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Dukes of Dexterity

104 Comments

Today might be Mississippi John Hurt‘s Birthday. Or not.

Many sources list the day as July 3, 1893, but there’s a tombstone in Avalon, Mississippi that claims it’s March 8th, 1892. Not that the date matters all that much. I’d be in favor of adding several dozen dates to the list to create more confusion, because any excuse to listen to John Hurt works for me.

Since Hurt was born in the 19th century, he came from a world where “digital content” was something you made with your fingers. One oft-told story is that when the classical guitar master Andrés Segovia heard one of Hurt’s solo recordings, he asked who was playing the second guitar. I like it that we get a chance to see his hands work in this video.

http://youtu.be/YEjyBLm9–4

There is more certainty about today being the birthday of another remarkable string player – Bob Brozman. Speaking of talented hands, in this clip he’s a percussionist too.

Ten fingers in good working order – what a gift!

How do you express your dexterity?

104 thoughts on “Dukes of Dexterity”

  1. Good morning. Great videos. I have tried to learn to play a musical instrument with no success. I probably could play one if I put more work into learning, but I don’t have the patience or desire to get that done. I do like doing things with my hands. There was a time when I frequently put my hands to use doing macramé. Seed saving on a small scale, like I do it, involves a lot of hand work which I enjoy. My hands are used in place of seed cleaning equipment that is used in larger scale seed production.

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  2. Thanks, Dale, these two gentlemen got my heart pumping and my feet tapping first thing this morning. How I would have loved to see John Hurt perform live, but he was long gone before I ever became aware of him. With Brozman I’m still hoping to, some day.

    I’m afraid that my dexterity is well past its prime, and it’s not as if it were ever anything to write home about in the first place, but I do have decent knife skills. Knowing that some baboons might go wild speculating about just how that might manifest, I hasten to clarify what I mean by that: I’m good at slicing, dicing and chopping vegetables. Give me a good, sharp knife and I’m ready to go. Knife skills are what I really like to observe when I watch cooking shows on TV. Some of those TV chefs are really good, my two favorite in that department are Jacques Pepin and Ming Tsai.

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    1. I also like using a knife to cut up things in the kitchen. I haven’t mastered many of those skillful ways that the TV chefs cut things up on TV. I do have some of my own techniques I use which get the job done. I’m kind of slow. While I am putting together a salad someone else can do almost all the work needed to prepare a dinner.

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    2. I am in awe of those who can slice vegetables efficiently and well. I figure it’s a good day if I come out of the kitchen without spilling blood…

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      2. I’ve had to dispose of TWO mandolins over the years because no matter what, I always manage to slice myself as well as whatever fruit/veggie I’m working on. It was just wishful thinking when I bought the second one.

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      1. I’m very sensitive to onions; I start crying when I take it out of the fridge. It’s funny to watch me cut up an onion. Usually I burn a candle and that helps.

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  3. When I took folk guitar lessons in 1970, the first performer we studied was John Hurt and the first piece I learned to play in the finger-picking style was his “Louis Collins.” There was something classic and perfect about Hurt’s pieces.

    My instructor said there were two kinds of folk guitarists from the past: the “troubadors” and the “bluesmen.” Troubadours–and Hurt was the foremost example–learned one perfect way of playing a piece and never varied from that the rest of their lives. You can take a John Hurt recording from the 1920s and it will be note-for-note the same way he played it in the 1970s. Bluesmen, by contrast, never played a piece twice the same way. (This same division exists in almost every art form, I’ve learned.)

    Hurt wasn’t concerned about small details. He came out with a new recording when I was studying guitar and I remember one of my teachers noting, “Someone must have tuned John’s guitar before they let him make this record.”

    Although “everyone” learned to play John’s big tunes, nobody ever came close to sounding like him. There was a genial, bouncing rhythm to his playing that nobody ever caught. His stuff is actually pretty easy to play, and yet nobody could sound like he did. It was almost like his sunny personality took over and made his playing distinctive. John was friendly, puckish, relaxed and slightly bawdy.He wrote slightly risque lines in the 1920s that made him blush and stammer when he performed them in the 1970s. His was a sweet, affable nature. I loved the time I spent with his music.

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    1. If you want to be certain none of your students who come to wide eyed and with guitar in hand and mind open, ever continue on in their pursuits give them an 11 on a scale of 1-10 to be the first challenge. Teachers who like to show off at the expense of their students should have to pay the class for wasting time and setting up barriers that spoil enthusiasm, guitars not hard, playing like that is hard

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    2. Steve, you’ve got me confused here. My information tells me that Mississippi John Hurt died in 1966. Are you thinking of someone else, or am I wrong about his death in 66?

