I 've just listened to a lesson by Hoppy talking about this : he cited Besard, saying that you should practice not the whole piece from start to the end, but play a sentence 500 times, until it reflects yourself. H.Smith also added that it is depressing but anyway rewarding. I agree with this: I think one should need to practise the sound itself, because it is the main way of communicating, then the rythm, and at the same time trying excavating the piece ( the sentences in the piece and the voices) until you feel it part of yourself and expressing your personality perfectly. This cannot obviouly be obtained if you play following a metronome or the same model again and again, as this would just be like reading a poem as a kitchen recipy. On the other hand, the basics should be acquired before writing poems..but I prefer anyway someone playing poetry and making mistakes to someone playing it all correct and fast and that's it. Music should be a pleasure and meamingful everytime one touches the instrument, even to play open strings as an exercise.
As I ws sitting in the back, I was not able to see whether Hoppy or the pupil was playing, but the difference in sound was immediately clear to me. I think it is the richness which comes from the soul directly and cannot really be taught, it must be found with years of practice and attention to that. Some more thoughts: I remember Oscar Ghiglia when talking about the same problem: he said to a student : "listen to the intervals , they never betray you, they never make you bored, listen how nice they are" . I think this is very true. Donatella http://web.tiscali.it/awebd To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
