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After I get bored with standard pami pima pimami and pamima, I decided to integrate all possible combinations of 3, 4, 5 and 6 note arpegio into my practice routine. As you can see pulgar is missing everywhere because I didn't want to type so many P's. The finger combinations are created by online permutations generator.
I'm gonna master some of them meaning that one day I'll be able to play them super fast. Some are intended for practice purposes only. What do you guys think? Am I exaggerating?
3 and 4 note arpegio
5 note arpegio
6 note arpegio
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I'd be interested to see a video of how you incorporate all these into your practice regime.
I'm also interested in why the usual arpegio patterns that are used in flamenco guitar are boring to you. I guess that is stimulated by what you said to Ricardo about your doubts about your ability to master old school rasgeo techniques.
I use in a Solea (P)mipimamiami so I think you need another sheed….😃
Your pattern is P-mi-Pimami-ami. 2 standard arp patterns imami and ami except for mi. Already on the list above. More interesting and a bit non standard one would be Pimi-a-Pimi-ami. G. Nunez shows it in his encuentro video.
I'd be interested to see a video of how you incorporate all these into your practice regime.
For example you can play them with shifting 8th and 16th note accents. Another example is to combine pattern A with B etc. like Gerundino's Solea example above. Or your thumb rests on one of the bass strings and you play only finger combinations for example miami miami.... etc. I usually practice arpegio mostly on open strings.
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I'm also interested in why the usual arpegio patterns that are used in flamenco guitar are boring to you. I guess that is stimulated by what you said to Ricardo about your doubts about your ability to master old school rasgeo techniques.
I can play standard arps quite fast. I just wanted to challenge my fingers more in future.
As for old school ras technique, I have no doubt. With a correct approach everyone can master old school rasgueo. eamii sounds fine to me. Motivated by Grisha's short ras video, I'll give it a go. After a few weeks I can tell if it was worth trying.
More interesting and a bit non standard one would be Pimi-a-Pimi-ami. G. Nunez shows it in his encuentro video.
Paco got that from Mlaughlin, Meeting of the Spirits. He uses it for Zyryab, cancion de amor, etc, and since then many players use it for 3/4 stuff, like Vicente Amigo for example. Gerardo was actually using cancion de amor to demonstrate.
Paco got that from Mlaughlin, Meeting of the Spirits. He uses it for Zyryab, cancion de amor, etc, and since then many players use it for 3/4 stuff, like Vicente Amigo for example. Gerardo was actually using cancion de amor to demonstrate.
Very informative as always. I haven't paid much attention to where this arpegio pattern is used. I thought it was a part of his own composition.
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Tell me. What does the bold denote? Oh I see.it's the original letters in their straight sequence
Yes, it helps a lot. Without it 5 and 6 note arpegio would look a bit messy.
when do you use pamima? I don't think I have never come across it in a falseta.
Pamima seems to be of limited use, but it's fun to play. I call it a standard pattern because pamima is pimami in reverse order. If you can play mima, pamima is not difficult to master. Why not give it a try?
when do you use pamima? I don't think I have never come across it in a falseta.
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Pamima seems to be of limited use, but it's fun to play. I call it a standard pattern because pamima is pimami in reverse order. If you can play mima, pamima is not difficult to master. Why not give it a try?
I think you misunderstand my question or, rather you add some assumptions of your own to my question. I never said I that I hadn't tried it, or practised it (at various times over the years*).
My question was when do "you" use it, and my observation was that I don't think I have ever come across it in a falseta. I was also slightly hoping you or someone else might post up a falseta with it in.
*I wonder if you have ever come across the saying "teaching your grandmother to suck eggs"?
Guajiras de Lucia has a bunch of (ap)mipima patterns and amipima as well (I am not saying they are the same pattern as pamima, just that they are similar). Here in an image excerpt from Ramzi's thread page 3 ( http://www.foroflamenco.com/tm.asp?m=194802&mpage=3 ):
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This variant is a Niño Ricardo standard with P in the middle (Pamipima). 1:39 for example:
video is unavailable
the Gerardo video I can see
is Pamipima the same as pamima though? Or is it Pami and Pima i.e. two basic arpegios joined together?
I'm thinking of this in terms of how easy they are. I can do pami 16ths (4 notes per beat) at 160 bpm, and pima about 170 (continuously). I tried to do pami pima continuously and i can do it about 130-140 bpm but I have never practised that specifically before. pimami I can do 16th sextuplets (6 notes per beat) continuous at 120 bpm, but pamima (again, 16th sextuplets - 6 notes per beat) I can only get to about 80 bpm!
i was interested to comment on this because it was mentioned somewhere 3 or 4 months ago and I started practising it a little bit regularly (I was aware of it as the inverse of pimami before, but as i never encountered it in anything i never bothered to practise it). What I found interesting about it, and why I have continued to practise it is I noticed the close repetition of the a finger works that finger a bit when the arpegio is done continuously. Also it is similar to another pattern I do use in a falseta which uses p and a together, and then mimam. Also there is an exercise/study from Manolo Sanlucar that uses that pattern.
