--- Joseph Mayes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The false impressions I need to correct in > Chris' e-mail are:1. > Classical guitar technique is "counter-intuitive."
I too am a classical guitarist. I continue to play, teach, and compose for classical guitar alongside the lute, and I think I do a pretty good job of adjusting to both instruments on their own ground. When I say that modern classical playing technique is counter-intuitive, I'm not bashing guitar nor saying that lute technique is somehow superior. Intuitive means just what it means: what you do without thinking about it. However, I must disagree with you and restate that modern classical guitar technique is indeed counter-intuitive in the extreme. What does every single beginner need to be reminded of? "Don't plant your pinky on the front of the guitar." I've said this _thousands_of_times_ in lessons I've given over the years. I have never once had a complete beginner who didn't want to plant the pinky and I've found that almost all beginnners need to be reminded of this EVERY LESSON for months before they become comfortable playing without the support. Even then, they are likely to put the ol' pinky (or even more fingers) back down again when they are nervous or sight-reading until its totally ingrained not to do it. Beginners also need to be constantly reminded to extend their thumbs so that its not inside their hands, under the fingers. Pinky on the top; thumb under the fingers. Reminds me of something... > Classical guitarists > do not - repeat do not - bend their wrists. While playing directly perpendicular to the strings is never a good idea, the wrist does indeed have to be bent somewhat. Coming in with too flat of a wrist means that the right hand fingers will be engaging the strings at too shallow of an angle, in which case, movement is not coming from the knuckle, but the next joint. This results at the least in a wispy tone that lacks focus. In order to compensate for this, those straight-wristed guitarists end up putting more muscular force into their playing, using the muscles in the forearm rather than the hand. Now their playing sounds stiff - or worse, they now "claw" at the strings, producing unintended Bartok pizzicatos. We don't want the wrist to look like some kind of pipe-joint, but it does have to bend a little or it doesn't work. > There is no reason > that anyone has explained to me, for having the > little finger anywhere near > the belly (Blasphemy - here come the flames) I think > it's a holdover from > books advising complete beginners. Golly! We'd get get out there right now and tell all of those modern steel-string, fingerpickin' folk guitarists that their planted pinkies and flat wrists are due to a vast conspiracy of high-powered lute pedagogues!!! I'm being facecious, of course. Just pointing out that they do it that way without thinking about it. (BTW, I think a lot of these folkies could learn a lot by taking the time to learn modern classical right-hand technique.) Chris __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
