Picado technique of Antonio Rey

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>General >>

Page: [1]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

Dudnote

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 13 2007

Picado technique of Antonio Rey

I was just reading through the "Ruben Diaz must stop" thread and on page 1 was struck by a technique point in the Antonio Rey video. He pushes his thumb down SO HARD!!! The E string is brought into contact with the A. What does he gain from putting that much tension into his thumb?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2015 12:16:36

tri7/5

Posts: 570
Joined: May 5 2012

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Dudnote)

I bet he doesn't even realize he's doing it half the time and just plays.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2015 12:34:42

Bliblablub

Posts: 60
Joined: Oct. 9 2013

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Dudnote)

More stability of the hand.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2015 12:37:26

Dudnote

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 13 2007

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Bliblablub)

Is it really more stable? It looks like it adds more movement into his hand position, you might suspect extra movement could cause accuracy problems if he wasn't so great. Perhaps it is to "improve" (what ever that is) his attack angle on the higher strings??? Perhaps more attractive for smaller hands, but no time right now to check his hand size.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2015 13:06:07

ToddK

Posts: 2961
Joined: Dec. 6 2004

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Dudnote)

Lots of flamenco players rest the thumb on the low E for different
techniques.
I dont think there's any point in reading way into it. They do it
because it works for them. Antonio does not have a great picado
because he rests his thumb on the low E string. It just happens
that he does it.

Try it, if it feels right, do it. If it doesnt work for you, dont do it.

i dont think there's a "correct" or "incorrect" in this case.

_____________________________

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2015 16:24:20

Ricardo

Posts: 14801
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Dudnote)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dudnote

I was just reading through the "Ruben Diaz must stop" thread and on page 1 was struck by a technique point in the Antonio Reyes video. He pushes his thumb down SO HARD!!! The E string is brought into contact with the A. What does he gain from putting that much tension into his thumb?

depending on scale length of the guitar and position of fingers for tone, and where you push with thumb, the string may bend more or less. Meaning, if the scale length is shorter and the thumb is closer to the soundhole, the string will necessarily give more than if the thumb and hand is closer to the bridge and the guitar is longer scale. Hope that makes sense.

_____________________________

CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2015 17:25:01

Dudnote

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 13 2007

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Ricardo)

Thanks guys for your answers.

@Toddk my question was not about resting on E but pushing through to rest on A. What alarmed me was the amount of effort and force put in to resting that thumb.

@Ricardo - yeah makes sense, even if at first it seems counter intuitive. Your saying short scale length equates to more floppiness / easier bending of strings.

@Toddk - I have a hard enough time getting my fingers to do what I want with picado with a resting thumb that ain't pushing, so I'm pretty sure pushing my thumb around isn't going to be the key that unlocks the door.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 1:16:36

Guest

[Deleted] (in reply to Dudnote)

[Deleted by Admins]

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 2:29:49

rombsix

Posts: 7808
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Dudnote)

quote:

Ruben Diaz

Please use "the one whose name we shall not mention" instead.

_____________________________

Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 5:03:45

Bliblablub

Posts: 60
Joined: Oct. 9 2013

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Dudnote)

Yup, more stability. Seems very obvious the second I try it. I think you mean Antonio Rey btw.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 8:58:52

Blondie#2

Posts: 530
Joined: Sep. 14 2010

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Guest)

quote:

ORIGINAL: encanto
I've seen respected players do picado with the "i" and "a" fingers, which I personally find remarkably inconvenient. Then someone pointed to me some anatomical reasons why this can theoretically work better than regular "i", "m" picado.

Interesting one this. Yes, theoretically there are some good reasons for an IA picado - like a lot of people my I and A are about the same length but M is much longer. Also I and A tend to be more independent - AII rasgueado is a lot more popular than MII

Strange you don't see it more often. Perhaps the difference in tone (A will be nearer the bridge and brighter) is the reason.

Who are the respected players you mention? I can think of one perhaps 'not-so-respected' guitarist who did IA picado, and several examples of it being demonstrated (Nunez Encuentro I think is one?) but I am struggling to name players who's default is IA.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 11:23:39

rombsix

Posts: 7808
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Reyes (in reply to Blondie#2)

quote:

Who are the respected players you mention? I can think of one perhaps 'not-so-respected' guitarist who did IA picado, and several examples of it being demonstrated (Nunez Encuentro I think is one?) but I am struggling to name players who's default is IA.

Juan Habichuela Nieto

_____________________________

Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 12:00:30

Grisha

Posts: 1263
Joined: Mar. 17 2005

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Rey (in reply to Dudnote)

Check out Paco Antequera. He was very very good at i,a picado.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 13:23:41

Blondie#2

Posts: 530
Joined: Sep. 14 2010

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Rey (in reply to Grisha)

Thanks Grisha and Ramzi, will do!

(edit) Examples for those interested, @ 3.03;

@3.56, nice close up;

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 14:21:10

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Rey (in reply to Dudnote)

I find that i and a do not interfere with each other, whereas my i and m sometimes trip each other up. Also, my m tends to tense when I'm playing out of control, whereas the a cheerfully goes along with whatever I ask! However, the m is stronger and gets a better tone.

_____________________________

Connect with me on Facebook, all the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/migueldemariaZ

Arizona Wedding Music Guitar

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 14:47:08

hamia

Posts: 403
Joined: Jun. 25 2004

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Rey (in reply to Dudnote)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dudnote

I was just reading through the "Ruben Diaz must stop" thread and on page 1 was struck by a technique point in the Antonio Rey video. He pushes his thumb down SO HARD!!! The E string is brought into contact with the A. What does he gain from putting that much tension into his thumb?

Maybe he finds it adds security to his right hand. However, about 6 months ago I came across a comment by Ruben Diaz in one of his videos stating that Paco had told him that when practicing picado you should never anchor the thumb - it should be free of the strings. I've been doing this since then and it has improved things a lot. And I believe it's easy to see why: the fingers need to get used to traversing the strings quickly - especially in the most difficult direction, which is low e to high e. Anchoring the thumb prevents the fingers from doing this freely on their own. Once the technique is mastered (after x number of years!) then you can anchor the thumb - since the fingers are already trained. This is for Paco's type of picado with the flat wrist - so perhaps not applicable for the straight finger method.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2015 20:44:32

HolyEvil

Posts: 1240
Joined: Nov. 6 2008
From: Sydney, Australia

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Rey (in reply to Dudnote)

Has anyone done successfully done picado using M and A?

Does it work?

cheers

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 9 2015 1:45:12

Dudnote

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 13 2007

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Rey (in reply to HolyEvil)

quote:

ORIGINAL: HolyEvil
Has anyone done successfully done picado using M and A?

Does it work?

I recently started doing all my picado exercises with im, ma and ia. ma is definitely my weaker, but it has improved quite a bit.

Does it work? Depends how much you work at it

One disadvantage of any picado that uses A is that it is useful to keep A free to play a strong rest stroke at the start of any arpeggio that immediately follows a picado. What do IA advocates do here? You'd have to learn to do MIM downward arpeggios to compensate right? Not sure it would be worth it myself.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 9 2015 1:55:54

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Picado technique of Antonio Rey (in reply to Dudnote)

I had a classical guitar teacher who used ma since his i had developed some sort of dystonia. He could play relatively nimbly with it, maybe sixteenths and 120 bpm. Weirdly, when I started out, I liked to play scale passages with ma because I hated the tone from my i finger.

_____________________________

Connect with me on Facebook, all the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/migueldemariaZ

Arizona Wedding Music Guitar

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 9 2015 13:40:29