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I have roughly 2 hours a night that I can practice.
Here is what I am doing:
Picado 5 minutes for three exercises Arpreggio 5 minutes for four exercises Alzapua 5 minutes for only one exercise Ras. 4 stroke, albinico 5 minutes each
After I am done, I practice my Palos which includes Sevillinas, Solea Por Buleria, and a tarantos.
Does this sound okay???
I wonder if I should practice on one Palos a night and ad more techinque skills.
Tremolo may not be among the first things you should work on, but I don't think it should be the last thing either. The tremolo can really be a beautiful addition to some pieces, especially Solea'. In fact, I saw Solea' por Buleria in your palo exercises, but not straight Solea' I would concentrate on straight Solea' as well. It is considered by many to be the "mother" of Cante Jondo and, in my opinion, should be in everyone's repertoire. If I had only one palo to play and one only, I would choose Solea'. But that is just my opinion, for what it is worth. Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Tremolo may not be among the first things you should work on, but I don't think it should be the last thing either. The tremolo can really be a beautiful addition to some pieces, especially Solea'. In fact, I saw Solea' por Buleria in your palo exercises, but not straight Solea' I would concentrate on straight Solea' as well. It is considered by many to be the "mother" of Cante Jondo and, in my opinion, should be in everyone's repertoire. If I had only one palo to play and one only, I would choose Solea'. But that is just my opinion, for what it is worth.
Thanks for the advise Bill!!! I will concentrate on Solea as well!!!
kalo--tremelo may be the last thing you incorporate but it is probably one of the hardest things to perfect and requires a lot of practice. bill is on target about solea.
If You don't have the time for practice everything You need, make up different variations (let's say 7 or 14) for the 2 hours You have, and rotate them! The way You practice now will give You uneven skills. Also I think one shouldn't measure practice in minutes, but in goals, and achivements. You may need just a couple of extra minutes to nail something at a particular speed, and You can go rest with the feeling, You've done something well. I think that's super important! As I have very limitied time to practice recently, I've come to the point that the quality of Your practice is much more important than it's quantity. There's no point in practicing 10 hours 'till You loose focus and concentration after 20 minutes At start one has to learn to learn. One thing I'd surely include in my daily routine is practice compas-variations in the most important palos together with flamenco-metronome! (Flamenco Master is ready to download from the foro)
If You don't have the time for practice everything You need, make up different variations (let's say 7 or 14) for the 2 hours You have, and rotate them! The way You practice now will give You uneven skills. Also I think one shouldn't measure practice in minutes, but in goals, and achivements. You may need just a couple of extra minutes to nail something at a particular speed, and You can go rest with the feeling, You've done something well. I think that's super important! As I have very limitied time to practice recently, I've come to the point that the quality of Your practice is much more important than it's quantity. There's no point in practicing 10 hours 'till You loose focus and concentration after 20 minutes At start one has to learn to learn. One thing I'd surely include in my daily routine is practice compas-variations in the most important palos together with flamenco-metronome! (Flamenco Master is ready to download from the foro)
One thing I've noticed is that 5 minutes for each exercise is taking lots of time!!! I forgot other exercises I include as well, but, let's just say when I start practicing at 8 p.m., I get done with my exercises at 9:00 p.m.
Maybe it's taking way too much time! So, you're right I am not having time for my palos...I mean I do have time, but, then it starts getting late in the evening.
So, is it maybe best to practice less technique??? I do incorporate compas-variations with all the palos I play..
I have a flamenco metronome...
I really appreciate every advise!
I wish I knew of a perfect way to practice...
I have to be honest...I am ADD so, practicing long on techniques does make me loose focus...
So, I think I am going to shorten my technique practice..
[quoteI'd say don't even bother practicing techniques. In my opinion, practicing techniques is a waste of time. Don't get me wrong, you want to practice the basics but the basics in music are not the techniques. The foundation of music is rhythm. So, if you want to start with the basics, play something al golpe. Go through as much of your repertoire as you can repeating slower anything you struggled with. I find it's best to start and finish with whatever I've most recently learned.[/quote]
Hi Shaun,
Actually, I was doing exactly what you explained. I learnt the basic to where I could actually play!
And then I started learning basic compas and so forth....I let go of all the technique practicing...
I guess, I started feeling "guilty" that I should really hon my techinical skills....
I will say that I enjoy better learning to palos and then working on stuff in the palos that are giving me trouble.
