Miguel de Maria -> guitar paraphanelia (Aug. 18 2003 15:38:48)
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Man, I have a big mouth today. Must be this coffee I just drained. When I was in Sevilla, probably the best part of it was just the exposure to other guitarists. For over a month, I was hanging out with and studying with a bunch of other guitarists, most of them more advanced than me, a couple of them quite excellent. I learned more from them than from the course. One thing I noticed is that a lot of them had.... guitar paraphanelia. Of course, the true macho flamenco doesn't need any... guitar paraphanelia. All he needs is a guitar, some old strings, nails he hasn't filed for days--he certainly doesn't need any amplification or a sound engineer (just joking, tom!). But for me, I found that having a few aids very helpful. One, if your forearm sticks on the upper bout of the guitar when you move it back and forth, you can cut a hole in a sock and wear that on your forearm. I have a similar arm position to Vicente and Paco in that when I play picado, I hold my elbow up high. To go from E to e, my forearm has to slide the same distance on the upper bout. Someone also told me to put some vaseline on the upper about to solve the same problem. This article is, of course, unnecessary when you wear long sleeves, but if you're bumming around the house, playing naked... um, well, I'm sure no one here does that, but you know what I mean, right? Two, another guy had a three" thick pad on the upper bout. He played in the traditional position, and because he was a large german person, his hand would never lay right unless he had this thing to rest his arm on. Three, a lot of people kept little dabs on carmex on their guitars, usually stuck between the side and the heel, to make their fingers go faster. Or they sometimes kept it on the back of the headstock. This one wasn't new to me, but I saw a lot of people doing this. My solution to dry fingers is just to wipe my forehead or my nose, but if you're not a greaseball like me maybe you have to buy some carmex. Four, the Paco Pena guys all had minidisc player/recorders. I think each disc can hold several hours of lessons, with very good sound quality. Then you can put it on your computer for easy access. I used a digital voice recorder, which was small and handy but had very bad sound quality. Five, I have had problems with my guitar slipping off my leg and not feeling stable. So, I got this idea... you know those rubber sheets, grippy ones, that you can use to open a stubborn can? I put that on my leg and it held my guitar real good. A lot of people wouldn't want to use these things, because once you have them you might get used to them and then not be able to play without them. Of course, maybe you shouldn't get a good guitar, either, because then you won't be able to play crappy ones again. I have to admit, this has happened to me!
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