Technique

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Before you read the page:

Some of the resources used for this page include, but are not limited to:

  • Scott Tennant: Pumping Nylon.
  • Abel Carlevaro: Books 1-4.
  • Gerardo Núñez: La Técnica al Servicio al Arte & El Arte de Gerardo Núñez.
  • Alan Shearer: Learning the Classic Guitar.
  • Oscar Herrero: Guitarra Flamenca Paso a Paso.
  • Manuel Granados: Manual Didáctico de la Guitarra Flamenca
  • Andres Batista: Método de la Guitarra Flamenca
  • Guitarra.artelinkado – Guitar forum.

Before going any further, I would like to point out that despite all of the recommendations collected here, it is true to say that there are some guitarists who go against all of these recommendations and still play incredibly well.

The Alexander technique is widely used in classical music circles. The aim of this technique is to find the individual’s own optimum performance posture and to raise awareness about the role of poise and balance in tone production and performance. The focus here is on the individual rather than accepted rules of ‘how tos’.

Another very important motive to study the role of relaxation and posture in musical performance is the role that this plays in reassuring the audience. Performers who are not fully at ease with their performance or ability to perform will transfer this emotion to the listener – with predictable results. Watch Paco de Lucía play and you wıll see total and utter concentration – absolutely nothing is forced. The are no tics, grimaces, panting or nervous shuffling. You simply get the goods. Nothing more and nothing less.

For those, like myself, without the natural or environmental advantages of some, the suggestions on this page are intended to help eliminate possible causes of frustration and lack of progress. This page is also intended to help me clarify my own thinking about how to tackle my own technical problems.

Contents of this page:

Index

How to Practise

  1. Practising music is an activity that requires complete and total concentration. Deep processing is necessary to allow us to be conscious of all our movements. Successful musicians are able to combine physical agility and accuracy and extreme mental concentration. Technical study must lead to full consciousness of the fingers, arms, back and whole body.
  2. Learn by ear. If you do not listen to yourself, you will not be able to correct your mistakes. Be both the audience and the musician.
  3. Never practise your mistakes. You will never play better than you practise. Do everything slowly and consciously to eliminated unwanted bad habits.
  4. Observe
    1. posture
    2. hand position
    3. tension in your body and hands
    4. breathing
  5. Give yourself some time to warm up before trying to attack your lightening picados and thundering rasgueados. A daily warm up could include the following exercises and awareness raising:
    1. Scales using combinations of im, ia, ma and p.
    2. Arpeggios using combinations of pima and pami
    3. Rasgueados
    4. Ligados (hammer ons and pull offs)
    5. Alzapúa
    6. Left hand Stretches.
  6. Find the sweet spot of your instrument and get the best possible sound at all times.

Index

Health and the guitarist

In order to play the guitar you need to learn to relax. Tension can cause strain and this can lead to debilitating pain. Repetitive strain injury, tendinitis and lumbar pain are all possible consequences of not playing in a relaxed fashion.

If you continue playing with pain or discomfort, you can cause permanent disability which will impair your playing possibilities for a very long time. Lumbar problems can even stop you walking. I have seen this problem in other guitarists and have experienced it myself.

Before you start to really go for it observe

  • posture
  • hand position
  • tension in your body and hands
  • breathing

Give yourself some time to warm up before trying to attack your lightening picados and thundering rasgueados.

Practise slowly and concentrate on relaxation.

Index

Seating and posture

phil_slight.jpg Plant your foot or feet firmly on the ground. Root yourself solidly to the spot. Distribute your weight evenly on your buttocks. Avoid leaning to one side or the other.

The classical flamenco (see photo right) is not thought to be fashionable these days, but once mastered is extremely comfortable and limits the amount of spinal twisting that often accompanies the more vamigo.jpg modern sitting position shown on the left.

Classical guitarists wisely use footstools. Footstools are very useful if you are spending a long time sitting and studying. They are not seen in flamenco circles with the exception of the venerable Manolo Sanlúcar, who is often seen to be using one.

For an excellent discussion, from a classical guitar perspective, go to this page, wtitten by Renato Bellucci.

