Excellent advice, David. Paul Galbraith told me to feel different surfaces gently with my fingertips - clothes, tables, guitar (lute) case - before plucking the string. It awakens the fingers to the subtleties of touch.
>>>Left and right hand shape the tone together<<< 100 per cent right on. Rob On 26/02/2008, LGS-Europe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Your fingers are more than strong enough. > > With pressure, less is more. It is easy to flex a muscle fast. Put your > hand > in a flame, get stung by a bee or catch a falling lute to try. But it > takes > time to relax a muscle, we all know that. So to develop speed on a lute, > we > have to minimize our pressure. I can put down a finger fast enough, but I > cannot lift it fast enough. With less pressure, I can lift faster and my > speed will improve. > Another reason why less pressure is better: with more pressure we feel > less. > Left and right hand shape the tone together, the only feedback we get > before > we actually pluck the string is through the contact of our fingertips. If > we > use more muscle, we feel less. Keep your sense of touch alive by using > less > pressure, and your tone will improve if you 'listen' to the feedback your > fingertips give you. > > David > > > **************************** > David van Ooijen > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.davidvanooijen.nl > **************************** > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > --