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      1. I’m sure you are right, PJ. You know how fuzzy I am about numbers. My guitar lessons were before my marriage, not after, which means they would have been in the late 60s. I suspect John Hurt–gifted though he was–did very little recording after his death.

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  4. Morning all. This may be it for me today — huge day full of nasty meetings.

    I’m a crafter… mostly papercrafts, but I do dabble in other areas. Little bits of paper, string, ribbon, beads, buttons, bows, rubber stamps — bring `em on. Keeps my hands and part (but not all of my brain) busy!

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  5. Ten fingers in nonworking order: fm and 3 forms of arthritis. Right now cannot grip with either hand. Everything I do right now kind of looks like tim’s typing. My fingers obey none of my commands exactly, close but not exactly. Close can be dangerous, like taking glasses out of cupboards. All was made worse by the move. Hoping for a recovery.
    When I had real fingers I could play no musical instrument. Not a finger issue. If they had a learning disability about music, I would have it. Seriously. Just don’t get how music works.
    But that;’s no complaint. I can still listen and respond. And I carved, built furniture, painted pastel and drew with graphite and charcoal.

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    1. I have a conviction, Clyde, that one never learns that ultimate level of finger-brain-instrument dexterity unless that person has music lessons at an early age. I took up guitar in my late 20s, and by that time it was too late for those delicate and mysterious connections to develop between fingers, brain and instrument.

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      1. There is evidence for that. Piano lessons at an early age seem to show lots of good things, like intelligence.
        But the problem is that children who are given early lessons are likely to have intelligent, caring, musical parents. And musicality, as this group shoews, is related to intelligence.

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        1. So, I’m as dumb as I am because my parents canceled my piano lessons when I was four. It is so nice to have explanations for these things.

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      2. I took up recorder at age 35. It was a magical day when I realized that the notes were going directly from the page into my fingers – no brain involvement telling me what fingers to put where. But, yes, you can never get the dexterity you would have had starting younger. Same with dance. Those people who started young have a huge advantage.

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  6. I share your finger thing these days. I swung a splitting maul for a day about 3 months ago and went through discomfort while doing it but had to get through the damn pile so at the end of the task my hands hurt and my little finger had no feeling . I figured my hands were out of condition and that was my payback well 3 months later the function is at about 40% and the feeling is messed up,
    My dexterity gets its workout on guitar and piano my painting and drawing are pleasures but I don’t sit down often enough with them
    I love working with my hands and it is the best therapy ever to work in some mode that allows interaction. When my hands get working my fingers have a chance to achieve dexterity use it or lose it… Quick before its gone

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  7. When I was completing a rotation in neuropsychology during my internship at a Vet’s hospital in Iowa, I had to take all the neuropsychloglical tests that I would eventually administer to the Veterens referred to the neuropsychology department. One of these tests was the Purdue Pegboard, a timed test of manual dexterity which requires a person to place pegs in holes with each had separately and then with both hands. I have always been pretty quick handed, but I guess my speed on the Purdue pegboard was faster than any intern or patient in the memory of the neuorpsychology staff.

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    2. Teenager had a game like this (don’t remember the name) when she was younger. I discovered that the faster I tried to put the little plastic pieces into their slots, the worse I got. Good with my hands, but slowly!

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  8. I miss my teacher Marie Larkin who introduced me to feldenkrauis which helps the body reconnect all the stuff gone south. Very helpful after a stroke and stuff like that. Connecting synapses is a tricky proposition. When I am trying to learn a new picking pattern it is always like patting your stomach and rubbing your head.

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  9. Oh dear! My aforementioned dexterity may need to come in handy today. Last night husband bought a bag of black oil sunflower seeds for our bird feeders. We left the bag in the van, and this morning when we took it out, there was a hole chewed in the bag, a hole that wasn’t there the night before. I bet we have a mouse in the van, and until we can make sure it is gone, I am driving with rubber bands around my pants legs. I can just see myself driving through town, bringing the van to a screeching halt and stripping down real fast to remove a mouse from my pants leg. Ish!

