Miguel de Fuenllana says (from John Milton Ward's 1953 Doctoral Dissertation "The Vihuela de Mano and its Music") about the three methods of RH passagi playing:
1. Dedillo, played with the index finger- "Easy and agreeable to the ear, but it is not to be denied imperfection," since, after striking the string "con golpe", hitting an adjacent string when drawing the finger out is difficult to avoid. (for me, it's the back of the nail downstroke that makes dedillo unsuitable. dw) 2. de dos dedos, with the thumb and index, "contains perfection in itself" but should be restricted to the three lowest courses, which are closest to the thumb; since the strings are thicker they require strong fingers for complete and firm redobles. 3. de los dos dedos primeros, with index and middle fingers. The third fingering alone has "all the perfection of which the redoble is capable, as much in speed as in clarity..." Playing the vihuela thumb out, late Renaissance/"Figueta Castellana", I find Fuenllana to be absolutely correct. The irony here is that you are referencing my lute playing, which for lutes of 6 - 8 courses I play thumb under exclusively, using thumb-index strokes anywhere and everywhere I can. But I will take my "bravo!s" with gratitude anywhere I can get them. Thank you! -Dan >What does Fuenllana say? And by the way, bravo! those figures were >really solid with thumb index. Fast and delightful as they should be. > >On Nov 22, 2008, at 12:05 AM, Daniel Winheld wrote: > >>Nah- just plain old regulation thumb index strokes. Never could get >>the dedillo working to my satisfaction; I tend to agree with Miguel >>de Fuenllana on this one. - Dan >> >>>Very nice. Are you using didillo for the fast cadential figures? -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
