Dear All, I would very much like to read Ed's interview, but as I'm not an LSA member I might not get to see it. Guess I should join! For comparison purposes I have pasted below a snippet from an interview the master gave to the English magazine "Guitar" in May 1980 - hope it's of interest. This interview was given not too long after the release of his landmark album of Dowland and Byrd which was quite jaw-dropping at the time. For me it was the first time a player using real lute technique went beyond the benchmark set by Julian Bream. With this practice regime it's not hard to see how he did it!
Best wishes, Denys ************************************************************ Interviewer: How do lutenists generally develop their technique; how do they become virtuosi? Paul O' Dette: " I think unfortunately most lutenists just play pieces. They start playing the lute and they hear all this music that they want to play, then next thing they dive head first into a Dowland fantasie. I think the lute is in dire need of a good pedagogical method. For myself I just invent hundreds of exercises, similar to things that I did on the guitar: chromatic exercises, string crossing exercises, the famous 24 combinations for the left hand and speed drills for the right hand. And I do a lot of slow practice and I take pieces that I'm playing, isolate the problems and then turn them into a big exercise." ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Durbrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Daniel Shoskes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "lute list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 11:22 AM Subject: Re: Practice habits. > >Ah, now an interesting question would be whether the routine followed by > >someone like O'Dette would also be applicable to a mere mortal like me. > > His approach is widely applicable, I believe. > > >Ed, did his routine differ with Baroque lute, for which he is more of a > >"beginner"? > > He didn't answer that specifically because I didn't think to ask it. > Would have been a good question. I don't think he's a beginner at > anything he plays. In fact, I might have mentioned that someone (Bill > Bowers) roomed with him ages ago at a summer school or something and > told me he would toss off a couple of Bach suites to warm up. > > You will learn something about practicing when you read the > interview. He's said it all before, I'm sure, in countless summer > schools. It's applying it that is hard. Maybe that's the difference > (along with raw talent) between us and him. > > cheers, > > PS, Glad people are posting again. This list actually inspires me. > Maybe I'll sacrifice some of my valuable TV time for a few moments of > lute practice. :-) > -- > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
