But if you slowly draw a bow and arrow and then release it, the arrow will travel just as fast as if you drew it quickly. The initial addressing of the string can be slow, but the stroke itself must be quick, "like a mousetrap, or touching a hot stove," as one teacher once put it. Beginning practice of producing single notes to refine one's tone as an early student should be intentionally slowed down, at least the initial part of the action. Also, has anyone mentioned the fact that we're talking about TWO strings here? I think if you displace the strings sideways rather than toward the soundboard you are actually displacing one string more than the other. Also, if they are vibrating sideways, there's much more chance of them striking each other, a real possibility, for example, with the bass strings of a large lute. When contemporary luters recommended playing "deeply into the mouth of the lute" I think they may have been telling students to depress the strings into the soundboard. In any event, practice certainly confirms the fact that on a lute one achieves a much rounder, fuller tone by depressing the string toward the soundboard rather than dissplacing it sideways. Cheers, Jim
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