Index

Relaxation

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the importance of total and utter relaxation while one is playing is to heed the words of Paco de Lucía as he corrected the playing style of the aficionado, poet and writer Félix Grande. The full text can be found here. They are generously provided El Gran Adino, one of the moderators from the wonderful guitar resource that is known as Artelinkado. What concerns us is the following:

“Paco needed to say something to me (…) and one day, he exploded as if he had been bottling it up for too long. One day, I was playing the guitar and he exclaimed:

‘You are never going to be able to play the guitar like that! Who could ever play well like that? No! No! No! Don’t you ever put your right hand in front of the mirror?’

‘Well, yes…’

‘Yeah, but why?’

‘Well, so that I can see that I have my right hand placed perpendicular to the strings so that I can attack with more force and so that…’

‘And why do you do that?’

‘Because that is what I see in the guitarists that I admire…’

Paco replied, ‘but the guitarists that you see, you see them from the 4th or 5th row, and you only see their hand and you have to play with your hand and the only way that you are going to be able to play well is by letting your hand go absolutely and totally relaxed, you let the right hand fall, attack the strings with your fingertips, but with the fingers completely relaxed, the hand, the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder and the [whole] body. And if you are not relaxed you will never develop good technique.’

Well, after that, he gave me two or three exercises with a bit of melody so that I would not get bored. A few months after, my hands flew in such a way that the moment arrived that in order for me to maintain the technique that I had acquired, I would have to be playing two or three hours everyday in order to advance, And to learn more, I would have to play six or seven hours everyday, bearing in mind that our ancestors left their blood on the pavement in order to get an eight hour working day.”

Translation is mine.

Index

Developing the Mind’s eye

If you are already have some proficiency as a guitarist, you may well carry around an imaginary guitar in your head on which you can practise.

This is a very useful facility to develop.

  • It enables you practise while engaged in the mundane and routine activities of daily life.
  • It helps you to get more from listening to recordings.
  • Your technique will greatly benefit if your fingers know where they are going to before they move.

An example exercise

To start to develop your mind’s eye, take any movement that your fingers have to make on the guitar. Let take as an example, transverse movements across the fret board with the left hand.

  • Place your fingers on position V, string three. Place each finger on its corresponding fret. That is: finger 1 on fret V, finger 2 on VI, 3 on VII and 4 on VIII.
  • Move finger 2 onto the fifth string (fret vi), play it and with your index play the same string (fret V).
  • Repeat the above, but using the second string,
  • now the sixth string and then the first string.
  • Repeat this a few times and then change fingers.
    • Try these combinations of fingers: 1-2; 2-3; 3-4; 1-4; and 2-4.

[video to come?]

The Mind’s Eye

  1. Watch and count slowly as you start to practise the change. Take in all the sensory information you can about the movements involved in the change. Concentrate on remembering the sensations.
  2. Now look away and concentrate on maintaining the same sensory perceptions.
  3. Be sensitive to any changes in your sensory memory and readjust immediately.
  4. Readjust first by feel and then, if necessary, by sight.
  5. Practise until you are able to visualise and feel the movement.
  6. Continue to apply this technique to all your practice and music.
  7. Concentrate on creating physical and mental habits of movement.

Index

The Left Hand

Basic position

  1. Position the instrument comfortably.
  2. Allow your arm to hang in a relaxed fashion.
  3. Raise your arm with your palm facing upwards.
  4. Allow your wrist to slightly arch in order to curl around the fretboard.
  5. Position your thumb behind your second finger
  6. You thumb should be positioned in the centre of the neck, behind your second finger.
  7. Place each finger just behind a fret. That is:
  • fret 1 for index finger
  • fret 2 for second finger
  • fret 3 for the ring finger
  • fret 4 for the little finger

This is known as position one. Position starts at fret two.

[video showing movement; photos showing thumb position and finger position]

Index

More on the basic position

  1. Try not to press your index perpendicular to the finger board. Use the “outside” to depress the string against the fret board. This will allow your other finger to extend along the fretboard to reach their target positions. (see photo)
  2. Don’t press too hard so that your knuckles become depressed, or adopt a concave shape. (Photo
  3. Practise developing a sensitivity to counter-productive tension.
  4. Experiment with:
    • Sideways movement of your elbow. What happens to your hand when your elbow is tight against your body? What happens when it is held away from your body?
    • Rotation of your forearm.
    • Further arching of your wrist.
    • What implications are there for your hand position when moving to higher or lower positions on the fretboard?

