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Some (50+) years ago - while doing my compulsory military service for Her Brittanic Majesty - I met a fellow serviceman who had been stationed in Gibraltar. He was quite an accomplished flamenco guitarist and frequently played at our local Hispanic Society musical evenings.
We played together a few times, and he showed me where he had developed a callous (or 'corn', as we call it in England) on the edge of his right thumb where it contacted the strings. He also added that many other flamenco players in Spain also developed a similar callous on the thumb, and actually played with the callous, rather than using the thumbnail.
I was just wondering if this is still common today. Are there players out there who have also developed a callous on their right thumb. And do they actually play with the callous as distinct from using the thumbnail?
Personally, I don't think any technique can be played just by the nail, including alpazua. Corn comes naturally with playing, my problem is rather the corn around the ring and small fingers which get so thick that I'm tempted to peel a bit off, which makes playing painful for a while.
it's the callous that you play with, the nail is needed to contact the string after the flesh has left it, to give it that crispy tone... the callous can sometimes get harder or larger than desired, i sometimes use the nail filer to get a little bit off of it...
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