I practice the runs both ways, with the chord spread, and with the chord played as one note. When the chord is spread, you can play the bass note earlier, and the other fingers catch up. This allows you to play more or less in time. In actual practice, most of these runs operate at the articulation level. That means that you should be able to play them at a pretty fast speed even repeating finger strikes, then, for artistic reasons, you may laternate finger patterns in ineresting ways, or even in just simple ways that are, like bowing or tinguing on wind instruments, appropritae for the music.
However, for any given piece, a number of solutions are possible. For the example below, it isn't so fast that repeating a strike is too difficult, and that is what I would try first. Second, I would simply play the second and third courses with one finger, and in this way the alternation would continue, if one felt that they wished the alternating pattern. One should choose the pattern based on artistic merits. Third, one can hammer on the note before the chord, and continue with single or double articulation. Winds players and string players, and singers who have mastered throat articulation, will vary the articulation patterns. In this case, you must first acquire the finger speed to play runs using single articulation. Then you have the choice how to interpret the final performance. However, should you choose double articulation exclusively, there still are some choices when it comes to the chord around the corner. dt example above, >Dear Stuart and All, > >Stuart Walsh wrote: >><snip> >> >>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? >> > >The second half of bar 15, going into bar 16, looks like this: > > >________________________ >__a___________a_c_|_d___ >____d_b_a_b_d_____|_a___ >__c_______________|_____ >__________________|_c___ >__a_______________|_____ > > >The first thing I note is that the chord can cause problems for the >following run because the RH index finger has to jump immediately >from the 4th course to the 3rd course. There's nothing we can do >about this except be aware of it (sorry, I guess this is a bit Zen!) >but it helps if you play the notes of the chord exactly together - a >general principle that whenever you have a chord followed by a fast >run, don't spread the chord (apart from anything else, it will mess >up the rhythm). > >The second thing is that the LH first finger should already be on b1 >when the chord is played so that it is already there when we get to >the third note of the passage. Apart from preparing that note, it >also seems to help mentally if you imagine that finger staying there >except for a brief lift-off to play the open string (Zen again). A >better example of this principle is bar 20 (2=crotchet, 3=quaver): > >2 3 >____a__c_a___a___a_____a_________a__ >___________e_______e_c___e_c_e_|____ >_b_____________________________|_b__ >_______________e_______________|_c__ >_______________________________|____ >_______________________________|____ > >Once the 4th finger goes down on e2 (note 5) it should stay down >until it has to be lifted for the c2 (note 10). When the 3rd finger >goes down on the e4 the 1st finger should also go down and stay down >until the end of the bar. Doing this thoroughly may cause some >ringing on of notes but at this speed it might be better to put up >with that than scrupulously lifting and replacing fingers (being >"holier than the Pope" as our German friends say). > >The same sort of pattern a tone lower is very common, with the notes >all on one string: > >______________________ >__d_c_d_c_d_c_a_c_|_d_ >__________________|___ >__________________|___ >__________________|___ >__________________|___ > >Here (assuming you're using 4th finger for the d2 and 2nd finger for >the c2) both fingers go down at the beginning and the 2nd finger >stays down throughout, except for a brief lift to accommodate the open string. > >This is probably not news to the advanced players among you, but I >thought it was worth spelling out for anyone who hasn't caught up with it yet. > >Best wishes, > >Martin > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
