Various 5 course guitar tablature sources ask for partial strums in
which only some of the courses are to be strummed; unstrummed
courses being indicated by dots (although the practice may, of course,
be more widespread than suggested only by the tablatures with these
dots).
A typical example is a G major chord (stopped on the 2nd and 5th
courses) but with a dot on the first course indicating a strum of the
lower 4 courses but without the first course strummed (eg Lobkowicz Ms
OLIM Prague II Ms Kk77 fol 82v - Minuet). Is there any evidence that
these were ever performed by using, say, the middle finger of the right
hand (or even a spare left hand finger) to damp the unplayed course or
is it simply a matter of precision in execution of the strum with the
index finger?
MH
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