Dear All,
I think it really depends on the player, and at least one eminent
teacher and recording artist strongly advocates a two-course barre with
the index finger.
Personally, I find it much easier to play with the half-barre, and
have no difficulty whatever missing the first course so that it sounds
clearly.
Others with larger fingers or inability to flex the first joint of the
index finger in the opposite direction may need to use four fingers, or
simply not play the second course.
Cheers,
Jim Stimson
On 09/09/13, Stewart McCoy<[email protected]> wrote:
That E flat chord
_a_
_b_
_b_
_c_
_d_
___
Dan is right to say that much depends on the thickness of the end of
your
first finger, but I believe there are more people capable of covering
all
four strings of two courses with one finger, than a few double bass
players
with banana-like fingers. The E flat chord should ideally be played
without
a barrA(c) of any sort. You should aim between the second and third
courses,
with your first finger curved exactly as it would be if it were holding
down
just one course. Whenever I have said this to people in the past, their
immediate reaction is, "I can't do it," and many give up at once.
However,
it is worth persevering. Covering four strings at a time with one
fingertip
is certainly daunting. At first you will probably manage to hold down
the
two middle strings (one string of each course), and the outside two
strings
make a faint, barely audible, damped noise. Be happy with that, and
stick
with it. Eventually, when you are not thinking about it, you will find
that
you are covering all four strings. A barrA(c) is not possible, because
the open
first course needs to sound. Half-barrA(c)s are not at all
satisfactory,
because the last joint of the finger is bent back the wrong way, which
is
not strong, and involves too much extra movement. If my fingering just
won't
work for you, you can try turning your left hand slightly, more as a
violinist holds his hand, which enables the first finger to hold down a
wider area across the strings. Turning your left hand like that can
help
with a chord which occurs in Galilei's intabulation of Palestrina's
Vestiva
i colli in _Il Fronimo_:
_c__
_d_
_d_
_e_
_f_
___
You should finger it as you would the E flat chord, with the added
complication that the second joint of the first finger covers c1. That
means
the first finger holds down three courses - c1, d2, d3 - and the little
finger is not used at all. In the Galilei intabulation, the little
finger is
needed for the next note: f4.
In all of this, one should remember a rule I've never seen mentioned by
anyone else, that you should normally put down first whichever finger
is
nearest to the bridge. That means, for the E flat chord or Galilei's
chord,
you should put down your third finger first. If you try playing these
chords
by putting the first finger down first, you'll never get anywhere.
Stewart McCoy
-----Original Message-----
From: [1][email protected]
[[2]mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of jean-michel Catherinot
Sent: 09 September 2013 13:33
To: Edward C. Yong; Lute List
Subject: [LUTE] Re: chord fingering
petit barre avec l'index; that's the canonical way. (Leroy,...). It
works easily with a not wide spacing.
__________________________________________________________________
De : Edward C. Yong <[3][email protected]>
A : Lute List <[4][email protected]>
Envoye le : Lundi 9 septembre 2013 12h19
Objet : [LUTE] chord fingering
Hi collective wisdom of lutenists!
is there a preferred fingering for this:
_0_
_1_
_1_
_2_
_3_
___
everything feels awkward :(
Thanks everyone!
Edward Chrysogonus Yong
[1][5][email protected]
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