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Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
I would like to propose an alternate way of playing the lute in sitting – using a strap. With the lute on your right leg, place the lute on a diagonal to my body, so that the back of the lute is against your right front side. This means that the neck is in front of your body, with the neck diagonal to and in front of your torso and your left arm is in front of your torso, rather than to the side. This places the strap over your left shoulder, and the strap supports the lute neck upwards.
With the lute in this position, you’re able to place the elbow of your upper right arm on the top of the lute, and you don’t have to rest your forearm on the edge of the lute. The crook of your elbow is right at the lute edge, and the weight of the upper right arm stabilizes the lute on the single leg it is resting on. If you choose to play with the forearm on the edge of the lute, the angle will be so reduced, that the edge won’t so directly cut into the forearm musculature.
Because you’re sitting so fully and absolutely upright, then it is only the arm weight on the lute, and you’ll able to easily move the right arm for color changes. Also, with the lute on a diagonal, your right upper arm extends straight out from your right side, rather than having to pull it around to the front of the torso to play. This is unbelievably comfortable for playing.
With your left arm in front of your torso, there are three advantages over the lute neck being to the side of the torso. You can see the neck of the lute without having to turn your head to the left to look downwards. With the neck of the lute in front of your torso, it means with your left arm in front of the body, your kinesthetic sense is more naturally accurate. You have a more accurate sense of exactly where an arm is in space, if it is front of the body, rather than to the side.
Third, you feel a sense of incredible strength and power in your left hand and arm, when you play in the first position with lute and arm in front of you and closer to you on a diagonal to your torso. The further an arm is extended away from the torso, and especially out to the side, the weaker it is. Simply, you can support more actual weight with an arm closer to and in front of your body, rather than extended away from the body. This is obvious when lifting weights.
What is so incredible about playing the lute this way, is the whole body is able to be in a fully symmetrical posture. You are able to sit like a cellist. You also don’t have to hold the lute up with your left arm because of the strap, and you don’t have to twist your torso to the left to have your right forearm be on the lute and your full torso against the instrument. This way of playing the lute truly has the instrument fit you, rather than you fitting the lute.
