The Thumb: Flesh or Nail or Both?
Remember there are two different ways you can use the thumb:
The free stroke position where the thumb is used sideways, almost parallel to the strings
The flamenco thumb position for alzapua and exclusively pulgar passages where the thumb approaches the strings rather perpendicularly.
The free stroke position is the tricky one.
The question is whether to use the side of the nail or only the flesh? The answer to this is not simple. To use the free stroke effectively you need to keep your wrist somewhat close to the guitar and keep it steady. To achieve that, you need to use your thumb sideways. Then your thumbnail cannot reach the string easily. I struggled with this issue for quite some time. Whenever I made an effort to touch the string with the nail, my hand position would change and therefore throw off the flow of tremolo or arpeggio. I eventually started using ONLY the flesh of my thumbnail while thinking that ıt probably was not the right thing to do…
When I saw Oscar Herrero's tremolo tutorial video, I gave a sigh of relief:
The free stroke position where the thumb is used sideways, almost parallel to the strings
The flamenco thumb position for alzapua and exclusively pulgar passages where the thumb approaches the strings rather perpendicularly.
The free stroke position is the tricky one.
The question is whether to use the side of the nail or only the flesh? The answer to this is not simple. To use the free stroke effectively you need to keep your wrist somewhat close to the guitar and keep it steady. To achieve that, you need to use your thumb sideways. Then your thumbnail cannot reach the string easily. I struggled with this issue for quite some time. Whenever I made an effort to touch the string with the nail, my hand position would change and therefore throw off the flow of tremolo or arpeggio. I eventually started using ONLY the flesh of my thumbnail while thinking that ıt probably was not the right thing to do…
When I saw Oscar Herrero's tremolo tutorial video, I gave a sigh of relief:
He says that the bass notes of tremolo are to be played with the flesh of the thumb. I did observe other players more carefully after Herrero's tutorial and noticed that he was right.
However, the issue is still not simple. You need a consistent thumb tone and sometimes it is really hard to hit the strings with the exact same spot. Here is my suggestion:
Start by using only the flesh of you thumb for the bass notes when you are using the free stroke position. See below:
However, the issue is still not simple. You need a consistent thumb tone and sometimes it is really hard to hit the strings with the exact same spot. Here is my suggestion:
Start by using only the flesh of you thumb for the bass notes when you are using the free stroke position. See below:
Then in time you will "calibrate" the position of you thumb and find the right balance between flesh and nail. Then you will be able to switch between the two. See below:
And to clarify: here is the flamenco pulgar position for alzapua and such:
Notice I've filed the left side of my thumbnail all the way down into the flesh.
|
|