I believe in this way of practicing that I am learning Compas and techique at the same time...
It's just that you hear of all the GREAT guitarist practicing hours on technique!
Now, I am not trying to be the GREAT, I am just trying to get from a beginner/Intermediate level to an Advance level of playing..
If you really do appreciate all comments, here's mine:
You say you lose focus practising technique but it is that very focus that one must practise. It's not about practising technique or music as if they were separate things, they are a continuum, all meshed and mixed.
5 minutes here, 10 minutes there does not sound like learning. It sounds like tasks that have to be 'done'. I love practising technique. I can hardly stop myself. It just feels so good.
But if you need it to be more 'formal' you could do what the previous poster suggested and rid yourself of the idea that you are practising technique. Take the bits that sound bad and practise them. But it sounds to me that you need to learn 'how' to practise. This often seems different for everyone but it amounts to the same thing.
Flamenco 'techniques' are, in my opinion, extremely evolved. If you practise arpeggio well (relaxed, relaxed, relaxed) your tremolo will improve. This seems obvious but my experience has been that all of the techniques improve each other.
Ron (please forgive me for paraphrasing something you said) pointed out that had never heard many people with wonderful picado, for example, that had other techniques that stunk... somehow our techniques across all 'techniques' seems to level out with themselves.
It is how you practise that counts, in my view, not 'what' you practise, and certainly not for how long.
I was always a dreadful golfer but the feeling of just clipping that perfect drive is very similar to the feeling one gets when the picado is completely under control. I'm not talking speed or power or any 'separates', I mean the feeling that you get when it becomes 'easy'.
Flamenco techniques, unlike classical techniques, can become part of a tacit infrastructure of knowledge that you can consciously or unconsciousy draw on. Like typing, or riding a bike, something you just know how to do, without fumbling or questioning yourself.
This is about how you develop focus, whether ADD or not, you can watch tv and still focus on technique in the same way that you can drive a car and talk or listen to music at the same time.
For practical purposes I would focus on being relaxed, completely relaxed. Let your right hand melt. Let it make all the mistakes and errors in the world, just practise the feel of hitting the strings with a completely relaxed hand with no thought to the outcome. But listen and feel what's happening. Find out what gives with your hands. You have to train yourself to do the right thing without making any assumptions or starting with any preconceptions.
Accept what's there. Be brutally honest with yourself, but not in a judgemental way. For example, a thread here once asked people what their picado speed was. As usual Ricardo came in and hit the nail on the head when he asked 'for how long?' Find your cruise speed. The speed you can play 'infinitely', and accept it. But relax more and more with it. Play with the dynamics. Use it in what you consider to be 'music'. Apply that speed to diffent scales until it feels automatic.
If you do it right it will not feel boring or frustrating, it will be hard for you to move to other techniques as it will feel so good. But when you do, the other techniques will have progressed, in the background.
Of course, practise tremolo. Why not? Dead slow, but relaxed like other techniques, and make it beautiful, do it in time and out of time. A very slow tremolo can be orgasmic in the right hands while a zipping tremolo can sound like sht.
Part of you has to be always aware when you play but you need to train your unconscious mind to enjoy itself.
It is the focus that one is practising. At first, after every note, feel it, where is the tension? Magically, over time this tension will dissipate, but first you have to confront it, acknowledge it. Just going slow is a waste of time, you must feel everything that's going on. It is hard but it works.
Have a look at great flamenco guitarists, not their hands or their techniques, look at their faces. See any strain, any tongues sticking out? We can examine hands and techniques all day long and never know what's really going on. The commonality is super relaxation.
If you're bored your doing something else. Technique is important. It is vital. Without technique there is no sound to hear. Flamenco has all the techniques already worked out for you, no need to worry, just do them.
If you really do appreciate all comments, here's mine: If you're bored your doing something else. Technique is important. It is vital. Without technique there is no sound to hear. Flamenco has all the techniques already worked out for you, no need to worry, just do them.
Hi Z6,
Your advise is like very informative and hopefully it will help me!
However, one thing I should make clear is I never stated that I was bored when practicing technique!!!
Here is my quote and what I said: "I have to be honest...I am ADD so, practicing long on techniques does make me loose focus"
Loosing focus doesn't mean I am bored! I don't like to disclose my personal life on a forum, but, flamenco means ALOT to me, so, I will at least say this!
