Hi John, Hooray! It's supposed to feel awkward at first --all changes of habit do. It was a good idea to put the guitar on the back burner while you suss this out --no sense in confusing your hand more than necessary.
I won't address all your concerns here (I have to leave for work soon and I'm hoping others will add a few notes) but I do want to warn you about a trap I fell into for a few years. About that pinky glue: It's easy to anchor that pinky down and to lean into it for stability. Try to resist this! Your hand should be about the same shape as a natural hand at rest but in front of a lute. The pinky might protrude a little but it should only _just_ contact the lute, giving your brain feedback that 'Oh, the lute belly is about here'. If the hand starts to anchor through the pinky lots of tension habits will start to form. That little contact should be free to move about a few inches as you work your scales up and down from the 6th course to the 1st. What can also loosen up this contact is to have a light contact for your right fore arm as well. What will facilitate both these ideas is to not arch the hand up and let the the arm approach a parallelness to the strings (as looking from your head down). The lute's neck may have to move away from you a little to make this happen. I believe there are some small images on Jacob Heringmann's website as well as at the LSA website. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/download/index.html#video Good luck! Sean On May 1, 2007, at 3:19 AM, John Scott wrote: > Ok, I'm into week two of learning to play the lute, and already I'm > fervently wishing there was a teacher (or even another player) in this > part of the world. Instead I've got myself a copy of Diana Poulton's > tutor. > > I feel like I'm having to unlearn all my 'good' guitar habits! I've > started keeping my pinky 'glued' to the soundboard (shiver!); I've > even > trimmed my precious right-hand nails (and how traumatic THAT was!)... > > But what's driven me back to the list is a question about right-hand > thumb technique. It feels very odd (and a bit inefficient and > counter-intuitive) to have the thumb bouncing around so much, playing > a > base note, then immediately jumping up to the first or second course to > play one of the melody notes, then down for another bass note, and so > on. > > I keep wanting to use my thumb for the bass notes, and my first two > fingers (guitar style) for the melody line... however, I DO want to > learn to play the lute 'properly', so I'm going to try to stick with > it. But it's driving me crazy! > > I'm just wondering - do any of the sources give a reason for this kind > of thumb technique, or is it just some odd quirk in the evolution of > playing? > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
