Hi Stephen, My ability to get through a lute piece without mistakes or "twangs, splats, and squeaks" may be similar to yours. Very occasionally I do question myself about the sense of continuing an uphill struggle, but mostly not. As long as I sense any progress at all - and that may not be daily, but rather like a plateau learning process where a week can go by with no noticeable improvement and then suddenly you notice that a passage in a piece that didn't come out before now does - I'm encouraged to continue. And, beyond that, as with many endeavors, there is satisfaction in the process - in the discipline involved. To face a challenge and deal with it on a regular basis is reward in itself. So I say, be not discouraged. Keep practicing - keep playing!
Best, Ned On Nov 7, 2010, at 8:29 PM, Stephen Arndt wrote: > Dear David, > > I had a very mixed reaction to your post. I am in no way a professional > musician, though I consider myself a serious, if not a very accomplished, > amateur (at least in the etymological sense of the word). Often times I have > listened to lute recordings and thought, "I might as well just quit. I'll > never play like that." I can get through any given piece without an actual > mistake (i.e., playing a wrong note) only one time in a hundred perhaps and > never without "twangs, splats, and squeaks." So, I was consoled to learn that > even professional musicians may have up to 2,200 edits per CD. Perhaps if I > could edit myself "every 2 seconds," I wouldn't sound so bad after all. It > could well be that commercial CDs set artificially and therefore > unrealistically high standards of performance. On the other hand, your most > recent video (I think), "It's a Wonder to See," has absolutely no "twangs, > splats, and squeaks" or any other imperfections that could be edited out, so > I am back to thin! king, "I might as well just quit. I'll never play like that." > > I am not addressing myself now to the Paul O'Dettes, Nigel Norths, or Robert > Bartos among us (or even to the highly accomplished Daniel Shoskes or Valéry > Sauvages among us), but just to the average lute player, whoever you may be. > Do you have similar thoughts and feelings? Do you alternate between "I love > this more than anything" and "I'll never be any good at this"? Maybe we > should form a support group. Please let me hear from you. > > Stephen Arndt > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "David Tayler" <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2010 2:55 PM > To: "lute-cs.dartmouth.edu" <[email protected]> > Subject: [LUTE] Re: OT: Baroque Guitar technique > >> Live music is great! >> A typical classical music CD has 800 edits, a typical solo CD, such >> as guitar, lute, harpsichord, etc, varies, but the high and low >> numbers for the albums I hvae worked range from 450-2200 >> Now 2200 edits is a a very large number, that's 2200 twangs splats >> and squeeks that have been removed. Basically, a correction has been >> applied every 2 seconds. >> So, live music is better. By going to a real concert, you hear >> something that is real, and support musicians directly. >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