Find your own positions of greatest strength and ease.

Index

The left hand thumb

Place one finger on a fret. Your thumb should be behind your second finger. Some people place their thumb between the second and third finger, others place it behind the first and second. Advising you to place it behind the second finger is intended as a compromise.

With your finger placed on a different fret

* fret 1 for index

* fret 2 for second

* fret 3 for the ring finger

* fret 4 for the little finger

Now, press and your knuckles should spread out. If this happens then, you are probably in the correct position for playing. [photo]

Do not allow your thumb to extend over the top of the neck. If you do, you will have trouble reaching some of the notes on the fret board [photos: correct and incorrect].

Do not use the thumb to press your fingers into the fingerboard. This is a common source of tension, concentrate instead on the role of your forearm in the application of pressure to stop your notes.

Index

Finger Pressure and Relaxation

Many players press far too hard onto the string. Use the minimum amount of force required to make the note sound without buzzing. to do this you need to learn the amount of pressure required.

Here is an awareness raising exercise:

1. Play a note on a string.

2. Rest, but don’t press, a left hand finger on a string (first fret is fine, but any will do).

3. Play the note with the right hand. Of course, it will not sound, but now,

4. Start applying increasing pressure to the string with your left hand until it sounds clearly.

5. Ask yourself the question if this is less pressure than you applied in #1 above?

6. Rinse and repeat with fingers 1, 2, 3 and 4.

An extension to this is to play two notes on the same string, adjacent frets and concentrate on the weight transfer between the two fingers as you press first one, then the other string.

A final variation is to place your fingers in the V position on the 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings, but without depressing the strings. If your fingers are well positioned, you will find that you will barely need any pressure to get the notes to sound perfectly clear. If you wish to apply some degree of co-ordination to this exercise, you can practise making the first note sound properly but on the other, then the second, third and the fourth respectively.

Index

The Right Hand

Names of Right Hand Fingers

p = thumb (pulgar – español)

i =index (índice – español)

m = middle (medio – español)

a = ring (anular – español)

Basic position

Drop your arm straight, along your side, allowing gravity to pull it down. Now, with your arm in that position, curl your fingers up, as if you were going to grab a suitcase. Bring your arm upwards towards the strings of the guitar and onto the third string and place each finger (ideally in the exact area of string attack) on this string. Check that your wrist is reasonably straight. [video]

Notice that having done this your nails will not be attacking the strings perpendicularly, but along the sides. This what I have begun to understand as the best position for tone production, security and ease of movement. (See the Felix Grande translation, above)

Notice how a hand position that is almost parallel to the strings will have the result of the nails depressing the strings over a long distance. This will help you to achieve a nice, fat, round sound. However, the finger will take longer is passing over the string. A position more perpendicular will allow the nail to pass over the the string faster. You will need to experiment with your hand angle and wrist height to find the best results for yourself. [photos]

To summarise:

  1. Fingers that are striking the strings at right angles cause the wrist to be bent, creating counter-productive tension.
  2. Fingers that are striking the strings at right angles will pass through the string with greater speed.
  3. A slightly raised wrist will help to keep your hand and wrist straighter – and most importantly’ in-line with your forearm.
  4. Experimentation and awareness are the best way to discover what works best.

Index

Relaxation of the Right Hand

When the right hand is open the muscles are totally relaxed, and when the fingers are closed, the muscles are in tension.

Practise muscular relaxation by closing each finger to the palm of your hand and then allowing the finger(s) to return to its natural rest position. Allow it to return naturally, without any forcing or voluntary pushing, but do aim to have the finger to return as quickly as possible.

Concentrate on any points of tension while practising and do everything possible to eliminate it. This includes arms, shoulders, neck, back, legs and even facial muscles – especially in your jaw and tongue!

If you find it difficult to detect tension, try to wilfully create it, for example by hunching up your shoulders and then letting them fall and noting the difference between the two sensations.

Index

Sympathetic Movement of Non-Playing Fingers

Fingers that are next to a playing (contracting finger) tend to move in sympathy with that finger. Some guitarists say that this movement should be accepted and others (notably Abel Carlvario) say that this sympathetic movement should be eliminated as much as possible.

