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Posts: 4530
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
A question about picado
My Picado is weak and i want to practice more picados in the future. Now I have a (maybe) stupid question about picado.
Picados are always played with "i" and "m" alternately. ok. Also when the time comes to change from a higher string to a lower during performance of a scale.
Someone told me that it is also when the time comes to change from lower to higher strings. But ...i saw players sometime repeat twice the same finger of the right hand.
Is there any specific rule for this in picado technique ?
I saw an old video from Pedro Sierra and he did it very often when he played the picados!
When he plays alegrias in a camisa de lunares?
I would recommend three finger picado alternating with rasgeados w the same fingers to strenghten the hand, and then alternate i,m picado, when playing normally if you want a fast answer.
Well id look at Merengues way of teaching basic cante accompaniment and not so much technique, i have done that with him in cordoba long ago. Taking accompaniment classes i mean.
I would recommend three finger picado alternating with rasgeados w the same fingers to strenghten the hand
sounds good, but i don't get it. do you mean doing im, then some ia and am, or alternating all three doing imami? and just generally doing rasgeados using the three fingers, like amii (last i upstroke).
RE: A question about picado (in reply to mrMagenta)
Sorry, i mean first practice three finger picado for say ten minutes - then ragueados ten minutes - then back to three finger picado etc.
You can feel if you need more strength outwards or inwards in that you will be get more fatigued by one of them. So then you know what to do more of.
Then when you play picado then do that normally with i,m
Thats what i do at least, but look for grishas thread ..
quote:
do you mean doing im, then some ia and am, or alternating all three doing imami? and just generally doing rasgeados using the three fingers, like amii (last i upstroke).
You can do all those picado combinations when you have time, but i do it like that in a compressed warmup.
And amii rasg, yes or just ami
(i actually do; iai, imi, mam rasgeados when i also have time to do i,a and ma picado)
RE: A question about picado (in reply to sonikete)
I agree with everything thats been said but noone ever told you why u should practice the 3rd fingher also. I mean we only play picado with 2 fingers so to someone new it might not make sence so they might neglect it as i did for so long when i started out. Funny enough many of the beginner books dont explain why either, they just say that u should do it (but never why), but i think thats not enough, someone like me likes reasons. Just assumed that it didnt apply to me because i only needed 2 fingers for picado and it was a waiste of time when i should be practicing the fingers that i do use.
It was my mistake.
when you practice picado with your 3rd finger u make it strongher, therefore balances you hand out making I and M work togheder better for some reason, i dont know detailed biological explonations, but after doing it a while u just start too feel the difference. it works.
if you are like i was and ignored the 3rd finger in picado exercises thinking it dosent make sence, do an experiment for yourself.
practice a scale with M A for about 5 minutes at whatever speed u can, then do the same scale with I M, u will get all the proof u need to satisfie your stubborn mind
this is just my own experiences, and just part of what u should be doing.
ps. i am not a picado junkie , i focus alot of attention on it because is one of the hardest technique to develop.
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