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 barré 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 barré is not possible, because the open first course needs to sound. Half-barrés 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: [email protected] [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 <[email protected]> A : Lute List <[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][email protected] To get on or off this list see list information at [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
