Howard, Thanks for your very informed remark. Indeed, Piccinini writes in his avertimenti about the thumb, ch. vi: "Io non approvo, che habbia l'vnga molto longa" (I don't endorse it to have a very long nail). And about the other fingers, ch. vii: "Certamente debbono havere le vngue tanto longhe che auanzino le carne e non piu" (they surely need to have nails as long as to pass the flesh, and not further).
About his distinct playing technique, ch. vii: "Quando si fara una pizzicata ( ) si piglierà la detta corda con la sommità della carne & vrtandola verso il fondo, si farà che l'vngna lasci sfuggire tutte due le corde". (Striking a string, one must grip the said string with the tip of the flesh and, bouncing it toward the soundboard, the nail will let escape both strings). That is a bit different, if I'm not mistaken, from modern guitar nail playing technique in that the direction of the vibration of the string is different. Vertical to the soundboard with Piccinini, parallel to the soundboard on the modern classical guitar. That makes a difference in sound, nails or not. But frankly, I haven't seen or heard players with Piccinini's technique so far. Any hints appreciated. Mathias > On Mar 27, 2012, at 3:40 AM, Mathias Rösel wrote: > > > What I was referring to is the position of her right hand close to the > > bridge, her playing with nails, and the initial movements of her index > > and middle fingers from the root joints. That's how I was taught to > > play the classical guitar. > > Piccinini's 1623 foreword specifically instructs players to use nails. Of course, he > may have been influenced by modern classical guitar technique. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
