Stephen, You've hit the nail on the head as far as lute tutors. I never used a method book. Instead, I sought out some very good teachers. Even though I would often drive for hours to take a lesson, I was fortunate to live so close to people who knew what they were doing. Unfortunately, my instruction was always sporadic and there are still huge gaps in my technique, which I'm only now beginning to close since I'm finally in a regular lesson situation. I didn't start out with Damiani's book, but I believe its OK. Most other lute methods proceed from an extremely faulty pedagogical base. They will usually begin something like this: here's how to tune the lute; here's how to read tab; here's how to play a note; here's 150 pieces, including virtuoso fantasias by Dowland and Milano; now here's how to read German tab, etc. Rarely do I see invented modern exercises or etudes to help with finding notes, much less fineries like tone production. That's really what most tutors for other instruments are about. The situation gets worse with the instruments with loads of basses. Videos are a start. Sadly, most of us are never aware of what we're actually doing, (Its so easy to convince yourself, "I'm doing it exactly like the guy in the vid," - or worse, "Why don't I sound like the guy in the vid? I'm doing it exactly like him!") so there simply is no substitute for finding a qualified teacher. Chris --- On Wed, 5/20/09, Stephen Arndt <stephenar...@earthlink.net> wrote:
I dream that someday someone will publish a lute method with systematic, step-by-step video instructions to supplement as far as possible the absence of a live teacher. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html