Guajiras de Lucia has a bunch of (ap)mipima patterns and amipima as well.
again, is it pamima? or pami pima? it's not pamima continuously anyway.
What I have found difficult in this passage (I have learnt and forgotten the first half of Guajiras de Lucia it a couple of times - never gotten beyond this falseta ) is the left hand, the left-right co-ordination, and the switch from arpegio to picado (yeah, I know, the first bit of scale in bar 76 is sin apoyando ) - at the speed I can manage those things (er.... pretty slow!) I find the the actual arpegios really easy.
The hardest part of the falseta for me is what comes next after the repeat, the high D maj chord - I've never been able to get the notes off that chord on 1st string 10th fret to 2nd string 14th fret clean consistently, and I've tried both full bar on D at 10th fret as Paco does in video, and half bar that some cover versions use.
pimami I can do 16th sextuplets (6 notes per beat) continuous at 120 bpm, but pamima (again, 16th sextuplets - 6 notes per beat) I can only get to about 80 bpm!
I keep practicing it (and it does get faster) because I believe there are "spill-over" benefits for things like pami speed and ease and m-a alternation speed, even tremolo fluidity and ease. Well, and it DOES help the Guajiras patterns mentioned above. I think you replied to my previous post before I added "(I am not saying they are the same pattern as pamima, just that they are similar)", and by "similar" I mean not just similarity in the fingers sequence, but also functionally training one seems to train the others.
Guajiras de Lucia has a bunch of (ap)mipima patterns and amipima as well.
What I have found difficult in this passage (I have learnt and forgotten the first half of Guajiras de Lucia it a couple of times - never gotten beyond this falseta ) is the left hand, the left-right co-ordination, and the switch from arpegio to picado (yeah, I know, the first bit of scale in bar 76 is sin apoyando ) - at the speed I can manage those things (er.... pretty slow!) I find the the actual arpegios really easy.
The hardest part of the falseta for me is what comes next after the repeat, the high D maj chord - I've never been able to get the notes off that chord on 1st string 10th fret to 2nd string 14th fret clean consistently, and I've tried both full bar on D at 10th fret as Paco does in video, and half bar that some cover versions use.
I have lots of insights and suggestions about all that as I have been using that piece as a stretch goal (and inspiration) for the last 5 years in terms of diagnosing and correcting bad technique and improving good technique. The goal being playing it well at its studio recording speed, 104 bpm or so, WITH capo on first fret. If you are interested, maybe we can continue the Guajiras-specific stuff in Ramzi's Guajiras thread: http://www.foroflamenco.com/tm.asp?m=194802 .. or here is OK too since I now referenced that thread and people can go read there as well.
I think around the time of that thread was when I was last working on it. After a while of working on it, it just seemed like I was hammering cold iron though. Sometimes it's better for me to take a break from something like that and come back to it later.
Yeah, my "problem" was/is that I never hit a wall - there was always some small progress on some aspect, or a newly diagnosed issue that I have to change/fix, etc. Very frustrating and hopeful at the same time; how do you declare "this is as far as it goes" when you haven't stopped improving quite yet..
In terms of leaving it for a while, it is my experience as well with coming back to a piece after a short break and finding some aspects have improved in the mean time.
Also that pamima thread was from 1 yr 9 months ago
What I have found difficult in this passage (I have learnt and forgotten the first half of Guajiras de Lucia it a couple of times - never gotten beyond this falseta ) is the left hand, the left-right co-ordination, and the switch from arpegio to picado (yeah, I know, the first bit of scale in bar 76 is sin apoyando ) - at the speed I can manage those things (er.... pretty slow!) I find the the actual arpegios really easy.
In case you missed it I did a tutorial discussing both Paco’s method and my personal work arounds, and show the high D chord situation using a capo (Eb barre makes it even more challenging). Here at 33:40 onward:
Gerardo had shared the other version on social media years ago and I should have released this one too. The same performance but a different audio track. It starts with the original Cel phone audio and then at about 0:42 the audio source is coming from the microphone he has, way way in the back of the auditorium through a wall mounted speaker. (The thumping shows compression limiting that my friend had on his recording device).
The other audio was more ambient sound and this is coming out of the speaker so, even though it is not as nice a sound, you can hear the attack of his nails better.
Oddly, YouTube won’t let me link it here as normal viewing it says “owner has not allowed viewing, watch on YouTube”. Of course I did no such thing, but it used to be a private video. Not sure how to fix that.
Printable Version
) is the left hand, the left-right co-ordination, and the switch from arpegio to picado (yeah, I know, the first bit of scale in bar 76 is sin apoyando 
) - at the speed I can manage those things (er.... pretty slow!) I find the the actual arpegios really easy. 
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