I am caregiving for my Mom who had a stroke about five months ago...So, I am trying to caregiving and squeeze in practice time...
At the end of the day my mind is tired and I guess this is why I've been having a hard time concentrating!
Music is my life and passion. I WAS a rock guitarist who has played for over 10 years....
Two years ago, I really found my passion in flamenco...
I LOVE PLAYING! Anyone who knows me will tell you the guitar is my life!! I would much rather practice then hang with my friends, and or, I don't even watch TV.
I will say that my picados have improved and so have my arpeggios! That makes me feel GOOD!!!!
Maybe, what my I should of said is what is the BEST way to practice after a tough day and with miminal time
I would much rather practice then hang with my friends, and or, I don't even watch TV.
I feel you Kalo, my friends are jealous and think I made a new set of friends that are much more fun and awesome then they are. They refuse to believe that I spend my saturday night with a six pack and my guitar. You sound as nerdy as me.
Just to add, I think actively listening is a great way of practicing when you don't have heaps of time. Identify the palo, find the compas, try and dissect what's happening, remate's, llamada's etc etc....Technique not worth a great deal without a solid understand of song structure. This can be done outside of your 2 hour window if you don't already do it.
My point was that you are differentiating between 'palos' and 'technique' in such a way that leads you to say that you 'lose focus' when you practice 'technique' for too long, but not, apparently, when you play palos.
What I am saying is that technique and 'palos' or 'music' or 'rhythm' are all part of the same thing. I apologise for misinterpreting a loss of 'focus' as boredom on your part.
I practise, now, almost exclusivey on technique. I can't quite grasp what you mean by losing focus. Do you mean when you play 'palos' your concentration is superior to that when you play 'techniques'? Because, again, I would hold that they are all the same thing, and that loss of focus is a manifestation of your approach, rather than a fundamental reality caused by a condition that does not affect that which you would describe as practising palos.
The difference I allude to would be the 'focus' that one can bring to the techniques one employs 'inside' the music.
Flamenco guitarists have the enviable position of having much of what constitues the 'music' wrapped inside self-contained 'techniques'.
In classical music, all of the world's music is there and each technical problem must be isolated and solved independently, with little gain to 'other' aspects of one's playing. For example, playing a Bach fugue would do little to prepare you for playing a Bach prelude, never mind a piece of Spanish or South American music, technically at least.
But flamenco is extremely 'guitaristic', in the sense that even tunes that sound almost impossible to play, at first, are often right under the fingers and require nothing more than working on a technique that can also be generalized to many other 'tunes' or palos.
I find it interesting that you lose focus when practising technique but not when playing palos.
I used to have a friend who had a profound stutter which completely vanshed when he sung (and he was a terrific singer). He was never able to translate this ability to his speech (although it had no detrimental effect on his success as a person or in his career).
But still, I have to say that you delineated your practise by time and asked for 'any help'. That you played another style for years may or may not be relevant. I don't know. But it's as if you want help but not if its about improving focus, even though you say 'technique' actually causes a loss of focus. Therefore that is exactly the area that must be tackled. Not being abe to focus on 'technique' would be entirely debilitating as all (played) music requires a technique in order for it to exist at all. However, if your playing is already fabulous, then no problem. But I don't know how one would develop a tremolo or picado, for example, without some focus.
Regardless of your ADD problems, I would hold still that it is the focus that one must develop. All other things grow out of that.
Surely all you have to do is not practise 'technique' as someone suggested. I'd say that that is a state of mind rather than a description of a process.
One thing for sure, I would never allocate time to techniques in the way that you suggest you have. If you have to play to audiences you'd have to allocate time to repertoire but again, it is the focus of the practise that counts.
As I said, the important thing is being honest with one's self. Doesn't matter what you call the practise or how long it is.
If you're Paco then no problem, but if you want a solid technique that has a lovely easy feel, then deep focus (plus time) is the only way I can figure that an adult learner can get it.
I believe Erik posted something about this recently.
I feel you Kalo, my friends are jealous and think I made a new set of friends that are much more fun and awesome then they are. They refuse to believe that I spend my saturday night with a six pack and my guitar. You sound as nerdy as me.
Well, your friends are jealous that you have better company
quote:
I hate tremolo !! that's not flamenco is Italian gondola stuff
Well, Florian, now that you admitted how you feel about tremelo, I don't feel bad for admitting I feel the same way
To me I REALLY DIG the compas, and rhythm!!!! I could do without the tremelo!! It kind of reminds of a classical snob!!!!
