I am curious if there is an answer to your question. Tangentally, I have a theory that so many strummed chords didn't include the 5th course, that they didn't even bother to put a dot there if it would make a dissonance, they just assumed you wouldn't include it in the strum.
On May 31, 2012, at 6:57 PM, Martyn Hodgson wrote: > 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 > > > > > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
