Dear All, I have followed this thread with interest. It was good to see NN playing on utube, where many people who are not lute specialists will see and hear it. The playing is (as usual with NN) marvellous, and I want it to be understood that the following comments are not intended to be a criticism of his playing:
1. He moves his right hand a lot, but if you look closely you will see that it is nearly always not associated with playing different notes in different places. Typically, he plays a note, moves his hand towards the neck, moves it back again, and plays another note in the same place as the first! I have seen him do this so many times, I can only conclude that it is just a habit, perhaps a reassurance of relaxation, I don't know. He certainly seems relaxed and in control. 2. Bruno talks about bending the last joint. I know different people do things differently, but I have always been told (and it seems to work) that the last joint should not be part of the plucking action. In fact the normal state for this joint would be one of relaxation, only introducing a little tension for special effect. Whether all this changes with "thumb out" I don't know, but to me it seems even more important in this technique because the fingers are already in danger of hooking up the string from underneath. 3. So few people in modern times seem to have had any success with "thumb out" yet Nigel seems to have cracked it. I am really interested in how it works. I think it is fair to say, though, that his hand position is not as extreme as that shown in most 17th C paintings, either in terms of how far the thumb is ahead of the fingers or in terms of how close the plucking point is to the bridge. 4. One of the problems I have had when trying to play thumb-out is tension - because it's an unfamiliar hand position - yet it seems the solution is to relax as much as possible. I suppose after twenty years or so (in Nigel's case) it begins to seem normal... Best wishes, Martin To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
