-----Original Message-----
From: vance wood <vancew...@wowway.com>
To: Lute List > <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Thu, Mar 18, 2010 8:49 am
Subject: [LUTE] Re: should i learn thumb-under technique?
Just my opinion and not based on anything other than experience; those who made
the switch in the Sixteenth-Century and beyond were already habituated toward a
right hand approach that attacks both strings. This is not the case with a
person coming at the Lute from the Guitar. The right hand on the Guitar is
concerned with a single contact point, in other words the target is smaller.
When switching to the Lute from this mind set it is somewhat difficult to
re-educate the fingers to strike both strings, and the mind, to hear the
difference and respond to it. I watch a lot of YouTube videos and play
particular attention, in close ups, as to whether both strings in a course are
engaged or whether only one string in a course is activated. There are many
occasions where I see the latter.
----- Original Message ----- From: <chriswi...@yahoo.com>
To: "Lute List" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>; "howard posner"
<howardpos...@ca.rr.com>; "morgan cornwall" <mcornw...@ns.sympatico.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 10:55 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: should i learn thumb-under technique?
Morgan,
--- On Wed, 3/17/10, morgan cornwall <mcornw...@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> Question to all. If thumb-under assists in playing
> the double courses simultaneously and without double
> striking, how did the baroque lutenists (or Dowland for that
> matter) avoid this problem when they switched to thumb-out?
>
Ah, a subject near and dear to my heart. Try thumb-under... if you want to
make your lute sound "dull and rotten" (Stobaeus) ;-) In all seriousness, I
would advise you to give it a serious try. The touch and feel is considerably
different than classical guitar style and you'll probably like it. The
majority of ren. players obviously used this technique and the music they left
to us responds well with it.
Thumb-out can also be made to work and two strings can be simultaneously struck
just as effectively as with thumb-under, but it is generally more appropriate
for music c.1600 and later. Also, thumb-out is NOT the same as classical
guitar technique: you'll have to spend a lot of time practicing real lute
thumb-out. As the quote from Stobaeus above suggests, it seems the
practitioners of thumb-out had a different tonal ideal in mind.
Chris
> And thank you, Howard, for the comments.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "howard posner" > <howardpos...@ca.rr.com>
> To: "Lute List" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 8:20 PM
> Subject: [LUTE] Re: should i learn thumb-under technique?
>
>
> On Mar 17, 2010, at 11:51 AM, morgan cornwall wrote:
>
> > I would like to make the best use of the time I
> have. Given my
> > circumstances, would you recommend
> that I learn thumb-under technique?
> > Does it make more sense to use this
> technique from the start, or should
> > I focus on the other aspects of lute
> technique? If I don't learn
> > thumb-under from the get go, will
> this just be more to unlearn later?
> > Should I not even worry about using
> thumb-under?
>
> I remember some years ago, a lurker on the list named John
> Dowland asked if he should change from thumb-under to
> thumb-out technique, since everyone seemed to have been
> switching, and he got a mixed bag of responses. I wish
> I could forward them on to you, but it was more than 400
> years ago and my email archives don't go back that
> far; Stewart McCoy probably has them. I believe
> Dowland made that change, or so Stobaeus tells us.
>
> As for you, you should arrange your right hand so that it's
> getting a full tone and not banging two strings of a course
> together, which in turn involves striking the string from
> the top, as if you're pushing them down toward the
> soundboard. Your guitar technique will probably not
> accomplish this. Resting the pinkie on the soundboard
> is helpful in orienting the hand, so even if it feels odd at
> first, you should try it. Experiment with whatever
> works, and don't worry too much about where your thumb is,
> unless it's interfering with your fingers.
>
> My first lute teacher told me to try thumb-under for at
> least a week or so, mostly to get me doing something
> different from what I was used to, the theory being, I
> suppose, that doing something farthest removed from my
> established habits would minimize the transfer of
> lute-inappropriate technique to the lute.
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
>
>
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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