pluck only one string without sounding the low G).

Regards,
gilles
 
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