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Help!
Hi there can anybody shed some light on this subject?I would like to know how
do you get those fast arpeggios say like on a granadinas at the beginning.The arpeggios im onabout are the ones that are descending ima ones.I try to do it fast obviously starting slow at first and gradually gathering momentum but im finding my nails seem to scrape across those strings why is this?

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I find there is quite a bit of conflicting information out there on the web regarding this.

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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

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ORIGINAL: Kalo

I am trying to hijack this thread, but, I have a question...

I know I can use some help an arps., one thing that still isn't clear to me is when picking chords...

Should the fingers ALWAYS be on the strings when picking??

If I picked in this order a, m, i does the next finger m have to already be planted on the string or can it just kind of be away until actually picking the string?

I hope this made sense...

Good thread by the way!

Kalo

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Good question. the difference of terms is between a FULL PLANT (fingers already on strings) or a SEQUENTIAL PLANT (one finger at a time while others hang in the air). Most typical in flamenco is to do a full plant for ima, but always a sequential plant for ami. I have not seen a player to full plants for ami, but I have seen players in flamenco do ami apoyando (Vicente Amigo). Gerardo Nuñez does sequential plant for ALL arpegio, including ima patterns.

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ORIGINAL: Ricardo

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.

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.

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ORIGINAL: Ricardo

Odd advice, perhaps you misunderstood the old teacher? For sure the ideal plant is touching both skin and nail at exact same moment (except thumb where it's ok to hit skin first) for ALL techniques.....it's hard to do hence the grease I described used by many flamencos and classical players too. Planting skin then sliding into nail always will for sure cause a delay and mute the sound of each planted string longer.

Only thing makes sense to me if if the teacher had you do this to exaggerate planting because before you were catching only nails when playing?

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ORIGINAL: Christianos

Help !!!
Has anybody had the dreaded tennis elbow syndrome from playing flamenco ? Not sure if i got it from day job or me practising rasqueados and alzapua !

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Resting your thumb will in the same time induce contraction of the thumbs base flexor, which again will then be in the way of the fingers flexors.