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When not playing my guitar I quite often find myself mimicking picking techniques on my right hand or "fanning" my four fingers in a wave like motion. I am also terrible for rhythmic table tapping. All of this seems to build strength and resilience in my right hand for playing. Im not really sure what I'm trying to say or ask here actually. Its just a thing I've noticed myself doing subconsciously.
On the steering wheel, in traffic. On a Marlboro Red pack in a bar. On the arm of a chair during a very important meeting at Microsoft and being asked stop. Yep. Been there.
We went to a flamenco show in Ronda. It was in the basement of the museum just after you cross the bridge into the "ciudad" from the "mercadillo." It was pretty much old school, but well done.
I was doing silent palmas, very small movements, hands held very close to the chest. The man sitting next to me asked my to stop. It was distracting from the rhythm of the dance.
I remember when I started playing – travelling on the underground practising rasqueado on the edge of the ticket, tapping rhythms on the lose change in my trouser pocket, going to the extreme end of the platform stamping my feet and clapping and generally annoying everybody. Not much better today I’m afraid.
The guitar stuff has always stayed on the guitar for me. I do catch myself playing drum rudiments from time to time. Old habit I guess. I seriously doubt those "exercices" do anything objectively noticeable for strength or resilience. It has been shown though that even just thinking about a technique and imagining you're doing it can have some effect. No need to actually move anything else than your mind. If you're really bored try composing in your head and imagining the fingering of what you're composing. That's really helpful IMO.
ORIGINAL: Piwin I seriously doubt those "exercices" do anything objectively noticeable for strength or resilience.
I think they can help with finger independence and speed though. For example, tapping out a-m-a-m picados when away from the guitar can help improve speed and eveness (OK, it does nothing for planting). I've noticed flicking out rasgueo on a steering wheel really helps improve eveness and independance when back on the guitar.
Guess it all depends how much your technique needs this extra training
That could be, I guess. For me it's important to do things with intent, so flicking my fingers while not really focusing on what I'm doing doesn't really seem to help me, nor does noodling around on the guitar while watching TV, etc. I'd rather just sit my *ss down for 30min, do my practice, and then just move on to something else.
Guilty! Anywhere I can. Rasgeuados, arps, foot tapping with palmas, contra and so on. Yeah def get an evil look now and again from a stranger who's trying to read on the tube or bus. And I totally get it. I'd be annoyed. I hate annoying sounds.
I do it all the time. One of my best 'performances" ever actually happen to be me playing along with some randomly selected flamenco tracks played by a dj while the audience was waiting for the real artist to enter stage. I was part of the audience and as usual moved my fingers along with the music played, using my arm, leg and/or a rolled up concertprogram to fire my strokes. I most definitely had my day that day and if what happened in my head (and moving fingers) was done for real on stage that would have been a fabulous performance. After about 30 minutes it was time for the real artists to arrive at which moment an elderly man came forwards, bend over to me and whispered in my ear "muy bien" :-).
Personally i find it an excellent alternative for real playing. Science discovered that thinking about doing a move generates the same nerve response as doing that move for real and artist who were hospitalized and not able to play over a longer period of time suffer way less loose of playing skills if they keep playing/studying in their head mentally. Personally i think studying virtual in your head actually beats real studying if you have the skills to do so as real as real can be (i did for a while).
I once had to perform Peñas Peteneras during a student performance and wasn't able to play for a week. So i practiced it mentally during bus travels, breaks during my job as a postman etc. and probably threw in some finger waving as well. Despite not having touched a guitar for a week it came out quite fluently during the performance despite the fact that pice had some very demanding parts.
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The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
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