Do You Really Want to Become a Good Flamenco Player?
What is the secret to playing flamenco guitar like a pro?
To practise?
Well, sure. But practise what?
Every so often I receive emails either from atrafanaSchool members or random amateur players that say things like: "I'practise 4 hours a day. I play every single scale there is. But I STILL CANNOT PLAY WELL. HELP!"
I try to respond whenever I find time explaining what to do and where to start. I am tired of typing the same thing over and over again. So, I'd like to address this issue here once and for all.
I've made every conceivable mistake in this game.
So, often times, I get a feeling of deja vu when I listen to people complain about not being able to play such and such a piece.
It is very common among self-taught beginners to start their journey with a favourite piece. "I really want to play Entre Dos Aguas! Do you have the tabs?" It feels like once you get the tabs for your dream song, you can unlock it's hidden secrets. So you find some file on the internet (or even buy the official transcription book, which by the way, is not necessarily accurate) and start digging in. At first it feels great to hear the same harmonies that kept playing in your head come through your instrument. That is a fun time for sure.
But after a while, you get tired of playing the same passage over and over again. Then you try another piece. Same thing happens. You work on the opening bit or your favourite passage and then get stuck again. The result is a long list of partially and very poorly played pieces. Many players quit at this point. The guitar becomes at best a party trick to strum a few chords to wow their friends, or at worst a reminder that they lack talent.
Players who persevere and manage to stick with the regiment of digging through tabs also hit a wall at some point. For me it was hearing my own playing on a recording I made with a friend. I was so shocked! I sucked big time. There was no rhythm, the tone was awful and the piece was barely recognizable.
The insight that hit me was: trying to play is not enough to play well.
This is particularly significant if you want others to listen to you and enjoy your performance. People who don't play guitar cannot care less about your picado speed! Seriously, I've been to several concerts of Paco de Lucia and guitar players made up only a small part of the audience. So what were they doing there if they didn't know anything about picado?
If you want both players and non-players to respect and enjoy your music, you need to follow a different path than trying to play beautiful pieces. What you need is serious technical practice. But the best technique is that one that is invisible (inaudible in this context). The best musician is the one that can channel their music without tripping over the physical limitations of moving fingers on strings. Is this a contradiction? Well, no. Your technique needs to be so strong that it disappears behind the music you are channelling.
Don't worry. I will not leave it at that. I will tell you exactly what to do in technical terms. I just had to get all that out of my chest. Besides, the picado packages at the atrafanaSTORE are extremely popular but there is one technique that everybody desperately needs but mostly overlooks.
So, do you want to play flamenco guitar well?
THEN START WITH FREE STROKE!
That's right. Free stroke. In classical guitar parlance "tirando"
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of free stroke. I meet so many players who practise picado, rasgueado, tremolo etc. and are good at them but cannot play one falseta from beginning to end without glitches. Because they have not developed a solid free stroke technique. Those of you who have recently joined the mailing list may not have read my free stroke discovery story. I don't want to repeat it here, so please read it:
http://www.atrafana.com/blog/i-didnt-always-play-flamenco-the-panaderos-story
After a brief session on tone production and nails I start my one-on-one lessons with two free stroke exercises that I've designed. Free Stroke is the basis upon which the whole flamenco guitar technique is based. (Do I need to say "in my opinion" here?) It determines your default right hand position. Once you master the free stroke, you will be able to master arpeggio, tremolo, and picado.
Watch Paco in this video and observe his free stroke technique:
Guajiras de Lucia
To practise?
Well, sure. But practise what?
Every so often I receive emails either from atrafanaSchool members or random amateur players that say things like: "I'practise 4 hours a day. I play every single scale there is. But I STILL CANNOT PLAY WELL. HELP!"
I try to respond whenever I find time explaining what to do and where to start. I am tired of typing the same thing over and over again. So, I'd like to address this issue here once and for all.
I've made every conceivable mistake in this game.
So, often times, I get a feeling of deja vu when I listen to people complain about not being able to play such and such a piece.
It is very common among self-taught beginners to start their journey with a favourite piece. "I really want to play Entre Dos Aguas! Do you have the tabs?" It feels like once you get the tabs for your dream song, you can unlock it's hidden secrets. So you find some file on the internet (or even buy the official transcription book, which by the way, is not necessarily accurate) and start digging in. At first it feels great to hear the same harmonies that kept playing in your head come through your instrument. That is a fun time for sure.
But after a while, you get tired of playing the same passage over and over again. Then you try another piece. Same thing happens. You work on the opening bit or your favourite passage and then get stuck again. The result is a long list of partially and very poorly played pieces. Many players quit at this point. The guitar becomes at best a party trick to strum a few chords to wow their friends, or at worst a reminder that they lack talent.
Players who persevere and manage to stick with the regiment of digging through tabs also hit a wall at some point. For me it was hearing my own playing on a recording I made with a friend. I was so shocked! I sucked big time. There was no rhythm, the tone was awful and the piece was barely recognizable.
The insight that hit me was: trying to play is not enough to play well.
This is particularly significant if you want others to listen to you and enjoy your performance. People who don't play guitar cannot care less about your picado speed! Seriously, I've been to several concerts of Paco de Lucia and guitar players made up only a small part of the audience. So what were they doing there if they didn't know anything about picado?
If you want both players and non-players to respect and enjoy your music, you need to follow a different path than trying to play beautiful pieces. What you need is serious technical practice. But the best technique is that one that is invisible (inaudible in this context). The best musician is the one that can channel their music without tripping over the physical limitations of moving fingers on strings. Is this a contradiction? Well, no. Your technique needs to be so strong that it disappears behind the music you are channelling.
Don't worry. I will not leave it at that. I will tell you exactly what to do in technical terms. I just had to get all that out of my chest. Besides, the picado packages at the atrafanaSTORE are extremely popular but there is one technique that everybody desperately needs but mostly overlooks.
So, do you want to play flamenco guitar well?
THEN START WITH FREE STROKE!
That's right. Free stroke. In classical guitar parlance "tirando"
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of free stroke. I meet so many players who practise picado, rasgueado, tremolo etc. and are good at them but cannot play one falseta from beginning to end without glitches. Because they have not developed a solid free stroke technique. Those of you who have recently joined the mailing list may not have read my free stroke discovery story. I don't want to repeat it here, so please read it:
http://www.atrafana.com/blog/i-didnt-always-play-flamenco-the-panaderos-story
After a brief session on tone production and nails I start my one-on-one lessons with two free stroke exercises that I've designed. Free Stroke is the basis upon which the whole flamenco guitar technique is based. (Do I need to say "in my opinion" here?) It determines your default right hand position. Once you master the free stroke, you will be able to master arpeggio, tremolo, and picado.
Watch Paco in this video and observe his free stroke technique:
Guajiras de Lucia
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