Hi Achbar,

Yes, but the difference depends on the instrument. Medieval lutes were played with a pick (actually a quill), but after about 1500 they were played with fingertips (not fingernails). The earliest finger technique is called thumb-under because the right hand is in a closed posture with the thumb under the index finger. The little finger is planted on the soundboard just behind the rose; the hand makes a rocking motion pivoting over the little finger as it moves up and down. The basic motion comes from the right elbow. On the down stroke, the thumb strikes a course. On the rebound, the index finger flexes from the knuckle and plucks in an upward motion. This gives early Renaissance music it's characteristic bumpity-bump rythmn. Chords are usually sounded with the thumb and middle finger plucking towards each other. Three note chords are played using the thumb, index, and middle finger.

As lutes gained additional courses of strings, the reach to the bass courses in thumb-under technique was increasingly cumbersome. Also, the alternation between chords and single-line melodies and the counterpoint that was typical in the 1500s gave way to music composed around chords. So the playing technique moved to thumb-out, which is more like classical guitar, except that the little finger still stays planted on the soundboard. The movement from the right elbow gives way to movement strictly from each finger's knuckle. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact nature of thumb-out because I'm learning thumb-under.

I don't play classical guitar, but my son used to, and my memory is that his right hand was completely free of the soundboard and all of his fingers were used to pluck. Seems to me like a lot of fingers for so few strings, but what do I know?

And, as I mentioned in the beginning, lutes are plucked with the tips of the fingers, not the nails. Nails are usually cut very short so they can't make contact with the strings. You will hear a big difference between old recordings of Julian Bream playing lute using nails (before Renaissance technique was fully understood) and a modern lutenist like Paul O'Dette, Ronn McFarlane, or Jacob Heringman. Also, gut strings sound very different from nylon guitar strings.

Left-hand technique is probably not a lot different from classical guitar, except that there are a whole lot more strings crammed onto the fingerboard, so correct positioning of the left hand and correct angle of the fingers onto the strings when fretting becomes really important. That's what I'm working through now. There are some left-hand embellishments used in modern classical guitar that aren't used in Renaissance lute.

This is probably much more than you wanted to know, but once I start I just keep going.