vuduchyld -> RE: Some technique exercises I do (Mar. 8 2011 19:32:01)
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Thanks for sharing. Honestly, when you asked the "how fast is your picado?" question, that spurred some real thought for me. My pre-flamenco guitar background is largely bluegrass and I can handle my flatpicking business as well as I ever need to, so I never really thought about picado speed or focused on anything but repertoire and compas recognition. After looking through a couple of threads, I realized that there really are some limitations that my lack of technique practice has imposed on me. I can't play picado runs nearly as fast as I can flatpick and I just assumed that eventually I'd get there...but RIGHT NOW that inability was making some things difficult. So I have re-arranged my practice time considerably. I used to divide my practice time into two areas: 1) learning new repertoire and 2) practicing what I already know. It can take me easily 20-30 minutes or MORE sometimes to learn 1 minute of a flamenco falseta...and sometimes I'd learn so much in a week or two week period that it would get confusing for me. On average, I might spend 2-3 hours per week learning, say, 4-6 minutes of new material and then another 6-10 hours per week practicing. I basically put a moratorium on new material for a few weeks and now my time is divided up into 1) doing technique drills 2) developing my own technique drills and runs, and 3) practicing repertoire. The last 7 days, I probably spent 2 hours developing runs and drills, 3 hours doing technique work, and 2 hours practicing repertoire. The upside is that it really has made a difference. Ten days ago, I struggled to do a chromatic run (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2, 3-4-5-6, 3-4-5-6, 3-4-5-6 etc...) from the nut to the 12th fret at 85 bpm (playing 4 notes per beat). Now I can do it pretty comfortably at 100 bpm. I can play long runs of a scales that I know well at 92-95 bpm, up from probably no more than 80. I've also developed some practice runs that are REALLY helping me learn some of the scales that I never really played in the bluegrass world or in positions that I seldom used. It even helps my repertoire as I develop runs that I think would sound good in, say, a little alegrias falseta. So, long story short, I appreciate your challenges and the things that you have been sharing. Thanks, rombsix!
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