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  10. Another OT old lady story, but not like my charming one last night, maybe I should say about mental dexterity to stay calm:
    My aunt Mable died in Florida, as I told you. A wonderful woman, Anne, 74 years old with major back problems right now, loaded up with pain killers, is handling the affairs for us. How wonderful for us. Mabel left an estate of about $70,000, which is there because Anne took control of Mabel’s life about four years ago and kept people from stealing from Mabel and built up most of that money. Anne was a very successful realtor for many years. Knows money. The money will be divided into seven shares when we have it, if we get it.
    So Anne wants to get most of the money off her own hands right now. Saturday Anne called my daughter, who is the official heir, and told her she was sending registered mail with the will, a death certificate and a check for $50,000. Two hours later she called my daughter laughing, said her son had mailed out the package but then Anne realized she had written the check on her own account and not Mabel’s on which she has the power to write checks. So she was going to send the $50,000 by regular mail. She asked my daughter to call when the wrong check came and to destroy it.
    So Tuesday comes the registered mail. Will, death certificate and the check. On Anne’s own account, written out not to my daughter but to Mabel. On the signature line it says “remainder of account.” But supposedly, this is not the remainder of account yet. My daughter called. Anne was confused but said the real check was in the mail.
    So we are wondering what the next check will be like. So here it is Friday and it has not come. So I called, Anne, which we hate to do. She walked me very clearly, and I am sure correctly, through what else is going on with clearing up details, and told me that she had walked up to the PO last Saturday, six days ago, and dropped it in their slot. Sure she had. Sure she had written it out correctly. Admits the drugs have made her loopy.(She really is in pain, getting ready for surgery, after she finally gets to the surgeon. Sweet tough old woman.)
    But it’s Friday and it is not here yet. Saturday afternoon mail would leave Florida Monday night and there was a storm in the middle of the country between us and Florida. And you know how the USPS can be.
    But somewhere out there, maybe, is a check for $50,000.
    Stay calm. Stay calm.

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    1. And you thought texters were dangerous on the road. Think where your mind will be. I had a neighbor who spent years trying to get a kangaroo mouse out of his pickup. But it was an old and rusty truck. He sold it without telling the new buyer, but the guy never called or anything. Click and Clack have lots of ideas about how to get it out. I do not remember them.

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      1. See, I’m not calm. Ectopic post again. Belongs with Renee’s, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a mouse of course.

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        2. What was the name of E.B. White’s talking mouse? Actually White insisted it was not a mouse but a little boy who looked like a mouse.

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    2. Clyde, that is a really good story actually.

      My son in Chicago got a different bank card. It came to us in Rochester. I wrapped it double and mailed it regular 1st class mail to him. Took 10 days I think to get to him. And there wasn’t a snow storm.

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    3. My daughter’s mail is a little complicated and throws sub drivers. She and the church have different addresses but share a mailbox, something you could only do in a little town like Evan. Anyway the carrier dropped off church mail and then came back later with her mail. The check was there and correctly written.

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  11. Lately, it seems I mostly use my fingers for typing and making my computer do things for me (like crunching data bits and bytes). Sometimes I sneak in some art time with Daughter or get volunteered for an oddball creative project and that engages the brain and fingers differently. Tomorrow’s rain and mush may give me an excuse to sit inside and put together the internal combustion engine model I got for Christmas – it runs on a battery, so there’s no real “combustion,” but you do get to see how all the parts of an engine work together and it makes “vroom vroom” noises (or so says the box). Might do some baking, too – that can provide an excuse to mix with my fingers (I like to mix the chocolate chips for chocolate chip cookies in with my fingers), which can be good for the soul.

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  12. This would ordinarily be OT, but maybe not today. I just want to note for all my friends here that something totally unexpected has happened with my health: my arthritis is better. Nothing has changed about my life or my drugs, but several weeks ago my hands began to be better. Last night I could cut up the veggies for Sunday’s veggie dip dish, and it was no trouble. That would have been impossible weeks ago. This is a narcissistic post, perhaps, but I didn’t want to deny others the smile that comes with good news.

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    4. Great. I am well-acquainted with arthritis through my M-i-L, my wife, and myself. It does have remission stages. Now, you mus take full advantage of this moment. Go do something you can now do pain free. Celebrate it.

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      1. What Clyde said.

        Also, Spring is coming, think good thoughts, this could be something that lasts a good long while. Enjoy.

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    6. Great news, Steve, and just in time for BBC at your house Sunday. 🙂
      Seems like this happened about a year ago too, where it was better for a stretch? Or am I dreaming?

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        1. Not so, Steve. Last year when I was released from the hospital at the end of March, you were feeling well enough that you offered to drive me places if I needed it.

