alegría en mí

Here you can find a short “alegría en mí”. Have a listen. You will hear a slow introduction, a picado run and then into some rasgueados. I have included some exercises that I think will help develop the skills needed to play this example. Please note that this recording is intended to give me practice and aid myself in diagnosing faults and areas to work on. Recording yourself is a very good way of hearing the real truth about your playing…

Arpeggios: playing strong and clean arpeggios is something that I find extremely difficult – though many other players have find them easy. This is an area where I have to do some extra work. Listen to the “Baby music” exercise ( as my wife described it). It is played here extremely slowly even so – I can hear some hesitations here and there. As usual with this kind of exercise, it needs to be done everyday and it needs to be done with a metronome – particularly if you are concerned with rhythm. Start at say 60 beats per minute and move up a few notches at a time. Get the movement firm and strong. Get confident with the actions through over-learning. Remember that even if you double your starting speed and feel very confident, the next day you will have to start all over again, but over a period of a few weeks, you will become more proficient and more confident. That at lest is my intention…

Picado: the exercise featured here is a series of scales in the key that we are playing. Get to know your fretboard and stretch your left hand. Notice how there is some thumb work and ligados in the final descending scale.

Rasgueado: here is the whole thing. There is a slow introduction using arpeggios and picado combined, a nice little picado with thumbed basses and finally into the alegría proper…
Here are the downloads:

download – Alegría en Mí Mayor
download – Arpeggio exercise
download – Picado exercise

Alegría en Mí Mayor

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Arpeggio exercise

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Picado exercise

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