This movement can however be of assistance to us in rapid and continuous sounding of successive stings such as in fast arpeggios, tremolo and continuous rasgueado. However, first concentrate on secure habits of movement before attempting to develop speed. If not, you will suffer from uneven strokes due to lack of co-ordination. Evenness of playing is what makes these techniques sound so impressive. A slow but even tremolo is more effective than a fast, but uneven one.

Watch your little (5th) finger. What is it doing? Does it move in sympathy with your ring finger (anular or 4th), or is it held out in a rigid fashion. Be aware of this source of tension and try to eliminate it. Use your mirror to check on it or track it in your mind’s eye.

Drop your arm straight, along your side, allowing gravity to pull it down. Now, with your arm in that position, curl your fingers up, as if you were going to grab a suitcase. Bring your arm upwards towards the strings of the guitar and onto the third string and place each finger (ideally in the exact area of string attack) on this string. Check that your wrist is reasonably straight. [video]

Index

Tirando and Apoyando

There are two types of stroke: apoyando (rest stroke) and tirando (free stroke). Each of these are used for different things: apoyando is used mainly for picado, and thumb work, in particular alzapúa and , tirando generally used for arpeggios, trémolo and playing block chords. Of course this is a massive generalisation, but it will serve for now as we become to grow proficient at these strokes.

Both are Spanish words. Apoyando means resting whilst tirando means pulling. Let’s look at tirando first of all.

Apoyando means that your finger, after hitting the string, comes to a stop on the next adjacent string. When you play using tirando, your finger that has played the string does not rest against the string next to the one that has just been struck. In other words, there is a free follow through after striking.

Index

Tirando: how to

  • Place your finger tip in your “attack position” and “grip” the string. Ideally you will be using a combination of flesh and nail.
  • Place your knuckle joints over the string that should be played. This will give you the ideal position for playing tirando.
  • Now, release the string and follow through without resting on the string adjacent.

Index

Apoyando: how to

  • Place your finger tip as above, in the “attack position” and “grip”.
  • You knuckle joint should be placed above the string to be played to enable your playing finger to play into the guitar body and come to rest against the adjacent string. You may want to experiment with different positions for your knuckle joint. Some players have their knuckle above three strings higher than that being played. This results in fingers that are bent at right angles at the middle joint. Watch a Paco de Lucia video to see.
  • Again, place, press and release.

One word about your tip joint. Different players play in different ways. I have seen Paco play with totally rigid tip joints, using his fingers as if they were hammers. Vicente Amigo has fingers that seen to just flop on the strings. Manolo Sanlúcar and Gerardo Nunez fall into the Paco way of doing things. Try not to keep it tense and rigid whilst you play, nor should you let it totally collapse as you press and release.

Index

Planting

With right hand techniques, there is a series of actions, which if practised so that you become aware of them, will greatly assist you to play the strings with confidence:

Prepare – Place – Press – Release – Follow through

Always have your fingers in prepared in position for the next string to be struck. When you place your finger on the string you should have some kind of grip on it with your finger tip/nail. Be immediately ready to apply slightly more pressure in order to release the note, following through with your finger. When you place: be accurate, when you press, feel the pressure of the string under your finger tip. Be aware as you practise because this awareness will eventually give you control.

What you should not do is try to hit the string with your finger from far away. Get into the strings and grip, hold, press, and then release. Your movements will be smaller, more efficient and above all, more secure. This placing before releasing is known as “planting”. Planting keeps your finger motion to the string accurate and secure. You do not want to have fingers flying about all over the place. To control the note, you must control your fingers. In the wise words of Abel Carlevaro: “the will of the mind is superior to the will of the body”.

Planting is, to my mind, the single most important aspect to right hand technique, after hand position. You will need to practise planting in order to play all the following techniques: picado, arpeggios, alzapua and tremolo. Rasgueado takes a different approach.

Index

To come:

Left Hand Pages

LH chords

LH bars

LH ligados

LH stretches

Right Hand Pages

RH chords

RH alzapua

RH arpeggios (pim; pim-a; p,i-ma; etc Asher)

RH arpeggios and picados

RH picados

RH rasgueados

RH tremolo

RH pulgar

RH pulgar and picado

Index

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Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.