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Hardcore picado exercises (not for faint of heart)
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guitarristamadrid
Posts: 133
Joined: Jan. 27 2010
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 Hardcore picado exercises (not for f...
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Is your picado stuck? Tired of playing the same little scales for months on end without any real progress? I've seen it happen to a lot of people, myself included. This is what Entri gives to advanced students who have the time to burn and are really serious about technique.
Here's a bit secret of the flamenco world: Paco, Gerardo etc are not born with crazy technique. They do **** like this. And they have to keep doing it, to maintain their level.
What you see below is the equivalent to a high intensity, power-set-overload workout designed to get you over a plateau of picado. It will feel awkward as hell at first. It will burn out the muscles in your forearm. Over time it will feel like nothing and arpeggios, tremolo and picado will roll out of your right hand with so little effort you will wonder why it ever seemed so hard.
But it's probably gonna take you at least 2 hours if you've never done it before. You probably won't get through the whole thing; work up to it. I did it every day for a long ass time (and I did it with both I & M and M & A picado). The first time I did the whole thing at once, it was like an awakening. Now I do the same basic thing, but over time I got to do it faster and faster, so now I added a bunch more things to it.
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Four patterns: one note per string (and two on 1st string), three notes climbing, three notes even, five notes even.
Do each of the patterns for each of Entri's 3 chord groups. And here's something ESSENTIAL:
Alternate between TIRANDO and PULSANDO. Tirando is "free stroke", pulsando is "rest stroke" or "normal picado". Do the exercise first with tirando, then pulsando. The tirando helps your fingers relax and recover. Entri says Sabicas, Paco etc practice this way.
CHORD GROUP 1
One note per string, tirando. One note per string, pulsando.
CHORD GROUP 2
One note per string, tirando. One note per string, pulsando.
ETC
Do that with all four patterns. It's around 14,000 notes
Then there is the two string alternation exercise, ****, that's a whole other thing. Feel the awkwardness? Good... that means you found something you need to work on.
Remember: ALWAYS ALTERNATE YOUR TWO FINGERS. There is never any point in any of these exercises where you repeat a finger.
It's a lot of info, I'm probably just gonna have to make a video explaining it. OK, I'm gonna go do this myself now.
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_____________________________
Sometimes music is all you got in this world. Why do I create music? Because there was a time when I had nothing, and music kept me alive.
www.myspace.com/evancary
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Date Apr. 15 2010 3:32:26
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jonc
Posts: 33
Joined: Oct. 24 2008
From: New England, USia
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 RE: Hardcore picado exercises (not f... (in reply to guitarristamadrid)
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This is an interesting idea, alternating tirando & pulsando technique as a way of resting. As far as practicing until my forearm burns away, I think I'll go about it more gently myself. Effort is very much a good thing, but overtraining is very real and rest is of the utmost importance to long term development.
In weightlifting, there are those that prefer to split the muscle groups and really attack one each day until it's completely exhausted. Then that group is given the rest of the week off to rest and fully repair. Then there are those who do more full-body oriented workouts, employing exercises that involve multiple muscle groups and training with effort yes, but not to failure/complete muscle fatigue ... more effort than last time is the goal each workout. With my guitar practice I definitely embrace the latter philosophy.
As you say, this sort of flamenco workout regimen is intended for the advanced player, and by my understanding is for those that feel that they have a deficiency of flamenco technique in this particular area of picado that needs express correcting. If ones ability at picado is roughly the same as their ability with other key techniques, then I feel it would be best to dedicate much more time to playing songs that utilize the full range of fundamental techniques, and thereby maintain that balance in ones playing.
To be clear, I fully intend to give this a try today. I only mean to encourage patience, balance and safety among us passionate players. This may be the kind of thing I would practice all out maybe once a month, with abbreviated versions once a week, and basic picado warmup every day =]
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Date Apr. 15 2010 5:01:39
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guitarristamadrid
Posts: 133
Joined: Jan. 27 2010
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RE: Hardcore picado exercises (not f... (in reply to jonc)
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Hi Jonc,
Yeah, make it work for you. If you do this with both I & M, and also M & A, you will find that it improves your arpeggios and tremolos as much as it does your picado. The reason is that we are used to working I & M a lot for picado, so they end up being stronger and more independent than M & A working together. Then, because arpeggios (and tremolo) use MA just as much as IM, your arpeggios suffer as force is not distributed equally throughout the hand.
I do this as my basic two hour warm up before I play anything else, and I find it is extremely effective in relaxing and loosening up the hand, the key to speed and power.
Even if you just do the first two patterns with the 3 chord groups (one note per string and climbing 3 notes), that will warm you up very fast and it only takes 20 - 30 minutes.
The funny thing is that I can practice arpeggios all day long, and at the end of the day my arpeggios won't be as good as if I just do this for 2 - 3 hours, and then start arpeggios. That's why I make this the basis for all my guitar warm up. As strange as it seems, it basically improves all my techniques at once, even my rasgeos. My theory is that it comes from relaxing the hand so effectively, because this exercise is so repetitive and forces constant finger alternation.
_____________________________
Sometimes music is all you got in this world. Why do I create music? Because there was a time when I had nothing, and music kept me alive.
www.myspace.com/evancary
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Apr. 15 2010 5:42:46
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guitarristamadrid
Posts: 133
Joined: Jan. 27 2010
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RE: Hardcore picado exercises (not f... (in reply to jonc)
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quote:
My middle and ring finger (and pinky for that matter) move somewhat sympathetic to one another, and it begins to feel uncomfortable stressing ma alternation.
This is exactly what I'm talking about. This is a problem that many guitarists have. A huge problem. Why? Because in
-Rasgeos
-Arpeggios
-Tremolo
your M and A fingers must be able to work independently and be relaxed and strong while doing so. Otherwise, these techniques are going to blur together and produce a hideous SHRUM sound instead of nice clear articulation. This will also throw you out of compas.
Why does this happen? Because we're used to working I and M independently, from day one. We do that all the time, and almost never practice it with M and A. No wonder it feels strange to us.
Look at our left hand. Can you use M and A independently in chords? Can you play 0 2 3 2 0 2 3 0 2 3 2 0 2 0 3 on any string? I bet you can. Why? Cause we are used to practicing independent motion with those fingers on our left hand. When you are typing on your keyboard, can you move M and A independently? Of course you can.
Whatever you practice, is what you can do.
And we actually practice NOT to be able to move M and A independently on our right hand while playing the guitar.
My answer to this is to work tirando and pulsando with MA all the time, just as much as I work it with IM. YES, it will feel weird and uncomfortable at first. Why? Because you aren't used to it. The very fact that it feels uncomfortable is like a big arrow pointing to the technique saying you need to work on this until it feels comfortable.
After I did these exercises continually for a few months, my M and A fingers could move incredibly independently, and it ceased to feel uncomfortable. In fact, it felt as normal as I and M. I could play a faster and cleaner picado with M and A than most people could play with I and M. And each note in my arpeggios and tremolo sounded very distinct and clear.
Of course, to maintain that level, you must do it every day. It does gradually accumulate over time. In order to reach your previous high, it will take less and less effort, and new highs will be found.
_____________________________
Sometimes music is all you got in this world. Why do I create music? Because there was a time when I had nothing, and music kept me alive.
www.myspace.com/evancary
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Date Apr. 15 2010 7:39:30
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