I agree with Ed. a friend has been playing my gut strung lute, on and
off for a year.
At first he couldn't come to terms with the gut basses, now he is
seriously thinking of adopting them himself. He has realised that at
least some gut actually opens uo the sound of the lute, and makes it
sound more "free". Those were his words, not mine.
He also notices an impression of slight delay when releasing the
basses. I think that means he has now acquired the technique
described by Ed. Not surprisingly a tennis player told me almost the
same thing when he moved from synthetics to gut.
Regards
Anthony
Le 3 déc. 07 à 14:00, Edward Martin a écrit :
Hello, Stephan. It is difficult to explain in a few words with out
holding
the lute & demonstrating the manner I have found that works.
Particularly
the lower or deeper basses need to be played fast; that is, when
playing
through the fundamental and octave together, if one plays those 2
strings
with a bit more speed than usual, a clearer sound is obtained.
Another view is to play with slightly more pressure than usual. 2
years
ago in the summer, I re-strung my 13 course with synthetic strings,
and I
immediately notice that in playing the basses, they were too
"loud", or
present with synthetics. I accommodated this by playing slower
through the
course, and with less pressure. At that point, I think I had the
"right
touch" for the synthetic strings. When I went back to gut, I
noticed again
that I had to increase the pressure and speed through the course,
in order
to get a clean, clear sound. Also, when I play through the course, I
actually try to push the string down toward the belly, & then
release the
course with the thumb. I think this is what can get a clearer
sound with
gut basses.
I notice that when I hear others play my lute, they do not sound as
clear
(that is, as clear as I think I sound), and it is because of what I
explained.
It took a great deal of time in working with gut basses in learning
to get
the sound I was after.
Thanks for asking,
ed
At 12:14 PM 12/3/2007 +0100, Stephan Olbertz wrote:
Am 2 Dec 2007 um 16:07 hat Edward Martin geschrieben:
that is, it does
take a different approach with the right hand in learning how to
use gut
appropriately & beautifully.
And that would be?
Thanks and regards,
Stephan
Down to only 4 instruments? Too bad....
ed
At 10:44 AM 12/2/2007 -0500, Daniel Shoskes wrote:
Ed, as you know I have gone through phases of experimentation with
gut on my barqoue lutes. Even though we both live in cold climes, I
have not been successful keeping gut easily in tune, at least
not on
my bass rider. With my limited time to practice, it is simply not
possible to spend a good chunk of time tuning. Also, and I know
this
is sacrilege, I don't find the sound difference to be worth it
to me.
I think that gut requires a different right hand technique to sound
at it's best and too often I have heard gut played poorly with I
suppose the implicit message being "well it's on gut, so it must
sound great and be authentic". OTOH, I'm not criticizing anyone who
spends the time and effort to make a fully gut strung instrument
sound great and I've heard that many times too (eg. Earl Christy at
LSA, the recent luteduo videos and of course YOU Ed).
I'm not a recording or performance artist and even with the
occasional amateur concert or youtube video I'm pretty much playing
for my own enjoyment, so this is what has worked for me so far.
Having said that, I am interested in new developments in gut
technology and always willing to try something new, once it has
been
vetted by the gut experts on the cutting edge. What has peaked my
interest again is this swan neck discussion. I love the volume and
balance of the Jauch but don't want to devote my RH thumb to
damping
every bass I strike. That's why the idea of a Jauch with long
thick
gut basses and "best current technology" trebles is appealing. For
crying out loud, I'm down to only 4 instruments at the moment!
Danny
www.dshoskes.com
www.youtube.com/kidneykutter
On Dec 2, 2007, at 9:41 AM, Edward Martin wrote:
Why not stringing it all in gut?
ed
At 08:36 AM 12/2/2007 -0500, Daniel Shoskes wrote:
That is what I find interesting though. Long gut strings seem
to be
much more stable in terms of keeping in tune (and getting them
there). I like the idea of long guts in the basses of a Jauch and
then nylgut and KF for the fingerboard strings.
Edward Martin
2817 East 2nd Street
Duluth, Minnesota 55812
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
voice: (218) 728-1202
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