Continuo, the Bass Clef, and the Beatles

Historically, one of the most important parts of the lute's relationship with music was its use with continuo accompaniment, or basso continuo. According to Wikipedia, basso continuo, which was especially common in Baroque music, provided harmonic structure to the music. The continuo was often composed of multiple parts, called a continuo group. The practice of continuo playing most likely originated from the lute's early use as an accompaniment to the voice in song. As such, a continuo part was often an improvised harmonic structure based on the chords and scales used in the song. It was like a modern jazz base section.

My lute teacher presented me with a Shakespearean song setting of "Full Fathom Five" as a piece to use to look at continuo and the bass clef. He is (rightly) intent that I should learn to read standard notation of the the bass clef on the lute. (Un)fortunately, lute tablature is awfully easy to read, but it doesn't require the same understanding of the relationships among notes and scales that notation does, and understanding this relationship is helpful for continuo playing.

So I'm struggling through the bass clef (and actually making some progress!), but my favorite part about the lesson was getting chord charts. I;m familiar with chords from playing the guitar for quite a few years and I've long wished to be able some Beatles songs on the lute. Now I can work on that!