Dear Stephen, Many thanks for your reply. The fingering you suggest is as follows:
|\ |\ |\ |\ |\ |\ |\ |\ |\ | |\ | _a___________________________________a__________ ____2d_|_2c__a_____a_2c_a_2c_4d___|_______4d_2c_ _______|_______3d_________________|____2d_______ _______|__________________________|________a____ _3e_1c_|__a___________a________1c_|_3e__________ _______|__________________________|_____________ The question is whether to use the 2nd or 4th finger for the second chord of the extract. I would avoid the 2nd finger here for three reasons: 1) It involves a slide to the next chord. In passages of parallel 10ths, it is usually a bad idea to use slides, except when moving to higher positions up the neck. I think it is important to distribute the work amongst the fingers, rather than overload one finger, because this helps keep everything fluid. 2) In choosing a fingering, it is a good idea for each finger to keep coming back to the same place on the fingerboard. In the rest of this extract, the 4th finger is used for d2 twice. It will help find those notes, if the 4th finger has already been there for the second chord of the extract. 3) There is a stretch between the 3rd finger on the 5th course and 2nd finger on the 2nd course, which is OK, but there is less stretch (so more comfortable) with the 4th finger. Fingers "knowing their place" is an important concept. I think of folk guitarists, who have learned to strum a handful of chords to accompany their songs. They do it very well, but they cannot deviate from what they do. For example, their fingers will go straight to _c_ _d_ _c_ _a_ ___ ___ for D major, but if you ask them to play _c_ _c_ ___ ___ _d_ _d_ _c_ or ___ or _c_ _a_ _a_ _a_ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ they start to struggle. I'm not saying that their inflexibility is desirable, but if fingers do have a regular place to go within a passage, it is one less thing for the player to think of. In this extract, all notes are played with the same finger, with just one exception: d3 is played once with the 3rd finger and once with the 2nd finger. This is because the hand has changed position. By "position", I mean a little more than moving the left hand one fret along the fingerboard. I think of the extract as being in these two positions: ___________ ______ __2c_+_4d__ ______ __3d_______ and __2d__ __1c_______ ______ _____+_1c__ __3e__ ___________ ______ In the first of these positions, the 1st & 2nd fingers work in tandem along the 2nd fret; the 3rd & 4th fingers work in tandem along the 3rd fret. It's not what people normally describe as "first position", with one finger per fret. Best wishes, Stewart. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Arndt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute Net" <[email protected]>; "Stewart McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 3:28 AM Subject: *** SPAM *** Re: [LUTE] Lute fingering in Fuhrmann's Ballet > Dear Stewart, > > I really enjoyed the task you set us, i.e., to compare our spontaneous > fingerings with your suggestions. I would have done things exactly as you > suggested with one exception. I would have played the second note of the > first measure (bar 13) as indicated in your second possibility (i.e., 1c on > the fifth string and 2d on the second) and then would have slid the second > finger from the third to the second fret for the first note of the second > measure (I hope I have made myself clear). To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
