Shaun Dean       Wed, 12 Jan 2000 13:43:46 -0700
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Well, this has been a fascinating introduction to the Lutenet.  I signed
up for the list four or five days ago when I stumbled across some list
information after doing a web search for lute information.

I've played guitar (primarily country blues) and mandolin (mostly
Celtic) for several years now.  A couple of months ago, in the hopes of
expanding my repetoire a little bit, I picked up a book of Renaissance
lute music transcribed for guitar.  I love playing the tunes, but am not
so enamoured of the way they sound on a steel string acoustic guitar, so
I turned to the web to see what I could find out about lute
availability, etc.  Having discovered the list, I plan to lurk here and
glean whatever I can from the collected wisdom of fellow list members.

Education-wise, I have a degree in literature and music history.  I've
long had an interest in early music, largely focused on sacred vocal
music -- Josquin, Ockeghem, Machaut, etc.  I have some acquaintance with
the lute repetoire (Dowland, mostly), but it hasn't been a major focus
until now.  

I live in a smallish mining town in northern Canada called Yellowknife. 
It's a little remote -- 1500 kilometres by road to the nearest city and
there isn't much of an early music scene (or any, that I'm aware of).  I
work as a communications advisor (read, public relations flack) for the
territorial government, which isn't particularly exotic, but does pay
the bills and supports my habit of trying to get my hands on
increasingly obscure instruments.

Now, if you'll excuse a really basic question from an absolute beginner,
I've seen a number of references to thumb-over/thumb-under (or in and
out) in a number of your posts.  Having had no previous experience with
lute technique, I have no idea what this refers to -- would somebody
please give me a brief explanation of what this means?

Thanks, and here's looking forward to being able to eavesdrop on some
fascinating conversations on-line.

Shaun Dean