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        2. By the end of March last year my doctor had put me on Prednisone, a drug that temporarily brings great relief from RA but a drug you cannot safely take very long. A year ago in February or early March I was a pathetic cripple. The brief Prednisone picnic was meant to allow me to travel to Washington to meet old buddies out there.

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      2. Change of weather can have good and back effects on RA and a little bit ot OA, at least in our experience.

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  13. Morning–
    I tried guitar when I was a kid. It never caught on but then I did play trumpet for many years so I have dexterity in one hand anyway. And I can, sort of, type with all 10 fingers.

    OK, this is OT but I have to share with all of you.
    We live out in the country and get a fair share of ‘parkers’ on the road. More in summer than winter of course. But it’s not unusual to come up behind a car in the night and in lights from my vehicle see the people inside scrambling to get their clothes back on.
    But this morning it was a small blue dodge pickup truck parked kinda kitty wumpus in the middle of the road. Just enough room for Kelly to get around. She called on her way to work at 7:10 to tell me it was there and the engine was running but no one around.
    I leave taking daughter to school at 7:30 and it’s still there so I get out to look inside and there’s a naked man in there. Seat reclined, couldn’t see him until I got right up there. Not doing anything, just…. naked.
    At which point I went back to the car, called Sheriff dispatch and continued on to school.

    And then started to think ‘I hope he wasn’t dead or getting CO2 poisoning. I think his chest moved when I looked….’

    Got my tea and paper and headed back to wait for the deputy. Yep, truck is still parked there. I wait about 100 yards up the road. Deputy shows up, And I watch them approach very slowly, finally knocks on the window and after a bit someone gets out. I can see them putting a jacket on. Ah– seems it’s a homeless couple, they parked there during the night, did what they did and fell asleep. So they were sent on their way.
    I talk to the first deputy when he leaves again and I asked ‘Where was the girl? I never saw her!’ He says she was right next to him and I’m lucky; it wasn’t pretty he says’ and kinda shivers…

    And as they drove by me the girl is driving and she doesn’t look happy. Can you imagine!? To get caught like that… so many questions…. truck running all night long… and I’m evidently a poor eye witness. And that’s the point that’s kinda fascinating to me; how did I see him and not her? It’s pickup truck; there’s not that much room to hide! Very interesting…

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    2. Great tale. Our long road above Two Harbors was THE parking spot, overlooking the town and Lake, only 2 miles from town. Cannot come even close to the tale.

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  14. Mississippi John Hurt is my very favorite blues musician, though Robert Johnson is a close second. Love his sweet yet gravelly voice!

    I took a quarter of guitar in college and was pretty awful at it, though I think I was a better guitarist than I ever was a flautist, and I’m a slightly better hand drummer than guitarist, not that that’s saying much. Touch typing is more my thing–can’t remember exactly what my speed is, but I think it’s around 70-75 wpm–and I’m good at getting knots and tangles out of things like necklace chains or holiday light strings. We joke that it’s my superpower.

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    1. And, of course, I do a few different crafts when I have the time and inclination–knitting, chip carving, cross stitch and hardangersom. I have the same problem with the needlework as with the drumming–not the manual dexterity, but the counting!

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        1. You carve chips out of the surface of wood to make patterns and pictures, usually in geometric shapes. I believe it is a common Danish art.

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        4. Exactly, Clyde. Also popular in Switzerland, which is where the guy who’s done the most to popularize it and incidentally designed my knives, Wayne Barton, studied. I had a class at Ingebretsen’s and another at Woodcraft down on Lyndale. It’s oddly reminiscent of quilting–based on geometry, and utilizing light/shadow for effect in the same way bright/dark fabrics are used–and in fact one designer has even published a carving pattern based on traditional quilt patterns.

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        6. Ah, I have seen such carvings many times; had no idea that’s what it was called. Crow Girl, what sort of things do you make?

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        9. Cow Girl: I have a Wayne Barton chip knife and a Woodcraft chip knife. Maybe I should go back to that, maybe not as hard on my hands.My two best: I did a recipe box for my wife. And I did a quilt carving chipped into into another carving for my master quilter mother.

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  16. Yep, my digits have been good to me – on a good day I can play the piano, type pretty fast, sew or embroider, and chop & cook. Have learned a little recorder and guitar, but right thumb won’t be have anymore and guitar may be finished. I appreciate these fingers esp. when I hear how others are having trouble with theirs.

