z6 -> RE: Help With Practicing (Aug. 24 2012 0:18:37)
|
And while I'm here, and still suffering from insomnia, and given that Ricardo entered the thread, I may as well give my praise and endless thanks to him for some advice he offered on a thread about whether one can play flamenco without nails. I was going to wait a few months, in case it all went pear-shaped, but the effect is real. Kalo, it may be of use to you. I don't know. All I know is that it has transformed my playing. Ricardo mentioned that when he put glue on his nails the hook nail he had became unhooked. He also suggested that the sides of the nail grow out and the nail tips be filed flat. Forgive me for not explaining this properly. Ricardo is the one to explain it properly and I searched and found out that he has done so, again and again here, in the past. After playing for around 18 months without nails, and I was happy camper I can tell you, I was enjoying the experience of playing without any impediment. Before that, picado was never something I had any chance of doing. It was simply impossible. Anyone who could do it must be born with it or made a deal with the devil... something... I don't know. I couldn't do it anyway. I have a hook nail on the 'm' finger. It never bothered me a bit in the distant past when I played classical. I filed short and ramped, after lots of experimentation many years ago. But my attempts at flamenco techniques always ended up with me being able to bang it out along with Juan Martin but my picado always sounded as bad, or worse than his. This was not something I could live with, seeing as I could play Lauro or Bach to my heart's content and not have to feel like I was 'imitating' flamenco, slowly and laboured. But blow me down wiv a fevah. I decided to follow the maestro's advice. I grew out my nails and bought myself a little tube of glue. I had never used glue; no need, thought I, my nails are okay. But it happened just like he said. As the nails grew I practised and waited for the hook to arrive. Blimey, I'm sure last time I saw it it started very quickly, hugging the skin like it wanted to grow right back into my finger. But no, not this time. It's been a few weeks now. I've filed them many times and applied many layers of glue... no hook. This might not sound like a big deal to anyone but I can tell you it is a revelation. Is this what it feels like for you guys without hooks? Damn, it is so easy. All I have to do now is go bip bip bip and the technique develops at what seems like an exponential rate. Tremolo feels easy, arpeggios a dawdle. It's just wonderful. I could do all of things before but never 'easy'. Never with an easy feel, like I can 'let go'. So, thank you Ricardo. Never has someone changed my playing so drastically. And it's not just the playing itself either. Now I have a feeling, when I play, similar to that dream people have when they sit down at a piano and they can just do it. I worked awfully hard over the years and a lot of it was certainly useful but nothing comes within a million miles of this. It's like Christmas. Glue. Jeez. Glue. I would never have guessed in a million years that an 'A' shaped nail filed straight across plastered with glue would make it all work so well. I never believed there was ever a 'secret' to anything, but while this certainly won't turn me into anything to write home about I know, for a fact, that it's all there in front of me now, waiting to be explored. Thank you thank you.
|
|
|
|