Flamenco Guitar Techniques - Tremolo

Guitar is not a sustained instrument. In plain English, the note dies out very quickly once it comes out. Piano is the same. Then there are sustained instruments such as violin or flute. These instruments can truly play long notes as written on the scores. But a guitar cannot create a sustained note (unless you have an electric guitar with a pedal). So, probably a smart player at some point thought he or she could use the fingers repeatedly to create a mandolin-like effect while plucking accompaniment notes with the thumb.

Therefore, tremolo is an attempt to mimic a sustained instrument or a singer using a guitar.

In classical guitar, tremolo is typically played P a m i, which is one bass note followed by three trebles - 4 notes in total. The flamenco tremolo is made up of 5 notes: P i a m i. The key to developing a nice and even tremolo is to basically do the opposite of what you do for fast picado. Speed burst, which is extremely useful for picado speed, is detrimental to homogeneous tremolo. In complete opposition to the "twitch" approach of picado, you have to consider each and every tremolo note as a separate entity that is governed by a beat (or a fraction of a beat) on the metronome. Tremolo has to be practised very slowly, giving each note equal value.

If you apply the speed burst technique to tremolo then your tremolo will "gallop" and not sound even. Playing tremolo, you are mimicking a singer, or an instrument with high sustain such as a violin or flute where notes last. Your tremolo has to create the illusion of a continuous note. And the only way to achieve that is to make the sequence as even as possible.

Practise with the metronome very slowly and play your tremolo passages at the speed you can play them perfectly.

Here is the youtube playlist of atrafanaSchool on tremolo:
Flamenco Tremolo Exercises

Also, check out the tremolo training package from the atrafanaStore.
Tremolo Training Package​