Peter wrote about Picinini:
Then there also is the other strange thing in his instructions. I wonder,
did he loose his ring finger in a duel? After acknowledging in passing
that finger's existence --maybe only in others?-- he seems to completely
ignore it.
There's a whole school of post 16th century
century pluckers, including Piccinini, De Visée
and Sor, just to mention some that spring to
mind, that insist on still not using the ring
finger. Some today like to to think it has to do
with low tension stringing, some with playing
thumb under, others with playing close to the
bridge. One way or another, unless you adopt a
modern classical guitar hand, there will be some
compromise in tone production if you want to use
all three (pinky is excused) fingers. Sor in his
method even gives a neat diagram explaining how
to get a better tone without the ring finger. I
know, guitar is off-topic, but I think relevant
to the subject in this case.
David - thinking they were all yakuza members, actually
That's not the only funny fingering he uses.
Toccata XX for liuto has index finger dots going
down to the 10 course in a bass run that finally
ends on the 12th course. Has anyone tried to play
it that way? I have also noted other ring finger
allergy cases- from the usual suspects of 17th
Century France to the late blues virtuoso
Reverend Gary Davis (OT alert! Guitar!). Even
Weiss eschews the ring finger in spots where I
would tend to use it- unfortunately unlearning
automatic ring finger usage is one thing I can't
do- even with early Renaissance thumb under,
planted pinky- but just four note chords in those
instances.
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