[NetBehaviour] The right-hand ring finger

[Alan Sondheim]

The right-hand ring finger

(or fourth finger or third, depending on the count)
- other than the little finger, an awkward one for playing.

Now, recently, I found the right-hand ring-finger was
functioning differently than before; in fact, it was capable of
doing odd movements and plucking that the other fingers
couldn't. I've had this happen before; my right-hand index
finger's dominant role has been replaced by my middle-finger.
The right-hand little finger is still week, but better.

The point of all of this is that the somatic mapping of the
body, at least in terms of musical instrument playing, changes
over time. New skills are added, and others disappear or are
simply deprecated. Below are two examples - pieces I love and
wouldn't have been able to play before. The first uses all five
fingers on my right hand as usual, but the soloing and texture
comes from the dominant ring-finger. The second is a solo piece
strummed and plucked entirely from the ring-finger. For me, all
of this feels 'odd' and somewhat ungainly, but increasingly
'natural.' My left-hand continues as usual, by the way, although
my left thumb has been increasingly used when I reach over the
top of the neck to do runs or very long stretches.

So here are two pieces that are new for me in technique and
style, played without post-production on the 1917 Martin terz
guitar.

http://www.alansondheim.org/rightring1.mp3
http://www.alansondheim.org/rightring2.mp3