Dear Martin, Jon & all On Monday 10 November 2003 12:03, Martin Shepherd wrote: > From: Jon Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > And what did Arto mean by "strong notes", > Arto will doubtless explain what he means,
Well, now I have to..., I guess... :-) To be short: There are important or "good" notes and there are less important or "bad" notes. In the days of lute there was no democracy between the notes, not either between the human beings. In lute music the system used was to play strong notes with the thumb, weak notes with the index finger. And if the thumb is occupied, middle finger is the "vice-thumb". Often the weak notes are marked with a dot, which tells you to use the weak index finger. Compare this to the violin playing: downbow is the strong one, it goes to the direction where thumb is strong. And upbow is for the weaker notes. Also the viola da gamba players make this separation - they just happen to keep the bow otherway round. But also for them the movement to the direction of "pushing with the thumb" is the strong one. I hope I could explain this; using a foreign language in a little more complicated matters is not so easy... Arto
