u/atrafanaSchool
▲ 38 r/classicalguitar
Samba by Jorge Cardoso (excerpt) played on a flamenco guitar
Enjoy!
u/atrafanaSchool — 16 days ago
▲ 3 r/FlamencoGuitar
Is i - a Picado a Viable Alternative to i - m Picado?
We are all trying to speed up our picado plowing through scales, exercises, eating more fish :-), you name it.
A recent session with one of my students, Lewis, made me reconsider the option of playing picado with index and ring fingers as opposed to the common index-middle option.
Lewis was having trouble raising his speed with the regular i-m picado technique. As soon as he hit a certain BPM, the flow of the alternation would start to suffer and the picado sound gallopy. It was obvious that the issue was the size difference between the index and middle fingers.
I immediately thought maybe he should have a slightly longer nail on the index finger to compensate for the insufficient reach. We tried that right away by filing down the middle finger nail. Didn't quite work. Then I suggested bending the fingers a bit more to equalize the angle and reach of attack in-between the two fingers . This is a hard one to test as it requires some time make such an adjustment of technique.
Then it dawned on me: there is another finger much closer to the index in size. So, he tried the i-a picado and voila, the improvement was immediately evident.
This experience got me thinking about the i-a picado as a possible alternative to the i-m version. Have we been doing this all wrong? Is that why only a few players manage to reach high picado speed? Do fast players who use i-m technique have longer index fingers? Am I going crazy? Well, let's calm down a bit and think about this issue rationally via observations.
For starters, the i-m picado works and we all know and can see that it does. But the question is whether it would be easier for more people to access higher speeds if they approached the whole picado thing without the middle finger. The advantages of the i-a picado that I have observed so far are as follows:
- Since the index and ring fingers are more similar in size compared to the index and middle fingers, the player needs less effort to adjust for alignment. The saved effort can simply go to speeding up and tonal punch.
- As the index and ring fingers are further apart as well as similar in size, the hand stays more in balance through the fast alternation between the two. It is almost like playing arpeggio but you can still dig in to the strings and your hand will move less.
- Therefore, your hand stays in the same position regardless of the particular technique your are using. Meaning, you don't have to wind up and lift your forearm to prepare for a fast run. You simply burst it out without changing your hand shape.
But the fact still remains that i-m picado is much more common. So, maybe there are aspects to i-a picado that are not that advantageous and I am unable to see them right now.
Either way, I believe it is worth giving a try.
One guitarist that utilized the i-a picado spectacularly is Francisco Marquez (Paco de Antequera). There are others too but this guy is so good at it.
Check out the following videos to see what I mean. Also observe his incredibly balanced and efficient right hand technique:
I invite you all to try the i-a picado and let me know if you get satisfying results.
happy practising
u/atrafanaSchool — 1 month ago
▲ 109 r/Toronto_Walkers
From St Lawrence
One of my favourite neighbourhoods
u/atrafanaSchool — 1 month ago
▲ 114 r/Toronto_Walkers
Hello Toronto Walkers
I am one of you and have just discovered this r
u/atrafanaSchool — 1 month ago
El Tempul (Buleria) by Paco de Lucia
I will be publishing detailed lessons on this one at my Patreon page (at Tier 2 and above)
u/atrafanaSchool — 1 month ago
Paco’s favourite pulgar sweep
from Cepa Andaluza (buleria) by Paco de Lucia
u/atrafanaSchool — 1 month ago
Nails: How to Shape Them
My intention was to write a short article on nail shape. As I kept thinking about what to cover, I realized that it wasn't possible to say anything sensible regarding nail shape without considering the broader issues of general playing position and attack.
So, here we go…
Perpendicular Vibration
As far as my observations go, for a full and round tone the string needs to vibrate perpendicularly to the soundboard. To rephrase it in finer detail, the perpendicular vibration of the string should be higher in percentage than its parallel vibration. What does that mean? See the image below. We want the string to vibrate mostly in the direction of the green arrows and NOT red arrows.
Padding with Fingertip
Since many of the notes you play will come after other notes you have played on the same string, you need to mute the string, that is, stop its vibration before proceeding with the next note. You CANNOT do that with the nail. Try muting the string with your nail only and you will hear an unpleasant buzz. Therefore, the starting position of any note is your fingertip while the nail sits snugly on the other side of the string. See the image below:
Nail Ramp for Full Tone
To make the string vibrate in and out toward the soundboard you need to PUSH your fingertip INTO the soundboard. This way, the string will TRAVEL alongside the nail and eventually run out of nail edge and flick to make the note. The operative word here is RAMP. The longer the ramp (the nail edge on which the string travels) the THICKER the tone will be.
Nail Shape and Hand Position
Before we start shaping out nail to ensure a nice and smooth ramp, we need to look at our general right hand position as that will determine the kind of nail shape we need. When placed naturally over the strings, our fingers already approach the strings on an angle. See the image below:
Therefore, our NATURAL posture already enables us to push our fingernails sort of sideways onto the strings creating a ramp. This angled position is particularly useful when playing freestroke as it gives our fingertips enough space to swing without hitting the next string.
Classical Versus Flamenco Playing
Classical guitarists use the angled attack to create beautiful and round notes that almost erase the presence of the player as a human entity :-) In other words they go after the pure note to convey the music almost in an unmediated manner. To this end, some file down the left sides of their nails all the way into the flesh and fine tune this ramp to create their desired tone. This process leads to an ideal right hand posture that remains constant through all manners of playing.
We all know that flamenco playing incorporates several different right hand postures. Just remember my email on thumb placement during long picado sequences. During such a sequence it is not possible to rely on a constant hand angle as we need to pull our forearm back. Check out the following image from my tutorial on long picado passages:
Flat Filing
Due to its incorporation of a plethora of hand positions many master flamenco players recommend filing the tops of the fingernails FLAT. I have resisted doing this for the longest time as I didn't look hard enough into the basic connection between the string and the nail. Let me first show you what I mean by flat:
I simply flatten the tops of my nails against the curved tips of my fingers. I always thought doing this would completely eliminate the ramp required for a full tone but I was NOT thinking in 3 dimensions! Look at your fingertips by holding your fingers pointing to your face and you will see that the nails ALREADY have a curvature due to the round surface of the nail bed. Here:
Therefore, flat filing does NOT eliminate the ramp, it actually gives you more flexibility in terms of hand positions in which you can still use ramping comfortably.
Regarding nail length, I still make sure my fingertips and nails remain on the same plane when I touch a flat surface perpendicularly:
Tentative Conclusion
The flat filing method so far has worked very well for me. To itemize the perks:
- I find that I can play with a rounder tone in several different positions without having to force my fingers into strange angles.
- Since the flat nail surface gives me a wider nail edge to use, I damage my nails much less.
- I spend less time filing :-)
Subjective Bias (or Disclaimer)
All this theory is based on MY OWN process of trying to play with a better tone. I also guide my students and observe the conclusions. So, what you read here is not the definitive guide to flamenco nails. However, if the approach makes sense to you, I suggest you give it a try and see what happens.
Happy filing
u/atrafanaSchool — 1 month ago