Dear Mark and all
I think that is a very interesting comment.
There are photos of Jazz musicians on Jean-Marie's site who appear to
be using
the thumb blocking method, but it could well be that this is
damping : a little like the damper
on a piano in fact. Well in the rock example, I suppose it is
preventing these strings from
picking up vibrations from neighbouring strings.
Yes, I think the idea of damping to obtain a punchy dance style, is
an interesting hypothesis;
and the idea that technique might have been carried on over from the
earlier plectrum playing is at least plausible, and a very
interesting idea
that I will transmit to the French list if I may.
Best regards
Anthony
Le 30 nov. 06 à 19:37, [EMAIL PROTECTED] a écrit :
> In einer eMail vom 30.11.2006 18:49:00 Westeurop=E4ische Normalzeit
> schreibt
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
>
>> I have put some more examples here, including two
>> supposed Francesco portraits, and a musical example.
>> And some other pictures.
>>
>> http://mysite.verizon.net/arthurjness/thumb.html
>>
>
> I am not sure if this is related, but when I play cittern, I tend
> to damp the
> lowest course when I am not using it. The lowest course B can often
> get in
> the way especially if you are playing in gminor.
>
> Once Stewert MyCoy saw me playing and said he found it interesting
> that I
> used the thumb to fret notes. But I wasn't I was just dampening
> them to avoid
> hitting the lowest course.
>
> My "habit" comes from rock guitar playing where at high volumes you
> have to
> careful to damp anything you don't want to sound. But you also see
> acoustic
> guitarists using this to be able to use "carefree" strumming styles
> on chords not
> using the 5th and 6th string.
>
> Maybe the earlier lutenists used a simular technique when playing
> strummed
> pieces such as those in the earliest lute books. I find at least on
> the cittern
> that the damped string gives a nice percussive sound to the chord.
>
> This of course doesn't rule out that they used the thumb to fret
> notes, but
> maybe a style that developed from plectrum playing kept not only
> the right hand
> position, but also the left hand "bad habits" from those evenings
> thrashing
> out dance tunes.
>
> Just a thought.....
> Mark
>
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