Ricardo -> RE: arpeggios (May 2 2012 12:20:15)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: NenadK I'm actually really glad this thread came up. I find there is quite a bit of conflicting information out there on the web regarding this. This Del Monte fellow and Grisha both suggest planting your finger so that the string is right in the little gap between the flesh and the nail because it's more efficient. Maybe a year ago I found that as I was practicing arpeggio (and picado for that matter) my plant was getting closer and closer to this gap. Therefore this seemed a very natural way to gain speed and efficiency since you're not sliding over the flesh. However, when I had a chance to take some lessons with an experienced teacher in Vancouver, one of the things he told me was that my sound was "too naily" (his words) and that I should use some flesh when playing. Funnily enough, Gerardo Nunez also recommends this in his Encuentro video. My Spanish isn't very good but as I recall he demonstrates all 3 ways, playing only with the nail, only with the flesh and claiming that both is the correct way. I've been working really hard to get myself to unlearn the bad habits from earlier and I still sometimes find my plant crawls its way towards the string (there being less and less contact with the flesh). I must say it can get pretty frustrating playing things one way because you heard it from a reliable source only to have another reliable source contradict the advice. Based on having played things both ways for some time I think using the flesh and nail sounds better but using only the nail is best for achieving speed. I find with the flesh you also get a bit more of that "gypsy" sound when you play while with the nail it sounds thinner although not always in a bad way (as the above video demonstrates). Do any more players want to chime in on this issue? Ricardo I'm looking at you [:)] I think folks read too much into this cuz this came up with Del Monte before. He says "no flesh" but what he means is you don't start in the middle of your finger tip and slide into the nail because that makes your skin ball up at the tip and then when the string finally releases you only catch the tip of the nail for a thin sound. He wants that you get only the skin that is right UNDER the nail but of course you have to touch skin, not ONLY nail. Nuñez demos thumb with this regard, it's a little different because in flamenco we want the "click" of the string sliding from the skin into the nail. We tend to have a longer thumb nail then fingers for this reason as well. In some cases when playing arps or any thing with fingers and thumb together, we play sideways with thumb and infact get little or NO nail because of the angle and that is ok sometimes in flamenco too. The only thing about Del Monte is his "range of tone colors" idea, while it is correct as he demos, it is totally a classical sounding thing. That being, it is more flamenco to get the BRIGHTER sounding arps, where the fingers are more curved. The other type of arp straighter fingers for sure is warmer and also more classical guitar sounding IMO. Flamenco players tend not to be into "tone colors" as the multitude of techniques achieve the range of colors flamenco sound requires. For the record, many flamenco players use vasoline or other petrolium on the RH finger tips for the reason that getting too much flesh for arps is a non issue because the greases forces a slippery slide right into the optimal PLANT position for good tone. So you don't have to be so accurate with arps when going fast to get a good grip on the string. Ricardo
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