I think that if you get used to the "hand shaking" position, and if
your forearm is almost parallel to the strings, you will find that
the thumb "bounce" will actually be done by opening and
closing your hand and you will feel comfortable with it
soon. If you wrist is at a greater angle to the strings, the
"thumb out" position, you may find you have to move your whole
hand to get the thumb to the upper voices, and that won't
be so comfortable!
Wayne
p.s. - as Sean said, the pinky is not planted - it just
rests lightly on the soundboard.
> But what's driven me back to the list is a question about right-hand
> thumb technique. It feels very odd (and a bit inefficient and
> counter-intuitive) to have the thumb bouncing around so much, playing a
> base note, then immediately jumping up to the first or second course to
> play one of the melody notes, then down for another bass note, and so on.
>
> I keep wanting to use my thumb for the bass notes, and my first two
> fingers (guitar style) for the melody line... however, I DO want to
> learn to play the lute 'properly', so I'm going to try to stick with
> it. But it's driving me crazy!
>
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