[dillonpape]

I have a problem to pose as a question to all you master practicers (that has a nice ring to it) and/or creative innovators (also has a nice ring) of practice technique. Next week, my sister is getting married; because of this, I will have to fly up to Washington, D.C. for six days. Obviously, I can't take my guitar on the plane (I certainly would not want it tossed around with the luggage, and especially not without a hard case, which I do not have). Even if I could bring my guitar, I am not sure how much time I would have available to practice anyway since I have to help out with various aspects of the wedding and go to rehearsal dinners, receptions, blah blah blah and I am sure that my mother would like some sight-seeing time. So basically, I am going to be without practice for six days. This is a bad situation for any musician, but if I had been playing flamenco for much, much longer than the couple weeks that I have been practicing so far and I was already used to all of the movements and techniques, it might not be such a big deal; but having only been really, really practicing flamenco for a couple weeks or less, my muscles are all fresh and weak and need all of the diligent, intense practice that they can get. So this is about the worst time that I could be taking a trip for a week.

Since, as I said, I am just starting to train and strengthen my muscles and I feel like a six-day break after only a couple weeks of practice would make my muscles completely forget, I would like some way to be able to still "practice" and keep my muscles at least warmed-up throughout the time period. I suppose that for rasgueados I could just flick my fingers out of my thumb a whole bunch and that may help somewhat. But my question is this: does anybody have any suggestions for other ways that I could practice right-hand flamenco techniques with just my hands, or perhaps using small objects that could fit into the suitcase or carry-on bag? Just anything that will keep my muscles warmed-up and moving so that they don't forget and become weak. I could very easily take my metronome, if that helps. But other than that, I am not sure what else I could do. My main concern would be rasqueado, since that is the technique which I have been mainly focusing on, but I have also been meaning to up my practice time on arpeggios and picado. So...anybody know any way to help?

[Payul]

First of all, congratulated with your sisters wedding!

Practice the right hand you can do at a side of a table, ( bar, stearing wheel) or at the seam from your jeans at the side of your leg.
Rasq, tremolo, apreggios etc.

Also you have now some time to "play" ( right hand on the seem of your trouser) compas bulerias, and tap your feet in different patterns, in two's, three's, or "between the beats", 12 * * 3 * * 6 * * 9 * * 12 * * 3 * * etc.

Also if I am away for a holliday without a guitar, I look for a music shop and "try out" some flamenco guitars.....;-)

Well, I think the week is over before you know it!

Payul

[dillonpape]

hm...I tap my legs and tables and such a lot anyway since I just like making beats like that, so I used to try to practice tremolos by just trying to do piami on the table or my leg and get faster and faster. I could do it pretty well on the table or leg, but it didn't seem to do much practical good other than that, for the last time I tried practicing tremolos on guitar, I still couldn't do them! haha Also you can't really get the right motion on a flat surface since your fingers hit the surface and stop. They cannot follow through into your palm as they are supposed to. So that is why it seems to me that rasgueados may be the only thing I can really practice, since I can flick my fingers out of my thumb and that still works toward strengthening the muscle since there is resistance.

As far as counting in compas, I do not have too much knowledge of compas at the moment. I am mainly learning from Adam del Monte's New Learning Vision Beginner Package, so at the moment I only know the solea 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 or 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. Although I guess that accent pattern is similar for other palos too, right? So I could practice getting accustomed to that useful compas, but I hardly think that would last me all week without a guitar, and it still doesn't do much for the muscles even if I mimic the movements of the falseta that I have learned on my leg.

haha I would love to get out and find a music shop to waste away my vacation days in, but I hardly think that my mom would share my enthusiasm for wasting gas in strange neighbourhoods looking for strange music shops just to play guitar when there is oh-so-many other "family" things to do, even though we have already seen everything in D.C. numerous times haha

I hope that it does pass fast and that my hands are still functioning correctly for flamenco when I get back!

[dzakovich000]

Here is something that I like to do. I will admit, it looks pretty weird to anyone else, but it works for me.

Assuming you are right handed, make a fist with your left hand. Your fingers can be roughly the same spacing as the strings on your guitar. From there, use your right hand to practice techniques. Personally, I like using this to practice tremolo by moving my right thumb from my left index down to my left pinky while playing I A M I I A M I I A M I with my right hand fingers.

It is very subtle and does not produce noise like playing rasgueados on your leg or tapping out different rhythms.

And Dillion, I would like to share a little trick with you about some of the rhythms. Many of the rhythms follow the same or similar patterns.

Soleares: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Bulerias: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Siguiriyas: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Did you notice anything different about the last one? If so, you picked up on the fact that the rhythms for the 2 patterns I listed first are simply shifted over. Basically, a Siguiriyas is like a slow Soleares that starts on beat 6.