I apologise for misinterpreting a loss of 'focus' as boredom on your part.
Hey Z6
No problem on thie misinterpreting
Let me try to explain!!! I LOVE working on technique and play palos as well!!!
Okay, so when I am working on my technique...I usually have my metronome set SLOW and a timer to tell me when my time is up with a certain exercise. I am sure this is starting to sound military to you, LOL!
Let's say I am working on picado! During the five minutes, I will start off playing with make no MISTAKES! Then maybe after 2 minutes left, and playing the SAME exercises, I will make a mistake and notice that my fingers weren't rotating correctly!!! It feels like I've just dazed off for a split of a second and that is why the mistake occured! This will happen frequent on any given exercises! This why I was talking about not having full concentration!
This sometimes happens as well when I play Palos! Sometimes I make mistakes but not as frequent as when I practice Techinque!
When I practice my palos i.e. learning a typical compas to Solea Por Buleria. I install an mp3 of solea por buleria into Sound Forge, slow down the palos, and then put my head phones on and play along with the track.
There are also times I will play the palos with my compas clock.. I hope I have answered your question!! Does all this make sense in the way I am working on stuff!
Let me ask you a question!!! You talk about not worrying about time!!!!
So, when you practice you just play technique without worrying about how long you've been practicing...
I have ADD as well. I just practice a particular palo till I "feel" I've done enough or I just want to work on something else. It seems to me like practicing is a personal thing and what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another. I think if your getting better and your not having any pain you must be doing something right. I think as long as you are relaxed and using proper form and on compas it doesn't matter if it's a particular technique or a full piece, you will progress. JUST TOUCH YOUR GUITAR! I have a neighbor who claims to be Jimi Hendrix but he's awful, I can hear when he practices and it's like once a month for 30 minutes.
I practice my Palos which includes Sevillinas, Solea Por Buleria, and a tarantos.
Does this sound okay???
I wonder if I should practice on one Palos a night and ad more techinque skills.
I am at a beginner/intermediate level....
it does not make sense that you do NOT play Solea, the mother of flamenco, the starting point for all beginners for 12 beat palos. it has lots of tremolos,.... I think you need to take some steps back
Yes, I don't worry about time. I have no idea how much time I spend on any individual technique. I spend most of it on picado, arpeggio, alzapua and tremolo.
I practise different things 'inside' those techniques according to how it feels. As an example I might practise predominantly picado for many hours but this will always be interspersed with other things, and the picado will be many things... on one string, across two, three, etc. in one position or up and down the fingerboard. Graduating from slow to fast and back. I do try speed bursts but am much more interested in gaining the ability to cruise, to know that this really is picado and not some imitation. That's my goal. I have the luxury or being an amateur with no interest in playing to anyone. I do it purely for the pleasure it provides me.
The challenge for me is a simple one. I want it to feel good, to feel 'easy'. That's all that interests me, at present. I sometimes jam with Dr. Compas and I improvise, very badly, but it is massive fun.
So, it is, in a sense, very unstructured, but the actual act of fingers on strings and relaxing is always paramount to me. I don't care about mistakes, only what those mistakes are telling me about what I'm doing wrong.
And it's always the same answer... I have to relax more. But doing that is about more than just the simple knowledge that I need to do it.
There is one single thing that seems to have had a radical effect on my ability to play but this is not the thread for it.
I will share the experience at some point as I have learned so much here that I'd like to give back what little I can. And it is nothing but my experience based on a post of Ricardo's. Trawling his posts is like panning for gold and hitting the motherload. But my background is classical guitar and there are some things of value that can be applied to flamenco guitar technique.
I hope nothing I said here was too presumptious. I am often thinking out loud about my own path when I yak about these things.
If You don't have the time for practice everything You need, make up different variations (let's say 7 or 14) for the 2 hours You have, and rotate them! The way You practice now will give You uneven skills. Also I think one shouldn't measure practice in minutes, but in goals, and achivements. You may need just a couple of extra minutes to nail something at a particular speed, and You can go rest with the feeling, You've done something well. I think that's super important! As I have very limitied time to practice recently, I've come to the point that the quality of Your practice is much more important than it's quantity. There's no point in practicing 10 hours 'till You loose focus and concentration after 20 minutes At start one has to learn to learn. One thing I'd surely include in my daily routine is practice compas-variations in the most important palos together with flamenco-metronome! (Flamenco Master is ready to download from the foro)
One thing I've noticed is that 5 minutes for each exercise is taking lots of time!!! I forgot other exercises I include as well, but, let's just say when I start practicing at 8 p.m., I get done with my exercises at 9:00 p.m.
