vkioulaphides
Jun-10-2004, 8:24am
The French have, as always, a most eloquent expression for this malady: déformation professionelle, i.e. the deformation of one's body —or even behavior!— by one's everyday, professional occupation.
On the strictly physical level, this applies e.g. to the tennis player, whose racquet-wielding arm is far more developed in musculature than the other one; on the behavioral level, it applies e.g. to the schoolteacher who repeats everything at least three times, in progressively slower, clearer enunciation, in order to be understood— even by adults.
Well, my bassist déformation professionelle —or, in American fashion, should I just abbreviate it to D.P. from now on? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif — are my E.T. fingertips. As a result, some chords on the mandolin (evidently very common ones, as I keep finding them in various texts and scores), simply do not work under my paws. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
Think, especially, of those chord-formations that require the index or middle finger to press the note on the "middle" string, e.g. where the other fingers may be on the D- and E-courses, while the larger finger is on the A-course. Hélas, la déformation! Simply impossible: The index or middle finger(tip) INEVITABLY mutes either of the outer courses by its width. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
So, then, what to do? (short of filing my fingers down with some sort of pencil-sharpener... *ouch!*) The problem would, of course, simply go away if I played a modern German bowlback, with its spacious, almost lute-ish fingerboard; then again, that would be like buying an 18-wheeler just because one likes a wider driver's seat...
Advice?
P.S. I know, of course, that any chord-formation can be found in alternate locations, i.e. 3-4 positions higher/lower, but, for the purpose of this thread, that is not what I mean; what I do mean is in loco.
On the strictly physical level, this applies e.g. to the tennis player, whose racquet-wielding arm is far more developed in musculature than the other one; on the behavioral level, it applies e.g. to the schoolteacher who repeats everything at least three times, in progressively slower, clearer enunciation, in order to be understood— even by adults.
Well, my bassist déformation professionelle —or, in American fashion, should I just abbreviate it to D.P. from now on? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif — are my E.T. fingertips. As a result, some chords on the mandolin (evidently very common ones, as I keep finding them in various texts and scores), simply do not work under my paws. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
Think, especially, of those chord-formations that require the index or middle finger to press the note on the "middle" string, e.g. where the other fingers may be on the D- and E-courses, while the larger finger is on the A-course. Hélas, la déformation! Simply impossible: The index or middle finger(tip) INEVITABLY mutes either of the outer courses by its width. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
So, then, what to do? (short of filing my fingers down with some sort of pencil-sharpener... *ouch!*) The problem would, of course, simply go away if I played a modern German bowlback, with its spacious, almost lute-ish fingerboard; then again, that would be like buying an 18-wheeler just because one likes a wider driver's seat...
Advice?
P.S. I know, of course, that any chord-formation can be found in alternate locations, i.e. 3-4 positions higher/lower, but, for the purpose of this thread, that is not what I mean; what I do mean is in loco.