I've long thought that there was something missing from the way most of us learn to play baroque music, whether on lute or guitar. Some of us have studied figured bass playing, it's something I particularly enjoyed doing, though I haven't done any for years. But rarely do we step beyond that practice, and I believe that only a very, very small percentage of us are happy improvising baroque counterpoint in Dm tuning.
I was fascinated to learn that one of my jazz guitar heroes, Steve Herberman, teaches a class online called Going For Baroque. You have to buy the class, but an overview video is available: [1]http://youtu.be/u9oZ5Us0sfQ It would be really interesting to transfer his approach to the Dm lute. One would really get to know the instrument and tuning well, and discover many contrapuntal finger movements which could be used in improvising fugues or dance movements. I'd like to know your thoughts after watching the video. Rob MacKillop [2]www.robmackillop.net -- References 1. http://youtu.be/u9oZ5Us0sfQ 2. http://www.robmackillop.net/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