Maybe it's taking way too much time! So, you're right I am not having time for my palos...I mean I do have time, but, then it starts getting late in the evening.
So, is it maybe best to practice less technique??? I do incorporate compas-variations with all the palos I play..
I have a flamenco metronome...
I really appreciate every advise!
I wish I knew of a perfect way to practice...
I have to be honest...I am ADD so, practicing long on techniques does make me loose focus...
So, I think I am going to shorten my technique practice..
Oh, and I PROMISE to start practicing tremelo
Thanks
Kalo
I think Beno gave you some excellent advice. My personal experience is "the smaller the object of your focus, the bigger the result". After playing the guitar for 20 years i went back from paco de lucia to studying open strings and 1 finger only exercises "only" (fingers, parts of fingers and parts of parts of fingers) and with excellent results. My secret was total devotion, total concentration, total control.
It only works if you limit your (study) activities to things you can control a 100% (thats the state you wanne achieve anyhow so way not start delivering that as a rule?). If you can only fully control placing when lifting and replacing 1 finger at the time.....start with that as a solid exercise (so did i).
On top you have to set your mind on things that are NEXT IN LINE to be your next goal. Don't count minutes but set yourself a small but worthy goal and than demand your body to find and adapt the necessary thoughts and skills to make it happen. This demands valid goals, total concentration and constant mental control (monitoring, guiding, evaluating and improving every aspect of your playing). Everything starts and ends with mental imagination. As soon as i found some truth i abandon the guitar to drill the new found movement and/or feeling in my mind only, than went back to the guitar (to check and improve) and back to my mind again.
Is ADD an obstruction for this kind of study? Well that depends. I guess i suffer (some kind of) ADD as well and sometimes it took me mounds of stress and suffering to force myself into giving even 1-5 minutes of the required concentration. But when i finally find myself the right state of mind and opened both my heart, soul and mind to it i soon was able to raise to 15, 30, 60 minutes. One hour of "powerstudy demanded all my concentration and energy (i went to hell and back) and i was completely dead and covered with sweat afterwards but the results equaled the input.
As it turned out my "extremely simple" repetitive exercises worked like a mantra and in combination with mental picturing it even brought me in a higher state of awareness. When you reach that level ADD can be a huge plus because under the right conditions the ADD mind can generate superior focus and concentration compared to a non ADD brain. It did miracles to me and it might do miracles to you.
On a 2 hour base i would only do sever tonal studies and slow and controlled left and right hand exercises in the first hour (separately and together) covering single fingers, simple combinations including lots of tremolo (my all time favorite, it can teach you so much about control and energy dosing!!!!), arpeggio, rasgueado("single" fingers and various combinations), various thump techniques, picado, left hand binding/gripping techniques (linked to ARM direction/rotation) etc.etc. some as a rule, others just to my likings. I prefer lots of variation in the line of re-finding/re-freshing already found "masterships" and small but concentrated studies on the field of new goals. The second hour would exist on 15 minutes warming up (like lh-bindings, tremolo) and 45 minutes of studying whatever comes to me...a piece, a part of a piece, a falseta, a part of a falseta, a part of a part of a falseta or again 1 finger (part of that falseta).
I did express some of my thoughts on the matter in this site and hope to add some good tips and (tremolo) exercises soon.
One tip in advance.... if you fail to control your urge to play full speed before doing a slow and proper mental and physical warming up, and find yourself playing "more than you can possibly deal with" in stead, your brain will be corrupted within seconds, depriving you from a change to reset your brain to "controlled playing" again for the upcoming hour(s), so hold your horses ;-). If it happens to me i watch a dvd from Paco de Lucia. When you see his movements your brain generates matching nerve signals, neutralizing your "****ed up" system to controllable proportions within "minutes".
If you really do appreciate all comments, here's mine:
You say you lose focus practising technique but it is that very focus that one must practise. It's not about practising technique or music as if they were separate things, they are a continuum, all meshed and mixed.
5 minutes here, 10 minutes there does not sound like learning. It sounds like tasks that have to be 'done'. I love practising technique. I can hardly stop myself. It just feels so good.
