Ron makes some good points, as usual. But there are surely more than one who play thumb out for later stuff and thumb in for earlier stuff. Still a minority. There just aren't very many "Thumb Center" and "Thumb Stretched" players, which are commonly depicted and described.
I'll go out on a limb and say the main problem with the rest stroke is that for some reason, and I don't see it as insolvable, rest strokes are liable to audible timing problems, and that is a big liability in the professional world, excluding some solo work which has its own rules. I also have the feeling that whatever way of plucking a string we could think of, they could think of as well, although the rest stroke seems to have its own unique vibe. dt But the point is well taken.At 08:09 AM 1/19/2010, you wrote: > Chris & All: > The rest stroke for the thumb seems a logical means to both produce a > strong bass and teach the thumb to keep track of diapasons, although > there is no specific referral to this technique by name in any written > historical source I've seen. The term 'rest stroke' seems to be a > classical guitar convention useful in adapting to lute technique. The > thing I find extremely puzzling in the 'awful lot of paintings' you > mention is that, for late 16th and almost all 17th century examples, > there is a nearly uniform depiction of a thumb-out technique, which is > also described clearly in written sources. With one exception, nearly > all our notable baroque lutenists of today use a thumb-under > technique. This even applies to a lutenist I've seen in a recent video > who is described as never having played renaissance lute. What gives? > Why don't baroque lutenists today use what is an unquestionably obvious > historical technique? I admit to not having paid much attention to > this issue in the past. > Sincerely puzzled, > Ron Andrico > www.mignarda.com > > Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:10:57 -0800 > > To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu; dwinh...@comcast.net > > From: chriswi...@yahoo.com > > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Thumb rest stroke > > > > I've seen Paul O'Dette use repeated rest strokes in the bass, > sometimes for fairly fast lines that I would take with p-i alternating > (free) strokes. On the other hand, I've seen Robert Barto occasionally > use rest strokes in the treble. > > > > There are an awful lot of paintings (especially, but not exclusively, > baroque) in which the players are clearly using a rest stroke with the > fingers a la classical guitar. In most of these the player is obviously > tuning; in some, its not so clear. I know of no printed instructions, > however. > > > > Chris > > > > > > > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > __________________________________________________________________ > > Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. [1]Get it now. -- > >References > > 1. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390708/direct/01/
