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There is just one flamenco technique I’m uncertain on, and that is the resting of the right hand thumb on the bass strings whenever poss, when doing arpeggios etc, and when the thumb is not playing anything, Do you guys rest the thumb when doing forward and reverse arpeggios ?, I find its one of the hang ups from my Classical guitar days that my thumb seems to hover when doing them, as the fingers tend to hit the wrong strings when I rest my right hand thumb, but most pro guitarists seem to rest the thumb constantly. Cheers Dave
RE: Resting the right hand thumb (in reply to Billyboy)
Hi Dave, I guess when you're playing arpegio with the thumb ascending (EAD) then the thumb is usually in contact with a string when playing rest strokes, but if playing a descending thumb line (DAE) then it's mainly unsupported. I tried some stuff out and found that when playing one of those endless "naked" arpegios in Tarantas I have no preference as to whether the thumb's on a string or in the air. I would reckon to be able to play both ways can't do any harm.
RE: Resting the right hand thumb (in reply to Jim Opfer)
Cheers, I find the tremelo thing difficult resting the thumb also. Panaderos Flamenco is a good example for the importance of resting the thumb. , when I say arpegio I mean the p imami where the thumb comes to rest on the coresponding bass string, I find this awkward. Thanks Billyboy
RE: Resting the right hand thumb (in reply to Billyboy)
Dave,
I find that resting the thumb in tremolo helps me to regulate and control the technique. Likewise in arpegio and picado. My own technique is built around this and if I have my thumb up in the air for no good reason, I find it hard to play.
RE: Resting the right hand thumb (in reply to Billyboy)
Hey all,
What would be the proper way, if there's any, to play two notes using thumb + i/m/a together? Should the thumb rest or not? For example, the three notes on E, A and again A bass strings:
I guess the first and the third bass make sense to be played with the rest stroke since the next note to be played with the thumb after that is a note on a lower string, but how about the second bass note (though it's only a thumb note) since you need to play the same string again after that? The way I play it now is all three with rest strokes, and I guess what I'm sometimes doing is playing the bass and then the treble string in sequence but really fast so it almost sounds like it's at the same time.
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RE: Resting the right hand thumb (in reply to Filip)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Filip
Hey all,
What would be the proper way, if there's any, to play two notes using thumb + i/m/a together? Should the thumb rest or not? For example, the three notes on E, A and again A bass strings:
I guess the first and the third bass make sense to be played with the rest stroke since the next note to be played with the thumb after that is a note on a lower string, but how about the second bass note (though it's only a thumb note) since you need to play the same string again after that? The way I play it now is all three with rest strokes, and I guess what I'm sometimes doing is playing the bass and then the treble string in sequence but really fast so it almost sounds like it's at the same time.
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