Practicing technique

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soclydeza85

Posts: 60
Joined: Feb. 27 2017

Practicing technique

I've gotten to the point where I'm decent at some of the techniques, weaker at others, but I can play all of them at least to some degree and incorporate them into falsetas (except my tremolo which is still too slow to play anything real with yet). I'm wondering what a good strategy for practicing them is. I generally spend some time working one or two techniques each day, followed by a falseta that incorporates them and do that for a few weeks until I burn out and get tired of playing the same stuff over and over again. Do you generally think it's better to do kind of a round-robin approach - say, picado/tremolo one day, arpeggio/rasgueado the next, and so on - or really focus on one or two techniques and forget about the others (in terms of doing exercuses) for a period of time, say, a month or so until you get a little bit of a firmer handle on them before switching it up? How did you more advanced guys get your techniques to a proficient level?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 5 2019 1:37:35

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to soclydeza85)

Well, I probably don't fit the description of a "more advanced guy" but personally I go through every major technique each session. At least during warm-up. It's basically just to add some more repetition so I don't lose previous gains. Then I'll single-out one thing in particular I want to work on and focus on that for a longer period.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 5 2019 11:40:49

JasonM

Posts: 2055
Joined: Dec. 8 2005
From: Baltimore

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to soclydeza85)

I set myself a goal that is a solo or falseta that really inspires me and then let that determine what technique needs the most attention. Almost always it is picado and switching from arp to picado. I wish I would have started a regimented, daily, practice focused on picado early on because it seems that it is the slowest technique to develop. And don’t forget about those rhythm exercises.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 6 2019 2:21:45

flyeogh

Posts: 729
Joined: Oct. 13 2004

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to soclydeza85)

Be great to know how long your typical practise sessions are. I guess time makes a difference to the plan.

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nigel (el raton de Watford - now Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 6 2019 15:47:55

soclydeza85

Posts: 60
Joined: Feb. 27 2017

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to flyeogh)

I practice daily, anywhere from 30 to 90mins for flamenco on the week days (I usually do 45-50 mins), can go anywhere from one hour to the entire day on the weekends, depending what I got going on.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 6 2019 20:46:31

flyeogh

Posts: 729
Joined: Oct. 13 2004

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to soclydeza85)

I see this as quite an important subject but we seem to have got limited comment (but tx to Piwin and Jason). Maybe this is because 'how you practise' is a very individual thing. Anyway I discussed it with my prof in Jerez and looked at a few opinions, and here are a few thoughts:

My prof in Jerez rapidly focussed on the fact people do not sufficiently practise playing slowly and accurately (he thought Solea on rpm 50, if not slower, was a good way to go).

He thought for people who were underway but not bashing out 4 or 5 palos in the local bar it was better to mostly practise with pieces with melody and not boring exercises. He didn't say you wouldn't benefit from boring exercises but that boring exercises might lead to students giving up. (and I guess as a teaching professional he wants to avoid that at all costs

).

I mentioned a few months back on the foro that a US guy suggested not playing 7 days a week. That raised at least one pair of eyebrows here. But when I missed 3 weeks due to tennis-elbow, and then another time a two week trip to the UK, both times I noted a boost when I returned. I'm wondering if the guy wasn't on to something.

Finally my regime is more or less the same as yours Pat. But I more often than not begin with 3 short non-flamenco pieces (one being " The House of the Rising Sun"). I find it relaxes me and doesn't put on any pressure (although I hope I play them to the best of my ability).

And finally, finally as advised here (sorry forgotten who) I separated playing and practising.

Hope that stimulates a few responses because I seem to spend most of my life practising and any suggestion of how I might better be using my time will be snapped up and inwardly digested.

Cheers Nigel

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nigel (el raton de Watford - now Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 10 2019 14:27:42

Ricardo

Posts: 14806
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to soclydeza85)

Most fast and efficient way to learn and practice is to loop very short chunks of problematic material at a medium speed. After several minutes of that type of thing, you can attempt to insert the problematic phrase back into it’s musical context. Sometimes after doing this you notice other problems....all of which can be worked on when isolated and looped in the same exact manner.

Tremolo is a a little different....you need to look at the fingers part as a pick up toward the bass note, but don’t slow down the pick up note speed. What you do to learn or practice “slow” is to play around with the gap between the bass note and the fingers grace notes. Like this:

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 10 2019 16:17:02

Auda

Posts: 246
Joined: Sep. 28 2019

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to soclydeza85)

Not that I would describe myself as "advanced" I will tell you how I generally go about it. There are some techniques I usually give some consideration each session I play ie alzpua, golpes, rasgueados (common ones) and to a lesser extent tremolo and picado.

Then I play phrases of pieces I am working on often using a metronome. I typically start concentrating on the more difficult or new to me fingering (right hand) type phrases. If need be I will mute the guitar and work on it repeatedly. Muting the guitar allows me to focus on timing since that is likely the issue I am trying to get sorted. After that I will work on the transitions between phrases.

Then I will through a recording of the piece I am learning and listen to each phrase and then try to reproduce it. I can usually get fairly close but then when I play the entire piece a lot of the time I will still make too many mistakes.

I also do read throughs on pieces I am going to learn in the near future to find the more difficult or new to me fingering (right hand) type phrases so I can work on that particular technique.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 10 2019 19:55:58

Auda

Posts: 246
Joined: Sep. 28 2019

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to Ricardo)

Hey Ricardo, I think I see some Juan Serrano influence on that right hand pinky of yours in the video.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 10 2019 19:59:24

soclydeza85

Posts: 60
Joined: Feb. 27 2017

RE: Practicing technique (in reply to soclydeza85)

flyeogh - that guy that suggested not playing 7 days a week was definitely on to something (in principle). In language learning, there's this idea of the "bow wave"; basically the more you push learning something, eventually you'll encounter a resistance that will inhibit progression. When you take a break from doing that thing, the bow wave subsides and you pick up speed again fresh, in many cases with better ability than when you left off because of assimilation of what you were previously learning. The brain needs time to assimilate new skills and abilities, especially complex movements like in music. I still practice 7 days a week but when I start to get overwhelmed, I slow down and take a few light days to let things settle and start picking up speed again.

Ricardo - thanks for the video. I read another post from you (from a long time ago I think, I found it while searching for something else) where you explained visualizing the motion ending with P (instead of starting the movement); basically rolling the IAMA and landing on the P instead of thinking of it as the usual PIAMA. I think this is what you're getting at in this post but this is seriously great advice

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 15 2019 19:16:04