Hi Dan
Good to hear from you - we seem to agree. (or is that just a symptom of
a miss spent youth?)
Joe
On 3/31/11 10:07 PM, "Daniel Winheld" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Joe-
>
> I'll take that 2¢ and put in my bank account.
> Need all I can get these days- NO SMUDGES ON MY
> LUTES! There are other branches in Lutedom
> besides Orthodox. There is Conservative- finger
> down, but flexible and moves up and down with the
> hand. There is Reform, sometimes off the
> soundboard, sometimes on. I am
> Reconstructionist/Atheist- that little finger is
> out, but mostly no solid contact; a bare touch
> like the feeler gauges on old cars for sensing
> the curb when parking - sometimes light contact
> for fast thumb-index runs for thumb under, and
> off for chordal play. I think it is always off
> when playing thumb out (Baroque & archlute,
> usually also vihuela) but will have to watch
> myself next time to see for sure.
>
> Modern guitars have an elevated fingerboard,
> which puts the top enough further out of reach of
> the fingers to make little finger down a complete
> disaster (at least for me) and the extensive use
> of the 3rd finger means the pinky cannot ever be
> tied down- esp. if the distance from strings to
> soundboard is another 1/2 centimeter or so. Some
> of the pick guards on archtop guitars function as
> much as a platform for the pinky (plectrum
> players) as top protection- location here, as in
> real estate, is everything.
>
> And that's my 2¢ back- don't spend it in one place.
>
>
>> 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?
>>
>>
>>
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>