But if you need it to be more 'formal' you could do what the previous poster suggested and rid yourself of the idea that you are practising technique. Take the bits that sound bad and practise them. But it sounds to me that you need to learn 'how' to practise. This often seems different for everyone but it amounts to the same thing.
Flamenco 'techniques' are, in my opinion, extremely evolved. If you practise arpeggio well (relaxed, relaxed, relaxed) your tremolo will improve. This seems obvious but my experience has been that all of the techniques improve each other.
Ron (please forgive me for paraphrasing something you said) pointed out that had never heard many people with wonderful picado, for example, that had other techniques that stunk... somehow our techniques across all 'techniques' seems to level out with themselves.
It is how you practise that counts, in my view, not 'what' you practise, and certainly not for how long.
I was always a dreadful golfer but the feeling of just clipping that perfect drive is very similar to the feeling one gets when the picado is completely under control. I'm not talking speed or power or any 'separates', I mean the feeling that you get when it becomes 'easy'.
Flamenco techniques, unlike classical techniques, can become part of a tacit infrastructure of knowledge that you can consciously or unconsciousy draw on. Like typing, or riding a bike, something you just know how to do, without fumbling or questioning yourself.
This is about how you develop focus, whether ADD or not, you can watch tv and still focus on technique in the same way that you can drive a car and talk or listen to music at the same time.
For practical purposes I would focus on being relaxed, completely relaxed. Let your right hand melt. Let it make all the mistakes and errors in the world, just practise the feel of hitting the strings with a completely relaxed hand with no thought to the outcome. But listen and feel what's happening. Find out what gives with your hands. You have to train yourself to do the right thing without making any assumptions or starting with any preconceptions.
Accept what's there. Be brutally honest with yourself, but not in a judgemental way. For example, a thread here once asked people what their picado speed was. As usual Ricardo came in and hit the nail on the head when he asked 'for how long?' Find your cruise speed. The speed you can play 'infinitely', and accept it. But relax more and more with it. Play with the dynamics. Use it in what you consider to be 'music'. Apply that speed to diffent scales until it feels automatic.
If you do it right it will not feel boring or frustrating, it will be hard for you to move to other techniques as it will feel so good. But when you do, the other techniques will have progressed, in the background.
Of course, practise tremolo. Why not? Dead slow, but relaxed like other techniques, and make it beautiful, do it in time and out of time. A very slow tremolo can be orgasmic in the right hands while a zipping tremolo can sound like sht.
Part of you has to be always aware when you play but you need to train your unconscious mind to enjoy itself.
It is the focus that one is practising. At first, after every note, feel it, where is the tension? Magically, over time this tension will dissipate, but first you have to confront it, acknowledge it. Just going slow is a waste of time, you must feel everything that's going on. It is hard but it works.
Have a look at great flamenco guitarists, not their hands or their techniques, look at their faces. See any strain, any tongues sticking out? We can examine hands and techniques all day long and never know what's really going on. The commonality is super relaxation.
If you're bored your doing something else. Technique is important. It is vital. Without technique there is no sound to hear. Flamenco has all the techniques already worked out for you, no need to worry, just do them.
Sir i tip my hat to you... you express my thoughts and eternal values even better than i seem to do myself.
However, on top of the basic "total relaxation" one must study, embrace and adapt some well dosed "tension" as well every now and than. My father ones met someone who (unlike all others) was able to play all paganini's caprichos without the slightest problem. But as a result it immediately lost all musical tension as well en instantly became boring. The same counts to for instance Picado which has to be a little "over the edge" to feel "exciting''. Sometimes one has to suffer "a little" to shine to the fullest (with or without a visible tongue). Obviously one can and should practice "wanted tension" on top of it relaxed variation as well. Small changes in muscle tension/energy levels (both manual and facial) have more output coming from a relaxed than from a already tensed situation.
Note that (almost) al facial "tension" is linked to living the accents of the compass a 100%. In that light one can also consider the final picado as one big accent!
I have roughly 2 hours a night that I can practice.
Here is what I am doing:
Picado 5 minutes for three exercises Arpreggio 5 minutes for four exercises Alzapua 5 minutes for only one exercise Ras. 4 stroke, albinico 5 minutes each
After I am done, I practice my Palos which includes Sevillinas, Solea Por Buleria, and a tarantos.
Does this sound okay???
I wonder if I should practice on one Palos a night and ad more techinque skills.
