Am Sonntag, 26. Februar 2017 15:53 CET, Richard Brook <richa...@ptd.net> schrieb: > Hi John > > I have found the same problem. My pinky and ring finger wish to act as a unit.
Wellcome to the club ;-) That might explain why the ring finger was hardly ever used in lute playing (and in most of 18th century guitar playing!). And let's not forget that keyboard fingering up the the early 18th century avoids right hand thumb and pinky. > I finally gave up thumb under on R lute because of this and use a very light > touch with pinky on B lute. > And often lift lt to get to 12 and 13 courses.I notice some very good layers > often do the same. I’d be interested in other’s comments as well. Why not do as "they" did? Give up on the ring finger and strech out your right thumb. This change does take some time and it's tempting to fall back into olf habits but after a while it all starts to make sense. Cheers, Ralf Mattes > Dick > > > > On Feb 26, 2017, at 3:52 AM, John Yentes <jackyen...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hello all, > > I am sure this is a topic that has been beaten to death at some time or > > another, but I figured I would try to find some opinions as they are a > > bit difficult to come by when merely searching on google. > > I have done a good bit of practicing while resting my pinky on the > > soundboard which proves to be mildly helpful when searching for some of > > the bass strings, however, I have been practicing for the past couple > > months without doing so and have found that muscle memory tends to take > > care of me rather well. I am still a beginner on the baroque lute. > > I have mastered some of the shorter Gaultier and Weiss pieces (I'm sure > > the term mastered is entirely subjective) and have found that I am able > > to play with a much lighter touch and have far better dynamic control > > when my pinky is free rather than resting. I tend to owe this to the > > fact that my pinky and ring finger are hopelessly connected together, > > so my range of motion is not great when playing with a rested little > > finger. I have also noticed that there are a few professional players > > who tend to play with a free little finger as well. > > I don't use gut strings, but I have heard that one must play closer to > > the bridge to achieve a good tone when using them, so the practice of > > resting the little finger on the bridge seems more practical in this > > situation. I, however, have found the best sounds for Carbon/nylon to > > come either from directly behind the rosette or perhaps somewhere in > > the middle. I apologize for the long winded post. any thoughts on > > this? > > Jack > > > > -- > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > >
