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Re:Daily practice routine
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mark indigo
Posts: 3625
Joined: Dec. 5 2007
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 RE: Re:Daily practice routine (in reply to Phrygian)
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hi,
i want to second ron and say get some lessons
having said that my first teacher didn't really teach technique as such, and tho i was more or less a beginner he tried to teach me improvisation and extended jazz chords before i'd got technique and compas!
needless to say i've started over again from the beginning several times
if you don't have access to a teacher, maybe try oscar herrero paso a paso dvd's 1 and 2 for technique and encuentro merengue de cordoba dvd 1 for compas (but don't copy his technique!) and maybe something like juan martin or graf martinez (i haven't seen this but people always seem to recommend it) to get some basic beginner level stuff to play...
...and what i would say re practise routine is practise whatever are your weak points
for me at the moment that is picado, picado, picado, 'cos when i started i did lots of traditional/old style stuff (after i quit that first teacher!) with lots of pulgar, so my pulgar technique is pretty good. i also started playing for dance classes so my rasgeo and compas are ok too, and so are my arpegios and tremelo's for some reason.... but picado is my weakest technique, so that's what i practise every day
at the beginning i guess everything is a weak point, so do a little of everything, first some rasgeo, then some pulgar, and arpegio, then alzapua, picado, tremelo.... try to practise things in compas so you're practising that too
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Date Aug. 20 2008 12:46:17
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srshea
Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
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RE: Re:Daily practice routine (in reply to Phrygian)
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Hi Phrygian,
As Ron said, that’s a big, big question, and really hard to answer without knowing where you’re currently at in your studies. So, I don’t have any real specific advice to offer, but here are a couple of things that I’ve figured out in my own hit-and-miss efforts at self study:
Try to stay focused on just a few styles, like solea, tangos, and farruca for example, and just the most essential, basic, core techniques, like pulgar, a couple of basic rasqueados, one kind of tresillo, etc. Flamenco is so huge, with so many different forms and so many different techniques and different ways to perform those techniques that it’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to take it all in at once and end up spreading your efforts too thin. And that can really slow or halt your progress altogether. Shortly after getting started in flamenco I quickly amassed to sizeable selection of method books and tabs and on-line lessons and so on. I ended up working on several different forms at once and numerous techniques, and the end result was that my efforts were scattered and unfocused, and I was spending a LITTLE bit of time on a LOT of different things, rather than a lot of time on just a few essential things. Wasn’t very productive. I’ve since scaled things back and have been spending most all of my time focused on a modest number of things, working to get them down solid before moving on to other stuff, and I’d recommend the same approach to anyone who’s in the early stages of learning.
Additionally, it’s always important to stay focused on playing everything in compas and trying to be rhythmically precise in the execution of your technique. I found that it’s really easy to get lazy in those areas, to get caught up in the sounds of the notes and in playing enjoyable falsetas, and get lax in your attention to the importance of the rhythmic aspects of flamenco. That’s probably the biggest mistake you can make, and I think one of the easiest to make if you’re not continually attentive to the rhythmic elements of playing.
So, my advice is to figure out those few essential things you wanna work on, keep it simple and focused, and work on getting that stuff down rock solid. May not be the most exciting and satisfying stuff to play, but it’ll be crucial to building a strong foundation. Hope that helps.
Adam
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Date Aug. 23 2008 14:19:37
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srshea
Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
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RE: Re:Daily practice routine (in reply to Phrygian)
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Phrygian,
Wow, I’m glad what I said resonated with you. I think one of the best things about this forum, aside from all the actual concrete information and specific advice, is that it provides an assurance to many of us that we’re not alone, and that a lot of us are encountering the same challenges and problems as we try to teach ourselves this really complex art. I would guess that the impulse to try out everything you can get your hands on, hoping that you’ll find that one book, or instructional dvd, or guru that will make everything perfectly clear, is pretty common. It definitely is for me. I take on a new interest, and I want to soak it all in, buy every book I can find, knowing that if I can just find the right one it’ll “save me” and everything will be all right. Most of the time I end up with a lot of half-read books lying around after having jumped back and forth between them, skimming the surfaces, but never really digging in and truly absorbing what these books have to offer. Sometimes it’s best to just stop the searching, take you you’ve already got, and dig in. I do this all the time. Until I get carried off by the next distraction, of course……
quote:
What are your thoughts on playing the same piece for too long i and when should you move on to the next piece? And is it good to practise let us say 3 different palos spread out during the week or should you focus on one rythm at a time?
To be honest, I dunno. I can’t pretend to have all this figured out; I’m just as lazy, sporadic in my efforts, and bad at taking my own advice as the next guy. Lately I’ve been determined to narrow my focus to just solea, farruca, tangos, and bulerias. I tend to average an hour and a half or so of practice, five days a week. Not a whole lot, but I try to make the best of it. Now, there’s no way I can fit all four of those forms into a 90 minute practice and do them justice, so I’ll space ‘em out through the week, usually taking on two in a single practice, and some days just working on one when I want to focus hard on something. It’s not very systematic, and I’m sure I’d be better off with a more deliberate, specific approach, but I feel like this is working for me: I’m enjoying playing, I’m making regular, if slow, progress, so, I’m happy. I think the trick in developing a practice regimen is to try and find a balance that keeps you enjoying yourself while you’re doing good, solid work that develops your skills: enough variety so you stay interested and engaged without getting bored, balanced with focused work on a manageable number of things in which you can see steady progress. I think finding this balance is something that everyone has to figure out on their own…..
A tresillo is a triplet rasgueado like P up, A down, I down or P up, MA down, P down. There’re lots of variations, so in that earlier post I was suggesting that it’s probably best to pick one or two and get comfortable with those rather than try to learn ‘em all at once.
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Date Aug. 26 2008 15:36:20
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