And indeed, from that time on, the majority of players of classical guitar adopted Sor’s point of view and the use of the LH thumb became anathema in guitar pedagogy. Those who shared his sentiments will have accept his doctrines, and those who did not agree, will have ignore them. As in the entire book, Sor only describes his own personal approach to technique, and only relates what he personally found easy or difficult to do. I saw that the majority of guitarists had only half of the hand in front of the neck, since the hand supported the neck with the top of the angle formed by the thumb and the index that in this position it was necessary for me to give to the index an excessively violent contraction to press the lowest string on the first fret that this did not allow the end of my fingers to fall perpendicularly on the strings, I was compelled to make more effort to press them, and that, consequently, it was almost inevitable to touch the neighboring string and to choke off a sound which I could need that when I had a note to make, a semitone higher than that which was within the range of my small finger, all the hand had to be moved, which I could only make by also moving the front forearm and that I could not acquire a perfect assurance to find the point which would be appropriate for me…īear in mind that Sor’s point of view is not to say what anybody else should or should not do. In the fifth edition of the method, now bearing op, 241 and published circa 1829, Carulli says this: The same notation was repeated unchanged in the next 3 issues of the method. 27, Carulli does not actually advocate the technique, but simply uses it in a few isolated places, usually on the bass F, indicating it verbally in small print with the word pouce (thumb).
In his first guitar method of 1810, his op. This strong and curt language, certainly reflects an on-going debate among guitarists in France, a good couple of decades before the “Discussion” between the Carullists and the Molinists caricatured by Maresco. Some persons also enter the LH thumb into service sometimes but, in this instrument, as in many other, one finds a bit of charlatanism sometimes mixed in, and since this is a subject I cannot deal with, I will only speak of four fingers, first, second, third and fourth. One uses four fingers in order to play the guitar. Here is, for example, a sixteenth century picture by Giulio Campi, presumable depicting Francesco da Milano.Īs we can see from the detail, the player does not actually press the bass strings with his thumb, but merely holds the neck in the manner of violinists.Ĭharles Doisy had this to say on the use of the LH thumb: The use of the left-hand thumb on fretted-plucked instruments is an ancient practice, dating back to the dawn of history of these instruments. The obvious main difference in teaching guitar technique by both Carulli and Molino is that Carulli was using the LH thumb and Molino was not. What we can do, is examine the several guitar methods published by both guitarists, and see if there are any major differences between them. I do not know of any historical record of any major conflicts between Carulli and Molino, and one is hard pressed to understand Maresco’s insinuation of such a conflict. The question that first comes to mind is this: What the Pluck these people were actually talking about, while exhibiting such passion and anger, using their Lacote guitars as conversation tools?
Presumably a reference to followers and disciples of both Ferdinando Carulli and Francesco Molino. The original subtitle says:Ī discussion between the Carullists and the Molinists, La Guitaromanie was published in Paris sometimes in the 1820-30s, and it contained several pictures about the guitar in social encounters and some fairly pedestrian music. This famous picture was printed in a curious book titled La Guitaromanie, by one Charles de Maresco, a Parisian guitarist of questionable merits whose only claim to fame is that Hector Berlioz mentioned him at quite some length in his Les Soirées de l’Orchestre of 1852.