Players getting better: They are better at everything. One can of course argue that they are getting worse, or, even worse, staying exactly the same--those would seem to be the options-- but I have watched the lute scene now for forty years, and we have come a long way, we play better, have better musical training, read continuo, have better instruments and techniques, understand style--not to say there is not room for improvement (warning--chart will follow) When I was playing in the late sixties, there were few or none continuo players, thumb under players, intruments were pretty bad. There were some VERY highly trained musicians, but only a very few. And so on. But every year, improvements. The improvements did not keep pace with recorder & keyboard--the recorder players really mastered original notation, artoculation, and ornamentation--but gradual, visible, audible improvements. Hey--who here plays worse, come on, fess up old timers! dt
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