A couple of things in support of what Rob said- 1) the up and down stokes on the sitar are considered as different 'voices' - there is a third, amusingly described in my tutor as a rapid movement hitting both sides of the string at the same time!
2) Bowed instruments have distinct up and down stroke instructions in the music - push and pull for the gamba. This does not mean that the pull stroke is intrinsically weaker - in fact I was told that it should be as strong, just in case of a mix up - it just sounds different, and tends to fall on the weaker beats of the bar. I've never known which is the stronger movement for the violin... Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob MacKillop" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'lute list'" <[email protected]> Cc: "'medieval lute'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 11:19 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: right hand technique - plectrum > Sorry, Bill, but I think having upstrokes as strong as downstrokes is > unspeakably unmusical! :-) It is what makes classical guitar technique > unlistenable. > > Inequality of stress is in the music, and the best way to articulate it is > to match it with the natural inequality in the technique of down and > upstrokes or thumb and index alternation. When the match in in-sync, you > don't need to manufacture accents. > > Even Lully understood. > > Rob > PS Does the medieval lute list still exist? > > > -----Original Message----- > From: bill kilpatrick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 14 March 2006 16:28 > To: lute list > Cc: medieval lute > Subject: [LUTE] right hand technique - plectrum > > hope you don't mind me dragging things back to the cave but this, for > pickers, is a really useful, comprehensive explanation on how the plectrum > can be used to good effect. it was posted on mike's oud site by a jazz > oud/guitar player named brian prunka (http://www.brianprunka.com/ ): > > My experience is that economy picking on the oud really only works for > successive downstrokes, rarely for sucessive upstrokes. > In fact, a kind of "un-economical" (if I can call it > that) picking occurs a lot, where you use two downstrokes in a row when > crossing from a higher string to a lower one (say from g to d). > > In my lessons with Simon, we have dealt with this is great detail. One of > the things he stressed was that picking is dependent on both sound and on > which strings you're playing on. You should work to get your upstrokes to > sound just as strong as your downstrokes, and be able to control the > volume > so that either one can be louder or softer. > > As for strings: > > there are 3 ways you can play successive notes on the oud, as far as > strings go: > 1. same string > 2. lower string to higher string > 3. higher string to lower string > > there 4 ways you can play successive notes, as far as picking goes: > a. down-down > b. down-up > c. up-down > d. up-up > > this yields 12 possible types of motion, when both picking and strings are > taken into account: > a1, a2, a3, b1, b2, b3, etc. > > the most common (because easiest) of these are: > a1, a2, a3: down-down, any string combination b1, b2: down-up, same > string > or lower string to higher string. > c1, c2, c3: up-down, any string combination > > Simon recommends practicing all of these a LOT, just on open strings > (i.e., > no left hand) or with simple patterns (such as skipping strings). > > the other 4 kinds of motion are significantly more difficult and are > rarely > very practical in very fast passages > b3: down-up, higher string to lower > d1, d3: up-up, higher string to lower (this is useful when some notes in a > phrase are hammered-on or pulled-off), or same string. > d2: up-up, lower string to higher--this is probably the least practical. > > so, it's not really so simple as "alternate" vs. > "economy"; there are 8 types of common motion and 4 uncommon types. All > professional oud players that I've heard use the 8 common types of motion, > which include both "alternate" and "economy" motions. > > A good exercise for strengthening your upstrokes is > this: > (with a metronome on the beat; d=down, u=up; CAPS represent emphasis) > 4/4 ||: D u D u D u D u | d U d U d U d U :|| > ||: U d U d U d U d | u D u D u D u D :|| > > > > early music charango ... http://groups.google.com/group/charango > > > > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with > voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > >
