Lovely playing, lovely sound. > The business of different sizes of lute is interesting. One thing is clear > - you get used to whatever you are playing at the moment
So true. My extremes are a 54cm 6-course and a 78cm 10-course. When ordering these (together) from Stephen & Sandi I think I asked for a little English sports car and a huge Volvo estate. You'll get from A to B in either, but the ride is quite a different experience. My hands are small, but given that the big lute has such a deep, sweet sound with lots of sustain, it is not necessary to hold all the notes that I would have to hold on the little lute. Size matters, but in different ways. Big can be easy as big lutes are more forgiving. On the small ones you'll have to be precise. Precise in tone production, as Martin said, but also precise in respecting polyphony and playing all the notes in each chord. What I find more of a challenge with the small or big instruments, is their body size: how to hold them. The little ones give me back age if I bend over to much, and the big ones give me shoulder pain if I stretch too far. Or is this not so much a question of size, but age matters? Anyway, Martin reminded me of my next R-lute wish: 7-course in E or F. David - expecting his new Lakewood steelstring (!) to arrive today :-) -- ******************************* David van Ooijen [email protected] www.davidvanooijen.nl ******************************* To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
