I have similar concerns to Stuart's. Well into my senior years, I returned to the lute 2 years ago after a layoff of about 35 years. First I began the process of switching from thumb out to thumb in. For speed, I have incorporated the treble studies that Ronn McFarlane recommended in one of the LSA journals some time ago, into my daily practice routine. I have found that by using a metronome and gradually pushing the tempo up, I have made noticeable progress. Where longer runs become a problem, I do work on smaller groups of notes. While practicing slowly and cleanly is obviously necessary, at some point pushing the tempo up is also necessary if speed is to be attained, yes?
Ned On Sep 10, 2010, at 3:18 PM, Stuart Walsh wrote: > >>> I have another take on this. Study slowly and precisely. Streamlining >>> the motion of both hands. In other words, know what the fingers do, >>> get rid of superfluous movements and work on muscle memory. Slowly, >>> don't speed up. Don't fall into the trap of studying your mistakes. >>> Chop the runs into groups of 4 notes (or whatever is appropriate) and >>> think of each group of four notes as a unit. Study the unit. String >>> the units together. The speed up. This can go remarkably fast, the >>> speeding up that is. I think it has to do, my theory anyway, with how >>> fast we can think. Speeding up the metronome, but remainign to think >>> about every note individually, will have an upper limit in thinking, >>> an upper limit in control. When thinking of four notes as one unit, we >>> can suddenly think, or control, the music at quadruple speed. >>> >>> David > > I think David's advice here, and the familiar quotation below, is for young > people starting out on the lute. I'm sure it's good but my original question > was whether an older person (with the implication of someone, who has tootled > around on the lute for years, like most of us?) can ever learn to play > significantly faster - in pieces like the one mentioned with very fast runs > and ornamental passages. Of course there are enough fine lute pieces for old > codgers to play which don't have super-fast runs but it's a very striking > feature of Renaissance lute music that a lot of it needs a really fast > technique. > > I've spent a few days looking at some passages in Newsidler's setting of > Isaac's Benedictus. I realise that you cannot play something quickly if you > can't play it slowly; you have to work out precisely how to play it in the > first place. But after a few days of playing just a couple of fragments from > the first half of the piece, really I have to say, nothing is happening, not > the faintest glimmer of improvement. From the point of view of a young person > learning to play an instrument, the advice to really slow down and sort out a > passage and then slowly speed up is crucial. From the point of view of an > older, established player, I just don't think this is going to work. > > For example, in bar15 there is a simple 8-note run: G in the bass (and on > fourth course) and the run starts on d (second course): d, c, b flat, a, b > flat, c, d, e. Practicing this slowly and carefully is OK, I suppose. But I > can play it. I'm sure we can all play it! And there are no other issues about > this little passage. Any lute player must have played this run a million > times. So the question is: how could you get from this point to the unusual > and extraordinary point where you are playing this much, much faster? > > Maybe this is what made me think of the zen thing (only meant to be a joke, > of course) - that somehow, suddenly you just pick up the lute and play at > dazzling speed. > > I suppose the unsurprising fact is that old lute doodlers just aren't going > to get faster and some lute pieces, like these particular Newsidler pieces > are not something to attempt. > > > Stuart > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
