I find Youtube a good resource for looking at the techniques of various lutenists, and Jan Gruter (no umlaut on my keyboard) impresses with the fluency of his playing (for example Dowland's "A Fancy"). To me it looks like he uses thumb over technique and I wonder if his technique is similar to what those who have researched this issue think Dowland may have used later in his career, when he is said to have adopted a more thumb over technique. I have seen this piece played very well by one of our members with thumb under technique, but the thumb over does seem to make playing the running lines in the treble - using m-i instead of p-i - along with a bass line easier to manage. Of course, it also comes to my mind, that the two techniques inevitably result in a different character; subtle differences in sound and in rhythmic articulation and accentuation. And this leads me to the bigger question of how fluid - how regular in articulation - lute pieces such as this one "should" sound. In essence, I rather wonder if the difficulties imposed by thumb under technique in dealing with trebles and basses together isn't actually an advantage in leading the player to finding the true character of earlier lute music. ( As wonderfuly as guitarist today - and earlier - play, I do find something essential missing from lute music played on that instrument, and it has to do with much more than just sound)
Just pondering the issue of right hand technique as I work at it. Ned -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
