Regarding the second paragraph… I have no idea what the implications are as I have never played in the classical position. But I have used the traditional flamenco position, the Paco position, the Oscar Herrero position (with a foot stool), played lying down on my bed, on the sofa and so on… Principally I change these playing positions so alleviate muscle strain in long practice sessions.

Also… I’ve played classical on my own for a few years now, started doing the string walking and I noticed it totally screwed my picking precision in e.g Asturias that I was beginning to do quite well in when I went back to my classical posture (guitar between my legs). Does that mean I’d have to choose one or the other posture from now on?

I really admire your website about teaching flamenco, to be honest I envy flamenco guitarists who use i-m finger while playing scales in a relaxed manner. I do have a question, what do you mean by pushing the string down??? I play scales using i-m but i pluck it or strike it upward and I find it difficult to control while planting. Any help will do, thanks.

Sabicas says…

Arpeggios are commonly used, and the a-m-i combination, with or without the thumb is very common.

Whilst such technique is greatly admired, it is not a necessary condition for playing quality flamenco. Making the notes sound properly and giving every note it’s correct value makes music sound more musical that one thousand notes badly played. In my humble opinion.

One slightly related question – again from my observation as someone coming from a rock/jazz background – is ‘what are flamenco players doing when they’re just generally playing?’ Hmm, that’s not clear at all! What I mean is when I see videos of someone like Vicente Amigo, it seems to me that (apart from when he’s playing picado alzapua or rasgueado) a lot of the time he’s just playing notes with the fingers (NOT thumb) of his right hand in a curled position. I’m not quite able to make out whether he’s using m-i or m-i-a combinations. I guess this may be some kind of thumb-less arpeggio technique? sorry if I’m not clear.

“Where should my thumb be?”

If your thumb is attached to the 6th string (bordón) you will experience problems as you move up and down the strings because you hand will become progressively cramped or stretched. Nearly all guitarists advise that you move your right hand as a unit when playing picado across the strings. Allow your thumb to “ride up”, as you call it.

Regarding finger extension, that is,

“relaxed and curved or stiff and straight”

. The advice generally given is that your fingers should never be allowed to be stiff. Stiffness brings along tension, and tension is our enemy. Relaxed and curved would be my advice.

To get

“the distinctive picado staccato snappy sound”.

Practice, practice and practice and practice consistently over a long period of time. Speed bursts are very useful to achieve this aim. Most guitarists have a natural preference of either the i finger or the m finger. Practice imimi and mimim, but play using the sequence that is strongest for you.

Your second post shows good observation and good questioning ability. Picado is not just scale runs and picado is not only play apoyando, but sometimes also tirando. If you combine (tirando) picado and arpeggios, what might have appeared to be clear differences do seem to blur…

I am trying to improve the speed of my picado technique and had some basic questions:

Where should my thumb be? Sometimes I let it hang free in the air,
sometimes I allow it to move up the guitar from the soundhole to the top,
sometimes I let it stay on or near the low E string? I have seen some guitarists who pretty much keep their thumb on the bottom E string or around it, but have seen others who allow their thumb to ‘ride up’ the guitar.

I have also read that the aim should be to ‘press down’ rather than ‘plucking the string upwards’? Striking the string where ‘the nail meets the flesh’?

Should the fingers be fairly straight and stiff – or can they be fairly
relaxed and curved?

How can I work on getting the distinctive picado staccato snappy sound? At the moment I am practising scales or segments of scales, trying to increase speed. Also just drumming my fingers against a surface as quickly as possible. I also find that in an I-M picado I can play faster if I begin with M.

Any help much appreciated.

Marc

Miguel, your tips are very useful. I love playing flaminco, but sometimes i don’t like practicing. Yet i know practice makes perfect!!!

Thanks!

Salutations!

In order to do this, I should be practising not my strongest techniques, but my weakest techniques in order to make me a guitarist that is totally in control of the music and the instrument.

A final point that I would like to make is that technique seems to develop as a whole and it is rare to find a guitarist who is excellent with say arpeggios, but is hopeless at tremolo. Any work that you do on one technique (or combination of fingerings) benefit other, related techniques.

I hope this makes sense and is useful to you.

I am trying to learn some flamenco basis on my own because there are no teachers near the area where I live. I have some problems with my index finger when playing picado but I discovered that I am more comfortable when playing with “m” and “a” finger.
Is it a big failure if I continue to exercise this way for my basic picado playing ?

Thank you for your help !

Best regards !

From Email, 2008/10/29 at 12:17 PM

My advice is to practise more slowly and concentrate on not allowing your knuckle to flex.

Regular and constant practise is the only thing that will help you start to gain control. Regular and constant means the same amount every day, not five hours one day and then a rest for six. Do these exercises everyday for say half an hour, practise with a metronome. Practise as if you were performing in front of an audience – in other words, practise how you mean to sound, if you can’t do that, practise more slowly. I start my scale practise by playing crotchets at 50 beats per minute. That is really slow, but it enables me to really concentrate on what I am doing and it allows me to consciously deep process my movements.

A question for you is of knuckle. When I try to play picados, the first knuckle of my right hand’s fingers are mobile. I mean – they participate in pulling a string, the fingers are not straight and frozen. The knuckles are flexible.

Do I go in a wrong direction?

And BTW: I began to practice your gruppetos and.. Oh, Lord.. I’m so far from perfection. So, please say how much it takes just to get it sounding acceptable, not perfectly. My fingers seem to be so weak =(

Thanx! =)

As far as my own practice is concerned, Ä° try is minimize all percussive effects from me or the guitar, and recording them later with cajon and palmas.

I think that this the trend of modern players – using the guitar and feet as percussion is becoming less common with the increase of specialized percussion players.

A slightly different question….do you have any advice about tapping with your foot to keep a regular beat. On some videos I’ve noticed that different players in the same group will tap their feet on different beats…even though they are playing the same song together. Rarely do I see players tap every beat. I’ve seen Moraito tap the even beats when playing bulerias (which is tricky).

Is it a personal thing..?

regards…..