Is i - a Picado a Viable Alternative to i - m Picado?
We are all trying to speed up our picado plowing through scales, exercises, eating more fish :-), you name it.
A recent session with one of my students, Lewis, made me reconsider the option of playing picado with index and ring fingers as opposed to the common index-middle option.
Lewis was having trouble raising his speed with the regular i-m picado technique. As soon as he hit a certain BPM, the flow of the alternation would start to suffer and the picado sound gallopy. It was obvious that the issue was the size difference between the index and middle fingers.
I immediately thought maybe he should have a slightly longer nail on the index finger to compensate for the insufficient reach. We tried that right away by filing down the middle finger nail. Didn't quite work. Then I suggested bending the fingers a bit more to equalize the angle and reach of attack in-between the two fingers . This is a hard one to test as it requires some time make such an adjustment of technique.
Then it dawned on me: there is another finger much closer to the index in size. So, he tried the i-a picado and voila, the improvement was immediately evident.
This experience got me thinking about the i-a picado as a possible alternative to the i-m version. Have we been doing this all wrong? Is that why only a few players manage to reach high picado speed? Do fast players who use i-m technique have longer index fingers? Am I going crazy? Well, let's calm down a bit and think about this issue rationally via observations.
For starters, the i-m picado works and we all know and can see that it does. But the question is whether it would be easier for more people to access higher speeds if they approached the whole picado thing without the middle finger. The advantages of the i-a picado that I have observed so far are as follows:
But the fact still remains that i-m picado is much more common. So, maybe there are aspects to i-a picado that are not that advantageous and I am unable to see them right now.
Either way, I believe it is worth giving a try.
One guitarist that utilized the i-a picado spectacularly is Francisco Marquez (Paco de Antequera). There are others too but this guy is so good at it.
Check out the following videos to see what I mean. Also observe his incredibly balanced and efficient right hand technique. I cued the videos to the parts I want you to see:
A recent session with one of my students, Lewis, made me reconsider the option of playing picado with index and ring fingers as opposed to the common index-middle option.
Lewis was having trouble raising his speed with the regular i-m picado technique. As soon as he hit a certain BPM, the flow of the alternation would start to suffer and the picado sound gallopy. It was obvious that the issue was the size difference between the index and middle fingers.
I immediately thought maybe he should have a slightly longer nail on the index finger to compensate for the insufficient reach. We tried that right away by filing down the middle finger nail. Didn't quite work. Then I suggested bending the fingers a bit more to equalize the angle and reach of attack in-between the two fingers . This is a hard one to test as it requires some time make such an adjustment of technique.
Then it dawned on me: there is another finger much closer to the index in size. So, he tried the i-a picado and voila, the improvement was immediately evident.
This experience got me thinking about the i-a picado as a possible alternative to the i-m version. Have we been doing this all wrong? Is that why only a few players manage to reach high picado speed? Do fast players who use i-m technique have longer index fingers? Am I going crazy? Well, let's calm down a bit and think about this issue rationally via observations.
For starters, the i-m picado works and we all know and can see that it does. But the question is whether it would be easier for more people to access higher speeds if they approached the whole picado thing without the middle finger. The advantages of the i-a picado that I have observed so far are as follows:
- Since the index and ring fingers are more similar in size compared to the index and middle fingers, the player needs less effort to adjust for alignment. The saved effort can simply go to speeding up and tonal punch.
- As the index and ring fingers are further apart as well as similar in size, the hand stays more in balance through the fast alternation between the two. It is almost like playing arpeggio but you can still dig in to the strings and your hand will move less.
- Therefore, your hand stays in the same position regardless of the particular technique your are using. Meaning, you don't have to wind up and lift your forearm to prepare for a fast run. You simply burst it out without changing your hand shape.
But the fact still remains that i-m picado is much more common. So, maybe there are aspects to i-a picado that are not that advantageous and I am unable to see them right now.
Either way, I believe it is worth giving a try.
One guitarist that utilized the i-a picado spectacularly is Francisco Marquez (Paco de Antequera). There are others too but this guy is so good at it.
Check out the following videos to see what I mean. Also observe his incredibly balanced and efficient right hand technique. I cued the videos to the parts I want you to see:
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