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Based on Heitor Villa-Lobos' classical guitar etude (the first one from his series of twelve).
I am NOT doing these at the optimal speed. The idea, I find, is to do them NOT at maximal speed (where things can get sloppy fast), but rather at about 10 or 20 bpm slower, so that you can last longer. Day after day, you will notice that the speed you were practicing at becomes tolerable in terms of getting through the whole exercise without fatigue. Then, you increase the tempo some bpm, and get going for a few more days, etc. I find these not only help with endurance, but also end up increasing maximal speed (for bursts, as well as non-fatigue-causing runs that are not as fast as speed bursts).
RE: Some technique exercises I do (in reply to ashod)
quote:
Have you tried 2 times faster, just for the fun
I can play it faster, but not TWICE as fast as the video I posted here... yet!
Is it just me who's weird because I just love playing such exercises so much? I mean, I can do just those for a whole week without "needing" to play any actual music!
RE: Some technique exercises I do (in reply to rombsix)
Thanks for sharing.
Honestly, when you asked the "how fast is your picado?" question, that spurred some real thought for me. My pre-flamenco guitar background is largely bluegrass and I can handle my flatpicking business as well as I ever need to, so I never really thought about picado speed or focused on anything but repertoire and compas recognition.
After looking through a couple of threads, I realized that there really are some limitations that my lack of technique practice has imposed on me. I can't play picado runs nearly as fast as I can flatpick and I just assumed that eventually I'd get there...but RIGHT NOW that inability was making some things difficult.
So I have re-arranged my practice time considerably. I used to divide my practice time into two areas: 1) learning new repertoire and 2) practicing what I already know. It can take me easily 20-30 minutes or MORE sometimes to learn 1 minute of a flamenco falseta...and sometimes I'd learn so much in a week or two week period that it would get confusing for me. On average, I might spend 2-3 hours per week learning, say, 4-6 minutes of new material and then another 6-10 hours per week practicing.
I basically put a moratorium on new material for a few weeks and now my time is divided up into 1) doing technique drills 2) developing my own technique drills and runs, and 3) practicing repertoire. The last 7 days, I probably spent 2 hours developing runs and drills, 3 hours doing technique work, and 2 hours practicing repertoire.
The upside is that it really has made a difference. Ten days ago, I struggled to do a chromatic run (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 3-4-5-6, 3-4-5-6, 3-4-5-6 etc...) from the nut to the 12th fret at 85 bpm (playing 4 notes per beat). Now I can do it pretty comfortably at 100 bpm. I can play long runs of a scales that I know well at 92-95 bpm, up from probably no more than 80. I've also developed some practice runs that are REALLY helping me learn some of the scales that I never really played in the bluegrass world or in positions that I seldom used. It even helps my repertoire as I develop runs that I think would sound good in, say, a little alegrias falseta.
So, long story short, I appreciate your challenges and the things that you have been sharing. Thanks, rombsix!
RE: Some technique exercises I do (in reply to rombsix)
it's interesting how much this Etude is used in flamenco .. you know Tanaka has it on his site as a thumb exercise also Mcguire has it as an arpeggio exercise .. there must be a secret behind it
quote:
Are there any tablature transcriptions of Villa-Lobos etudes out there? As in, in print? I know there are for Barrios...
yea you can find it all over the internet I have it as musical notes ( not tabs ) if you're interested
RE: Some technique exercises I do (in reply to rombsix)
quote:
Is it just me who's weird because I just love playing such exercises so much?
No, IMO it's a sign of a healthy approach to guitar. It's like the difference between work clothes and evening clothes. Good guitarists have small exercise repertoires that develop over time, just like their playing repertoires.
If your right-hand little finger is short like mine, try tucking it inside your ring finger when you play arpeggios. Let it rest at some point but without effort. In playing position, the tip of the nail of my little finger rests on the middle of the last segment of my ring finger (if it's longer, it will interfere with the ring finger). People recommend keeping the little finger to one side for arpeggios, picado and other techniques, but IMO the less tension the better.
RE: Some technique exercises I do (in reply to NormanKliman)
quote:
So, long story short, I appreciate your challenges and the things that you have been sharing. Thanks, rombsix!
You're welcome, mate! Glad I could be of some help.
quote:
there must be a secret behind it
I guess it's because it works the left hand relatively well, but the best part of it I guess is that it has chords that can be played starting from the sixth all the way to the first string (and it has several chords, which makes exercises less monotonous).
quote:
If your right-hand little finger is short like mine, try tucking it inside your ring finger when you play arpeggios. Let it rest at some point but without effort. In playing position, the tip of the nail of my little finger rests on the middle of the last segment of my ring finger (if it's longer, it will interfere with the ring finger). People recommend keeping the little finger to one side for arpeggios, picado and other techniques, but IMO the less tension the better.
I don't do that on purpose, Norman. I tried what you said regarding the pinky (with all fingers extended, the nail of my pinky reaches the junction of the second and third segments of my ring finger), and I guess it's something I can get used to. I will try it out a bit, and see how it feels. The way my pinky looks now is what it does naturally.
RE: Some technique exercises I do (in reply to rombsix)
The problem I see for me is, that all these kinds of exercises are hell boring. I don´t do exercises at all. I only practice with falsetas and really care about which technique I do, and how it fits into a falseta. In context. I think thats a lot better to get some life into your notes instead of getting a mechanic style of playing.
But,.. well... Everybody does it different. So, nothing wrong with exercises.
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