The easiest thing that you can do is to listen to Flamenco as much as possible. Start to build up a collection of music that sticks to the traditional form. I highly, HIGHLY recommend Paco Pena's album Flamenco from 1976. The different styles that he plays are all timed perfectly and are great for counting along to. You will gradually be able to recognize common falsetas for the different palos and then you will be able to here something and know what it is. This is a very useful tool. I have learned a lot of flamenco by ear or from my teacher. Listening to as much music as possible simply expands your default knowledge of Flamenco and it will continue to inspire you throughout the sometimes difficult learning process.

[dillonpape]

Hm, thank you, that fist trick seems like an interesting technique. First of all, I am left-handed, but I play guitar right-handed Anyway, I just tried the fist trick a little bit and it seems like it may actually be relatively effective. For tremolo, are you saying that you typically start your thumb above the index and move it across all of the fingers to end after the pinky, while the I, M, and A fingers simply flail in midair? I tried it just moving the thumb from the top of the index finger to the top of the middle finger, simulating a rest stroke, while I, M, and A "played" on the pinkie, which seemed to work out pretty well.

Yeah, I have heard that many of the palos have very similar rhythmic patterns. From what I gather, solea is kind of like the quintessential flamenco that the others developed from, or am I mistaken on that? But as far as counting and learning different compas patterns, I am only focusing on solea right now. Since I have just started learning about flamenco, and even sooner has it been since I started learning about the compas of the palos, I do not want to try to tackle too much information all at once. Trying to learn not only the different rhythmic structures but also the different melodic and harmonic theory structures that go into the different forms, especially while just having decided to start learning music theory very recently as well, would be very difficult, frustrating, and possibly counter-productive. So first is solea. Once I am at least somewhat familiar with the sensation of playing solea, I will move on to tangos, then alegrias, and then whatever I stumble into next. This order is rather arbitrary, as I am working off of Adam del Monte's lessons on New Learning Vision right now, and those are the three forms covered in his beginner's package.

But thank you for the recommendation and the advice. I will be sure to seek it out sometime in the near future. Two things that I have found plenty of on this forum are great recommendations and great advice, and all of it is greatly appreciated.

[dzakovich000]

Originally Posted by dillonpape

Hm, thank you, that fist trick seems like an interesting technique. First of all, I am left-handed, but I play guitar right-handed Anyway, I just tried the fist trick a little bit and it seems like it may actually be relatively effective. For tremolo, are you saying that you typically start your thumb above the index and move it across all of the fingers to end after the pinky, while the I, M, and A fingers simply flail in midair? I tried it just moving the thumb from the top of the index finger to the top of the middle finger, simulating a rest stroke, while I, M, and A "played" on the pinkie, which seemed to work out pretty well.

Yeah, I have heard that many of the palos have very similar rhythmic patterns. From what I gather, solea is kind of like the quintessential flamenco that the others developed from, or am I mistaken on that? But as far as counting and learning different compas patterns, I am only focusing on solea right now. Since I have just started learning about flamenco, and even sooner has it been since I started learning about the compas of the palos, I do not want to try to tackle too much information all at once. Trying to learn not only the different rhythmic structures but also the different melodic and harmonic theory structures that go into the different forms, especially while just having decided to start learning music theory very recently as well, would be very difficult, frustrating, and possibly counter-productive. So first is solea. Once I am at least somewhat familiar with the sensation of playing solea, I will move on to tangos, then alegrias, and then whatever I stumble into next. This order is rather arbitrary, as I am working off of Adam del Monte's lessons on New Learning Vision right now, and those are the three forms covered in his beginner's package.

But thank you for the recommendation and the advice. I will be sure to seek it out sometime in the near future. Two things that I have found plenty of on this forum are great recommendations and great advice, and all of it is greatly appreciated.

Dillon, I will try to make a video of it. I always find that videos are easier than words. To make things easier, do you have Skype? If so, PM me and I will try to show you in video chat.

As for your observation about Solea, you are somewhat right,. Soleares, Bulerias, and Siguiriyas are pretty much the main gypsy rhythms. Here is one of my favorite websites that explains most of the rhythms in a convenient chart located at the bottom of the page:

Compas flamenco - The flamenco metronome

As for the amount you are learning, excellent job! Try to do one thing at a time. This way, you will see the connections as you progress. One thing that I would like to share is that Bulerias can be quite difficult. I would recommend not doing that one right away or at least do it slowly.

[conor]

Hello Dillonpape,

One technique that I like to practice while I am at work is my triplet Rasguedo. There is an excellent video demonstrating how to do this triplet on Youtube if you are not familiar with the technique. Simply type "triplet rasguedo" into the search box to find it.

When practicing the technique at work, I treat the side of the seat of the chair I am in as if it were the six strings of my guitar. I gauge how well I am doing by the soft scratching my fingers make on the chair. This can be rather loud if your chair is made of a certain material, but my chair makes very little noise and to the untrained eye it looks as if I am simply drumming my fingers on the chair.

Conor