Foro Flamenco


Posts Since Last Visit | Advanced Search | Home | Register | Login

Today's Posts | Inbox | Profile | Our Rules | Contact Admin | Log Out



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.





Which technique do you find the hardest to play?   You are logged in as Guest
Users viewing this topic: none
  Printable Version
All Forums >>Discussions >>General >> Page: [1]
[Poll]

Which technique do you find the hardest to play?
Tremelo
  32% (10)
Picado
  32% (10)
Rasgueado
  6% (2)
Golpe - below the soundhole
  3% (1)
Golpe - above the soundhole
  0% (0)
Arpeggios
  0% (0)
Apoyando (rest stroke)
  0% (0)
Pulgar
  0% (0)
Alzapua
  25% (8)


Total Votes : 31
(last vote on : May 31 2006 21:49:35) 
Login
Message<< Newer Topic  Older Topic >>
 
Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

Which technique do you find the hard... 
I have been wondering whether some techniques come easier than others? I have not listed all of them; and I mean playing them properly, in compas and consistently.

_____________________________

Foro Flamenco founder and Admin
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 16 2006 18:09:07
 
seanm

 

Posts: 169
Joined: Apr. 5 2005
From: Halifax, Nova Scotia

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
My choice isn't there so I'll say alzapua. I can play a handful well and up to speed but to get them really controlled, nicely balanced, cleanly articulated and be able to jump right into it ... well I find that the hardest thing for me.

Sean
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 16 2006 18:42:45
 
Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to seanm) 
quote:

My choice isn't there so I'll say alzapua

Good point, it's there now and I added your vote.

_____________________________

Foro Flamenco founder and Admin
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 16 2006 18:53:20
 
Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
I'd say the hardest thing to acquire is compás.
Not just counting out the beats mechanically, but having it flow from you so it's just as natural as playing as any 4/4 song you know.
With mucho compás and little technique you have Flamenco.
With mucho technique and little compás you have....well..just mucho technique!

I voted picado.
I don't play any fast picado but I admire those who can.

Fast picado is a strange beast.
To me, it's a bit like a stage magician doing his stuff.
If you get it 95% to 100% right it's really impressive!
If it's under that, then it's a bit like the magician doing his trick, but the audience just happened to see the object in his hand slide up his sleeve...
So the magic is lost.

I think in all the techniques, fast picado is the only one you can't really give marks out of ten for.
It either works or doesn't IMO.

Ron
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 16 2006 21:00:46
 
Ricardo

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

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
I would say moving between different techniques is the challenge, keeping timing and fluidity along with what Ron said.

But for a single technique I might have said Tremolo since I dont' use it much. But I have 5 short tremolos I have been working on and it is getting alot smoother nowadays. I like to use it as a warm up.

But I will vote PICADO, just because I can play almost all of the stuff in a certain PDL piece until I get to certain Picado passages, then my true speed limit is revealed clearly. So, I wish my picado was several notches more up to speed with the rest of my techniques.

Ricardo
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 16 2006 21:16:02
 
Francisco

Posts: 879
Joined: Jun. 13 2005
From: SW USA

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
I said tremelo too, but that's because I spent alot of time trying to get it even (not necessarily in compas). Then, once it was even, I hear someone that plays it a little less even, and have to admit that this sounds more flamenco to me. Now, I'm trying to learn how to play it less even.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 16 2006 21:24:53
 
Doitsujin

Posts: 5078
Joined: Apr. 10 2005
 

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
Picado is the hardest one I think. There are many ways of playing the same notes. If you are good you can let one note sound very different coz of the picado technic. So not only the fast picado is hard, its hard too to pronounce it well. I know some players who have a very fast picado, but they just hit the strings as it comes. Also when they play slow. The true challange is to manipulate the tone right. Vicente is a good example of that.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 16 2006 21:45:56
 
Miguel de Maria

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

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
Picado. Nothing else requires such long sequences of coordination with such little room for error. Most tremolos only change once a beat, so the coordination requirements are much smaller. But I would say tremolo is probably second hardest.

Of course, the hardest thing is playing guitar.

_____________________________

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 May 17 2006 15:48:33
 
Ramin

 

Posts: 103
Joined: Mar. 15 2005
From: Toronto, Canada

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
I must admit, I was initially surprised to hear picado is a harder technique to master compared to Alzapua. However, I'm not sure we're comparing apples to apples here. I think it all depends on the level of skill one is talking about. In other words, the answer to this question may depend on the skill level of the person answering it. For example, Alzapua may be initially much more difficult than picado for beginners (like myself) to get used to, but the opposite may be true for a more advanced player who is trying to achieve excellence in picado.
Does this make sense?

_____________________________

What we are today comes from out thoughts of yesterday and our present thoughts build our life tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.
-Buddha
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 17 2006 16:09:39
 
fevictor

Posts: 377
Joined: Nov. 22 2005
From: Quepos / Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
Here's a question: If you could only practice a couple of techniques, what would they be? For example: Practising alzapua will help your pulgar playing, but not the other way around, right? So its probably better to spend more time on alzapua? And will tremolo help your arpegios, or do arpegios help your tremolo? Does anybody think that one or more excersises or techniques gives you all around more control? Make any sense!!??
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 17 2006 16:33:03
 
seanm

 

Posts: 169
Joined: Apr. 5 2005
From: Halifax, Nova Scotia

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to Escribano) 
fevictor, great question.

I think that something like alzapua involves many little techniques found else where (i.e. pulgar downstroke, pulgar upstoke, planting, p-i-p-i technique (forget the name of that), etc) and that trying to learn all of those in one technique is less efficient than working on each individually since its harder to focus on all at once. So I work on pulgar upstoke in isolation, for instance, when I notice that my alzapua isn't as sharp as it could be. Then I go back to alzapua and listen for the result. That is why I don't find picado 'harder' since as a technique it is less complex (m-i alteration and right hand position shifts for string crossing). Of course, you can focus on i-m string crossing, m-i string crossing, i-i and m-m string crossing within picado as well.

I view tremelo and argeggios as the same thing where tremelo is simply one type of argeggio and played on one string. I'm a big believer in figuring out what is 'breaking' in a technique and then isolating that and maybe making an exercise for it then apply those results. For instance, a lot of folks have the most speed issues in picado when crossing strings so isolating that can really help your speed over all without playing entire scales over and over.

Sean
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 17 2006 16:51:47
 
Phil

Posts: 382
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Rota, Spain

RE: Which technique do you find the ... (in reply to fevictor) 
quote:

And will tremolo help your arpegios, or do arpegios help your tremolo?


Interesting question. I think arpegios are my strongest technique, yet my tremelo sucks.
Fortunately, you can get by without tremelo, but I'd still like to be able to play an even, clear tremelo.

BTW has anyone ever heard Moraito play tremelo? I don't have any of his solo stuff, but I do have a lot of him accompanying but no tremelos on any of those recordings.

Phil
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 17 2006 18:57:35
Page:   [1]
All Forums >>Discussions >>General >> Page: [1]
Jump to:

New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts


Forum Software powered by ASP Playground Advanced Edition 2.0.5
Copyright © 2000 - 2003 ASPPlayground.NET

0.078125 secs.