Paleto -> RE: Can we learn from our sisters? (Aug. 20 2003 20:44:06)
|
Hi again, I have found the following things useful: 1) Giuliani - 120 right hand studies These I have used to work specifically on accuracy of finger placement, control, volume, independence basic things like that. They are boring, but I change keys, and chord types, making it a little more interesting and challenging. They can easily be turned into flamenco sounding exercises by switching the chords. 2) Carlos Barbosa Lima - some left hand studies which focus on left hand reach/stretch as well as finger independence. They are from a Mel Bay book which is now out of print. I like the way my left hand feels after working through them, and I recently would go through them once at the beginning of each practice session. 3) Luis Zea and John Duarte - The Guitarists Hands - I have started to work through this book about 3 months ago. The entire program I think takes around a year. It consists so far (I am in phase 3 of about 12) in placing the left hand fingers in more or less awkward positions and depressing just enough for propper fretting. The fingers depress their respective strings both indpendently and in various combinations. Part of the idea is to teach the left hand fingers to fret with just enough pressure, not too much which is very easy to do. Another part is train left hand finger independence in all kinds of positions, some not very likely to be found in a piece or in general playing, but the idea is control and independence. Each exercise begins with a base position, which at the end of each day, is moved down the neck from the tenth fret, using one finger at a time (while the others stay fretted in theri original position), helping stretch out the fingers. The book was recommended by some classical players from the Google Classical Guitar News Group. The exercises are tedious and not musical, but I do think they train the left hand well. This book is still sold from luthiermusic.com It is from the 1980's. Some of the psotions are quite difficult, but I really do think my left hand is improving, the stretches are very challenging sometimes, but in the end, they are working. 4) I have some exercises from a book I believe Pepe Romero wrote many years ago. They contain the crab exercise posted by Florian, some ligado exercises, some trill exercises, some barre exercises, a chromatic exercise that would require a lengthy description - maybe I can post it (these are definitely out of print, so I don't suspect there would be any problem). 5) Villa Lobos - Etude #1 in E minor, nice arpeggio study, not so easy for the left hand - well mine anyway. 6) For rasgueo, I have been doing very simple things like play a triplet p,a,i rasgueo, but use it in quadruplets, accenting the 1. Same with Marote's rasgueo, accenting the 1st of each 4 strums. Also, combining rasgueos in sequences for a continuous rasgueo but linking 2 or more different rasgueos in a continuous pattern. I have also been practicing the i,a,i where i is up stroke, a is down, then i down and continuing with i up again, doing it in 4s, 6s and 8s (or accenting the 1s strum in groups of 4, 6 or 8). I have been trying to combine them so that I can change from one rasgueo to another continuously. Make sense? I am looking for some good alzapúa patterns in soleá, alegrías or bulerías. This is one thing I need to practice pretty badly. I play the Nuñez alegrías from Flamencos en nueva york, it has a little alzapúa, but it's not much. My picado is pretty weak, I need to practice it. I was thinking of getting Aaron Shearer's scale patterns for guitar, any comments or suggestions? There is a classical guitar magazine on line called Guitarra Magazine http://www.guitarramagazine.com/ It has a Techniques and Practices section with some worthwhile articles, check them out. I liked Douglas Niedt's pieces called About Exercises, I would suggest to others who are interested to read them. You may find something of interest. I liked what he had to say about his ligado exercise. There is also a picado/scale exercise which seems decnt, I have been practicing it. I use Aaron Shearer's wrist, hand and finger stretches before taking my guitar out of the case. I'd recommend this to anyone who plays guitar, no matter what style. Essentially you do tensor and flexor stretches. I take some deep breaths, roll my head, stretch my arms, rotating them at the shoulders. I do this every time I play, and I think its excellent. I found some literature about musicians injuries, and it really seems to help keep me concentrated and relaxed. I am also beginning to practice scales but in 3rds and 6ths, as opposed to just straight A, B, C, D. 3rds, for anyone who isn't following would be A, C, B, D, C, E, D, F, E, G, F, A etc. in various patterns up the neck. 6ths would be A, F, B, G, C, A, D, B, E, C, F, D, G, E, starting as low as possible and climbing up the neck in various patterns. With time, I'll do this in a number of keys, starting of course with those most common to flamenco. I also use these patterns to practice tremolo, the 5 note flamenco one of course. These last things I devised on my own, although they are common to all classical musicians. They can be employed in flamenco in small chunks and can be made to sound quite musical when used in the proper context. One can use them in just about any palo, but again, they'd have to short and lead from one chord to the next. It takes some time to work them out, which I am trying to do these days. One last thing I forgot to mention, was another very useful approach to exercises. You can create your own directly from something you're working on. A difficult poassage or section can be turned into an exercise, then directly plugged back into the music. So if you're working on a Niño ricardo falseta, and there's a difficult part, extract it, dissect it to figure out just what the problem(s) is (are), and make an exercise out of it. Practice the exercise until you have it down and plug it back in. Many musicians advocate this approach, and there's no question it is valuable. I think exercises can be a very rich source for creativity and you can develop your own falsetas almost directly from good exercises (this doesn't mean that we shouldn't learn falsetas from Ramón Montoya foreward, just that it is one way to develop them). Ramón Jiménez alluded to this in a recent interview on flamenco-world. Not only this but the intervallic exercises I mentioned above (3rds and 6ths or any other intervallic exercise) they develop the ear, perhaps a lot more than one might think at first glance, this would aid directly in improvising falsetas. Anyway, that's 2 more of my cents.
|
|
|
|