On Thu, May 21, 2009, chriswi...@yahoo.com said: > here's 150 pieces, including virtuoso fantasias by Dowland and Milano;
Some of that is useful, both as a challenge, and giving notes to what you have memorized from recordings. Also, often times its what makes the book interesting to a publisher. Scales dont sell (yes, I know there are books of them in staff nottion, students dont buy them on impulse, only when teacher requires it; well, I know I didnt, and I am reminded every time I move just how much I have invested in music). Trick is for the student with the virtuoso stuff is to be shown how to approach it, perhaps simplifying it in places; perhaps focusing on an easy section for now, rest to be mastered later. Yes, there is also a need for drill, but books of scales, parallel thirds, chords, and other material for drill is out there, maybe in score, maybe for other instruments (even voice) but its there. Morleys canzonets a2 and a3 are excellent practice material, so is susato's dancerie (schott edition for recorders). American Recorder Society has one small collection of pieces taken from the works of H Issac which provide very challenging studies on rhythmic issues (playing 4 against 3, proportional change with pickup note...). Yes, best if it comes from the teacher who can judge what is useful to the student, but not essential, I too have had an ecclectic set of lessons, weekly in several sessions over three years for voice as a boy choirister; couple months of lessons in folk guitar style; about a year on clarinet; two for fiddle; couple months consort coaching preceded by some months on recorder (the ensemble needed it more than I, so I played patron for the first and only time in my life, nice to be well employed); odd ones here and there on lute. Formal lessons cost both money and preparation time, largely wasted if you dont, wont, or cant practice on points raised in the lesson. > Rarely do I see invented modern exercises > or etudes to help with finding notes, much less fineries like tone > production. tone production is a really hard thing to get from prose. Should be mentioned in all tutors as something to be worked on, perhaps with tape recorder (or computerized microphone) for playback and comparisons. Ron McFarlane has touched on aspects of it in his LSA columns. LH fingering is for many a personal thing, both for guitar and lute, probably all fretedd strings (yes, even the bowed ones), the topic came up in discussions at the collegium musicum I playedd with for some time, the gamba players were mostly modern string players too, and for them fingering was mostly a thing long ago learned by rote. Their challenge is easier tho, mostly monophonic. Our challenge is much harder, especially when virtuoso passages take youup the neck into unfamiliar territory where open strings entice you into passagi not practiced often enough (often seen in works of Torrega for guitar) > I dream that someday someone will publish Niche market, doubt anyone with deep resources is gonna take an interest. LS or LSA comes to mind, the LS does have a start on that with a bunch of publications aimed at beginning and intermediate skilled players. A major problem is that those who would do this best are struggling to stay awake at the wheel as they drive from one gig to another, paying bills and eating the small profits. Frederick Noads books for Guitar come to mind, I worked with those, Carulli, "100 World Favorites for Classical Guitar", and selected Sor etudes for years, augmented with the odd Villa-lobos etude, flamenco collection, and other material. Noad showed me the way to the lute repetoire, after that I retuned my guitar and tried (vainly) to save up the cost of a proper instrument... -- Dana Emery To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
