Corrente: octave marking

[Beth Alexander]

James Tyler's BAROQUE GUITAR, page 60, Corrente.

The open G string has a plus sign below it. In the notes before the song, it states that this indicates it is played an octave higher on the G course. I'm not sure how this is supposed to be done... it would mean some fancy (fast) finger work if one was to reach for the 12th fret, as either a harmonic or fretted note. The other alternative would be to play it on the 1st course.

Does anyone here have thoughts on how this should be done?

[Monica Hall]

What James Tyler is suggesting here is that the third course should be strung in octave rather than in unison i.e. that the guitar should be tuned e' bb gg' dd' aa. There is no historical evidence at all to support such a method of stringing and in practice it is completely unnecessary. You should just play the open g string. Idiocyncracies in the melodic line like this are unavoidable and are a characteristic of the baroque guitar. Which ever way you string the instrument there are going to be some skips like this.

[Beth Alexander]

Thank you, Monica. Much appreciated!