I think that the "little finger down" thing has become a religion, these days. It is likely that there were as many styles of play as there were players in the "old times." It's interesting that not all surviving instruments have the "smudge." Were they cleaned up? Were they repaired with new soundboards? Were they played without that pinky on the face?
Guitarists do not play with the pinky on the face and play fairly fast and acurately. It seems a somewhat unnecessary bit of the "Orthodox Lute technique." Just my $.02 Joseph Mayes ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Herbert Ward [[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 12:43 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] Stability of lute in playing fast. Below I use the word "jerk" several times. I suspect there may be a more elegant and accurate verb. If so, please excuse me. A few weeks ago I watched a bluegrass mandolin player. This man had won a (Texas?) state bluegrass mandolin championship, and, as one might suppose, he could quite fast. In watching him play, I immediately noticed the large degree to which his mandolin "jerks around" (for lack of a better phrase) while he's playing, with no tendency to jerk less during the fastest and most intricate passages, or indeed even during the quieter passages. This contrasts starkly with my modus operandi, which is to stabilize the lute as much as possible, in order to give myself a stationary target, especially for my right hand. The obvious explanation for this is to suppose that the mandolin player's hands, and in particular his right hand, move with the mandolin while he's playing, and thus negate the effect of the "jerking". But, in playing the lute, my right hand is, more or less, glued to the lute in that my little finger rests on the soundboard and my forearm rests on the lute's edge close to the strap button. All this leaves me fairly confused. Do all elite lute players keep their little fingers and forearms solidly on the lute? Do they stress this in their teaching? Do they present this as part of the technique needed to play fast? Do any of them play with "jerking" lutes? Have any of this list's readers worked through this issue personally? To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
