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.
I heard another member once mention that one of the bad habits he had learned was "anchoring". Nothing to do with boats, as it happens! But he described it as laying down certain fingers before others when fingering a chord.
I recently noticed that I happen to do exactly the same thing! Usually its for the more complex chord changes, and I tend to put down either the index finger or the finger highest up the fretboard (toward the soundhole).
Theres usually a little gap between the time that I put down the first finger and when the rest hit the fretboard. Often I get away with it because the gap is so brief, but I think its still there.
Ocassionally, I think I anchor with more than one finger.
I'm just curious to know if anchoring is such a bad thing, and if so, why? And also, if it is a bad thing, how can I go about "un-learning" it?
Any advice appreciated (although no rhyming jokes please! )
I've observed many good players who seem able to form the shape with their left hand instantly, even before the hand moves to the fret and the chord is held. I think this is what you are referring to? but I need an anchor, one finger to be placed before the shape falls into place.
It's only a bad habit if it interferes with the sound you are trying to make. Use your ears, J.
What you call "anchoring" is usually referred to as "planting". There happens to be a lot of controversy in the classical guitar world as to its advisability. It helps a lot of people learn to keep their fingers down, play with more security, and control the sound.
Thanks guys. Well, if its not such a bad habit then I'll continue using this method. The only problem I can forsee is when it comes to playing things really fast- the delay in puting down the other fingers might cause problems.
I know what you mean Jim, But I'm still trying to get the right hand working on just a straight moving chord! I never think at all of LH stuff in Flamenco..or tunes or anything. It's that damn right hand where it all comes from IMO. That's where all the problems are....
Puting ALL the fingers down in a chord is actually BAD technique If your into playing solo pieces where theres bass and melodie going on you only have to press down the note in the order they sound.
AS an electric guitarist i had the habbit to put all finger down in a chord at once and that makes long or technicaly difficult jumps on the fretboard harder than they have to be. Also it will interupt the flow of the piece.
We´re only tlakeing about half a sec or a milli sec of time but it helps a lot to workout witch fingers realy needs to press down.
But as i said before this deppends on WHAT you are playing.
Henrik
_____________________________
This is hard stuff! Don't give up... And don't make it a race. Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.
Gotta go now, because the WOMAD Festival is on the Radio now..featuring all sorts of musicians from South America to Africa to India. One of the Artists is Enrique Morente from Spain!
Anyway, there is full plant (your "anchoring") and sequential plant. It is very important for arpeggios. There are reasons for doing both, and both are legit techniques. For arps or chord rolls that go pima, it is very common in flamenco to do a full plant and have all the fingers ready to go way early (on the strings). Sequential plant is when you don't have the finger on the string until a split second before you play. Usually ami arps are done this way. I have never seen someone do a full plant ami arp, but it is possible of course, just not common. I have seen PDL do full plant pima arps and chord rolls. Nunez NEVER does the full plant, always sequential. Who is better at it? Doesn't really matter. When asked about it Nunez said, what matters is the sound, not so much the way you achieve it. I personally feel full plant is away to prepare earlier and that is a good thing. I do it when I can.
Ooops, you are right. Wrong hand never mind. For left hand there are a lot of cool moves and grips in flamenco different than other guitar styles, to keep things flowing. At times you will have some fingers down before others on purpose, but it really depends on where you were coming from and where you are going. For example the simple F maj7-am-f major7 where you just slide the ring finger back and forth always seems to be weird to non flamenco players:
Hey...welcome back Ricardo! I'm sure your head must be buzzing from all the goodies you encountered on your trip! I think you do it the right way man... Practise and play with a Dance Company and take a top-up injection once a year with one of the Flamenco heros and other good guitar aficionados...
That's the sensible way to do it IMO..
quote:
When asked about it Nunez said, what matters is the sound, not so much the way you achieve it.
I like that.
Although I am not a calibre player, I can see where he's coming from.
When I try to learn something, I listen to it over and over again...work out the fingering...then let it soak into what I can do at my level.
Most of the time it changes...mainly because I can't do it in the exact same way as the original..don't have the technique or experience...but I get the general idea.
This is why I think that working studiously from music or tabs, like it was a Classical compsition or something...just misses the point.
That's why Gerardo doesn't sound like Paco or Tomatito or Vincente..
He liked a lot of the ideas, but incorporated the stuff into the way of playing he felt comfortable with.
That's what gives him his unique sound.
I can only envy you thaar Ricardo!!
(Next time please take Todd with ya....He won't go unless you tie him up in gaffer tape and bundle him onto the aircraft...but once he's there, you won't be able to get him back! )
With regard to the left hand and forming chords, if the music notates the chord all on the same stem (i.e. no arp or 'broken' chord) then you should absolutely be placing (not planting .. because this term is almost always used for right hand preparation) all the fingers of the chord down at the same time. If you are not then you are executing more movements than neccessary and playing the chord becomes a dance sequence prone to error (i.e. 1st I put down this finger, then this one goes down a string and up two frets .. the the next finger in relation to that one .. etc). You never get a solid concept of the chord shape and this can lead to memory lapses and rhytmic hesitations.
In my view, you should be able to form the chord in the air (in your mind basically) then place the whole thing on the finger board. We can all do this with a C chord and that is why 'stumming' a long with these basic chords is so easy (because we have a great mental snap shot). When learning new 'weirder' chords there is no reason to not learn them as well as these basic chords.
Printable Version
But he described it as laying down certain fingers before others when fingering a chord. 
) 
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