    I sometimes buy cards and calendars from an organization for foot and mouth painting artists:
    http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=foot+and+mouth+painting+artists&id=68A78E43C089C3463D69C705811447C712ECB6E7&FORM=IQFRBA
    This totally amazes me at what people can do when they want to badly enough.

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  17. I think I wasn’t there when they handed out dexterity…or else, because I was virtually deaf for the first four years of my life, I didn’t hear the announcement, so didn’t show up. Crafts, sewing, knitting – I am hopeless with all of it. I did calligraphy for a while, but it was always very difficult for me, even though the results were passable, and now I’m sure it would hurt my hands too much to hold the pen for a long time.

    However, all the dexterity that missed me landed on middle daughter. This is the kid who insisted on fixing her own hair at a very young age (with some very, um, interesting results), but it all paid off when she was 5 or 6 and she could braid her own hair, even before she bothered to learn to tie her shoes. A neighbor told me, “Her hair looks nice” and when informed that she did it herself, her jaw dropped! She was shown how to knit once – and learned it from just a few minutes of watching.Her high school ceramics teacher was blown away by what she could do in her first class and told her she would be amazing by the time she was a senior (I guess she was, because other kids tried to copy her work and someone even stole several of her pieces). Okay, brag time over.

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  18. Now that I’m going to have some additional time on my hands, I would like to realize my lifelong desire to learn a musical instrument.

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  19. Well, the van is vacuumed out, anything remotely edible has been removed, and I have strewn dryer sheets all over the floor, as I am told that mice don’t like the smell of Bounce. I am tempted to drive with rubber bands around my pants legs at the ankles.

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    1. If the dryer sheets don’t work – try cotton balls soaked in mint extract. I had a mouse problem at a previous domicile and the mint extract worked pretty well as a deterrent. Plus, your van will smell minty fresh. 🙂

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    2. Go to the hardware store and get the 4 pack of mousetraps set them and recoil as you find out how big the family is , no poison you don’t want mama taking it back to the nest and having to live with dead ones under the seat springs for the foreseeable future

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  20. Kind of OT, but may well involve dexterity (and more).

    If anyone here has a way of getting ahold of Joanne, this just showed up on Facebook and I instantly thought of her:

    MN Opera is seeking a woman 5’9’’ or taller with martial arts or dance experience for its upcoming production of ‘Turandot.’ If you’ve ever dreamed of chopping off the head of an unwanted suitor, this is your dream job. Contact Alex Farino (alex@mnopera.org) for more details.

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      1. I sent an email to MN Opera and got a reply already. It looks like a hell of a lot of fun, but is a substantial commitment of time for rehearsals and performances. Plus, I’m getting cataract surgery in the next few weeks, and I’m not sure how that will affect everything. We shall see. Thanks for letting me know!

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        1. How I wish the logistics of this could be worked out to work with what’s going on in your life right now, Joanne. This would be such an adventure. Good luck.

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  22. Mississippi John Hurt played a big part in the soundtrack of my college years. Bob Brozman played a few summers ago at the Cedar Cultural Center at a resonator guitar festival. Mike Auldridge was there as well. Brozman is an amazing musician- a tad hyperkinetic at times, but amazing. He also, apparently, is quite into Hawaiian music and has performed and recorded with native Hawaiian musicians.

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  23. For some reason this made me think of the movie where Molly Ringwald could tie a cherry stem into a knot with her tongue. I think it was The Breakfast Club.

    I have no talents as remarkable as that one, but I’m pretty good at clipping my cats’ claws. It has to be done quickly or they start to get defensive. I sneak up on them when they’re dozing and do a speedy pruning. If I’m quick enough they will just go back to sleep.

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    3. The movie where I first saw that rather sexy story was the made-for-TV movie “Twin Peaks.” The actress with the dexterous tongue was Sherilyn Fenn.

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  24. Good morning Dale, Mr. and Mrs. America and all canoes on Lake Harriet, The example of John Hurt and the topic of dexterity are inseparable in my life. When I lost the use of my right index finger 8 years ago due to a neck injury, I suddenly could not hold a flatpick. I thought it was the end of the world. I started to use a thumbpick and my other working fingers, and found a completely new way to play the instrument I had been playing since I was eight years old. I turned to the gospel of John Hurt for guidance. He used his index finger of course, but I learned from his example just the same, and turned my handicap into a learning tool. Thankfully, the nerve damage healed and Mr. Pointer is back on the team, but the entire episode taught me to be a better musician.

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