I am at a beginner/intermediate level....
Thanks,
Kalo
You should spend much more time on rasgueado than the others. That is, just strumming chords in compas using not just 4 stroke and abanico, but some other important ones. Main palos should be Solea, slow, and buleria, but also at least llamadas and basic compasing for siguiriya and tangos/tientos. With solea you should be developing arpegio as well, and basic pulgar no alzapua. all other techniques come later as falsetas are learned for each palo.
One question. Is it possible to prove that one approach to practising is better than the other (Ricardo says it's rhythm, others claim it is slow practice of small things). To be honest, i try both, and the progress is quite slow, or at least relatively slow to what i expect (although i can play let's say picado run consising of 16 strokes at about 200 bpm time to time, it never feels completly natural when on stage).
One question. Is it possible to prove that one approach to practising is better than the other (Ricardo says it's rhythm, others claim it is slow practice of small things). To be honest, i try both, and the progress is quite slow, or at least relatively slow to what i expect (although i can play let's say picado run consising of 16 strokes at about 200 bpm time to time, it never feels completly natural when on stage).
it IS both. But as a rule i prefer studying the right thoughts, executing a totally controlled/ completely relaxed technique and a well balanced and controlled energy input over playing it exactly in rhythm. It's more easy to rhythmically vary a controlled technique/ energy input than to improve or even grasp an un-controlled technique while dealing with rhythm. Obviously when you are very well trained (or a natural) and can find the right thoughts, moves and energy inputs without thinking you can study differently than people who still have to discover how "easy" playing the guitar can be. My ultimate goal is not to think on technique at all but only to focus on expression. But to have limitless expression one need to have a totally controlled technique, one way or the other.....there is no short cut.
Are you saying that offstage it feels natural but not in front of an audience?
And do you mean 16 16th notes at 200bpm? Because if you do there's not many people in the world that can advise you on that. I believe Grisha (who may not even be from this world) can play at those kinds of speeds and it seems impossible to me that anyone could play at those speeds without it feeling natural. That's the whole point.
Rhythm is music, or music is rhythm, no doubt about it. Of all the people I've played with or met who seem just wonderful; all of them had fabulous natural rhythm. When I used to teach it was the same; kids with natural rhythm just seemed to eat everything up.
I also noticed that kit drummers and church organists, both of which require what seems to the rest of us like 'multitasking', just always seemed to be the best musicians. Flamenco guitar has some of those elements, when someone is playing and the golpe is telling us something else, and his foot is tapping yet something else; but one can see that the seemingly added complexity appears to make it easier to play. The unconscious and the conscious seem to meld. And all of this can be done by someone who is improvising and supporting and interacting with a singer or dancer or both. It's a beautiful thing indeed, on a number of levels.
But the only place I can play at the speeds you cite is in my wildest dreams.
If indeed your problem is the audience then it's just a matter of practise as well. I used to sht myself in front of an audience. Then when I'd done it a lot I'm afraid I found out that the fear had been masking the truth that I didn't like doing it very much. The level I was at, the places I had to play and the music I had to play to make money did not inspire me at all.
I just want to say that all of your response are amazing and it does help to read great advise.
One thing that I am reading a lot is how can be playing solea por buleria when I haven't play solea?
Well, I started out with solea, but, then believe or not I learnt one of Jason's McGuire's Sevillanas. It was posted on one of his free lessons.
From there I joined for a couple month's of Jose Tanaka's website and went right in and learnt his "modern Solea Por Buleria"
Believe or not I can count it phrase per phrase! I also learnt Jason's Buleria, again one of his free lessons.
I learn to count that Buleria phrase per phrase in compas as well...
But, I feel that I lack Soniquette? I hope I spelled this correctly...
Maybe, I just went way ahead of myself....
And I will learn Solea as a solo palos...
I will also stop keeping watch of the timer...Like Z6, I will try to just play technique and when I am done, I am done!!!!
As for Erick Van Goch's idea, OMG, I read your post a couple of weeks ago and I COMMEND the way you play one string at a time...
I am not sure that I can do that because I want to play
I can't to express myself, but, Erick I am sure that your one string concentration of practice will seperate you from me, LOL!!!!
I will try to do that, but...
I think for now, I will just try to play relaxed and not do so much of military type practicing.
I am starting to think maybe all this un relaxed, trying to keep with the metronome as well as timming how long I practice is making me tense and dazed!!!!
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