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Thanks for posting this video....great to see someone else struggling....sorry joking
Your rest stroke ras. seems quite fluent....but funny thing is even though you say you find the free stroke harder, I actually prefer the sound...the trebles are struck more strongly which gives a brighter sound IMO. The rest stroke is heavier with more bass....but Ricardo said earlier in this thread both methods have their purpose, so I would keep up the practice.
I try to set aside at least 10 mins a day for the free stroke... using simple chord progressions or even just muted strings and over just the last few months I think my fingers are getting stronger although at the moment I can't really use the stroke for more that just a quick ornament.... eami or ami down strokes.
There's quite a bit of good sounding advice in this thread.... I appreciate every one's input
Rombsix What you call free stroke is what I call flicking from inside the palm. When I refer to free stroke, its the ones often used in fill ins in bulerias, tientos compás and a lot of other things. Its another story. Your "free strokes" are the way PDL and P. Habichuela plays rasgueados. They never flick from the thumb. (as far as I remember) Look at Moraitos video with Terremoto hijo playing Tientos.
Nice and clear Ramzi......so I reckon when you have mastery it's just a matter of how much force you need for a particular phraze and also different tonal shading.....and then you use your fingers accordingly....it's just kind of one technique with different ways of applying...probably without any thought process...just natural....prettty obvious when you think about it ....but helpful to understand the subtleties when learning
Mind you, I did a lot of practice on my knee at work
Another usefull practice tool I have found is your car steering wheel! I used this a lot when learning the 5-string banjo, and it works well for guitar also. Either rasgueados, arpeggios or tremolos
When driving on the open road, with no traffic, just rest your thumb on the edge of the wheel, and flick the fingers off the other edge. On a long trip you can get in quite a bit of rythmic finger practice using this simple device. Try it. . .
I actually feel that the free stroke rajeos sounded better than I expected
I told you it was not so hard as you think. But I don't like you complain about feeling tension or getting tired. You are not loose enough, trying for power with each stroke that is not necessary. Try going faster but be more relaxed. Just try ami-i triplets ending up for a while fast. Then try starting i up (forget the pinky) so you feel the beat up stroke. Notice this stroke is the one that closes your hand. So going fast and relaxed it feels like Closed=beat, then Open=off beat. iami-i....iami-i etc. Then try 2 in a row iami-iami-i....etc. Don't even try for power or volume, just the speed at first.
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