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| Flamenco guitarist |
Let's start off with an introduction to the content of most flamenco guitar lessons. This article will provide some of the basics of flamenco guitar playing here at http://www.learn-acoustic-guitar.com/flamenco-guitar-lessons.
Are flamenco guitar lessons worth taking for somebody not raised in Andalucia? Many years ago you had to be a black American to have any credibility as a blues singer or guitar player. And if you were not Spanish you never got anywhere as a Flamenco artist no matter how good you were. But these days, like many musical traditions, Flamenco is now embracing young people from non-Spanish origins. Twenty or thirty years ago Flamenco guitar playing, at least as perceived by people outside of Spain was dominated by a couple of third-rate guitar players who were good at promoting themselves. Now you can see many fantastic guitar players, professional and amateur, Spanish and non-Spanish giving wonderful Flamenco guitar performances on YouTube. Here is a rundown on the guitar techniques you will be introduced to if you decide to take Flamenco guitar lessons.
So onto some basic Flamenco guitar techniques. The most distinctive technique used in Flamenco is the tapping on the body of the guitar. This technique is called the golpe and is performed just below the sound hole. Flamenco guitars are made with a tapping plate to minimize damage to the guitar from constant hitting of the body. The golpe is often used in conjunction with downward strokes of the thumb and with continuous up and down strokes of the index finger used by guitarists playing the Flamenco musical form called Bulerias.
The rapid picking exhibited by Flamenco guitarists is called picado. This is also used in classical guitar but to nowhere near the same degree. It is a “rest” stroke which is played by striking a string with an upward stroke of the first or second finger which comes to rest on the string behind it. So if you play a rest stroke on the second string the finger comes into contact with the third string after it has struck the note. Flamenco scale passages are played as picado using rapid alternating strokes of the first and second fingers.
Another Flamenco guitar technique is the use of rapid arpeggios. Arpeggios are played by placing the first, second and third fingers in position on the first, second and third strings as if you are going to pluck a chord. Instead of plucking all three strings you lift your whole hand slightly so that the fingers play the strings in rapid succession. The thumb and fingers of a guitarist who has practiced this technique can play some very fast arpeggio passages. The effect is similar to sweep picking used in rock guitar.
The thumb is uses almost exclusively in downstrokes. This is another rest stroke where the thumb plays, for example, the sixth string and comes to rest on the fifth string before starting the next stroke. It may seem strange to anybody who has not tried it to make the thumb and fingers “rest” between strokes, but this technique can produce some very fast thumb and picado playing.
Another technique used in Flamenco guitar is the tremolo. This is a technique for producing a long line of melody notes accompanied by the thumb playing bass notes. This technique was borrowed from classical guitar and differs in that Flamenco tremolo is played with four notes between each bass note whereas classical guitarists only play three melody notes between bass notes. In most guitar notation systems the thumb is shown as “p” (for the Spanish “pulgar”), the index finger is shown as “i” , the middle finger is designated “m” and the ring finger is “a” (for annular which is latin for ring).
To play a continuous E on the open first string of the guitar, use the fingers and thumb in this order:
Play a bass note on the open sixth string with your thumb using rest stroke.
On the open first string:
Play a free stroke with i
Play a free stroke with a
Play a free stroke with m
Play a free stroke with i
You have just played one bass note followed by four melody notes. To continue playing, make an E chord with your left hand and alternate the bass notes between the sixth, fifth and fourth strings.
As you can see these techniques are hard to explain in words. They are easier to understand if you use my written descriptions in conjunction with watching Flamenco guitarists on video. It will take some hard work to actually use these techniques, and I strongly suggest you take lessons from a guitar player who knows how to play Flamenco.
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| Flamenco guitar with capo |
It’s not often that a Latin jazz/flamenco/samba guitarist generates millions of views on YouTube with short instrumental pieces, but Lawson Rollins is used to defying expectations.
As a teenager in the 1980s, he took a liking to the stylings of classical guitarist Andrés Segovia instead of the hair metal and synth-pop groups of the decade, and to this day, he still hasn’t mastered what many beginners learn to use at their first lesson: the pick.
“I don’t even know how to use a pick,” the fingerpicker admitted in a recent interview with Guitar World. “But I think I’ve made up for not being able to use a pick with some of the other techniques I’ve developed.”
Those techniques are on full display in the YouTube clips for songs like “The Fire Cadenza” and “Santa Ana Wind,” which have combined for over 5 million views on the popular video-sharing site. In the jaw-dropping clips, Rollins navigates between notes with breakneck speed, making his way across his acoustic guitar’s fretboard with virtuosic precision.
“I did notice when I was first starting out that I had quick hands from the get-go,” Rollins recalled during the conversation, in which he also provided insight into how he keeps his fingernails healthy and titles his instrumental works.
Rollins’ new album, Elevation, a 73-minute musical journey recorded in Nepal and Iran over the course of 18 months, came out Tuesday, October 18, on Infinita Records. His Guitar World interview follows.
GUITAR WORLD: What was your first guitar?
I was a drummer for many years, but when I was 15 I got a Yamaha CG 40A nylon string guitar, which cost $99. I still have it upstairs and it’s held up really well. It never made it onto a record, but it’s a fun little guitar.
Why did you choose the classical guitar and never go electric?
I was sort of getting my rock 'n' roll gene worked out on a daily basis with the drums. I was inspired when I heard Andres Segovia. My parents were very much classical music lovers and had actually seen Segovia in concert in the ‘80s. I was really inspired by his melodicism and romanticism.
I noticed you keep your fingernails long. Is that ever a struggle?
I have been blessed with pretty strong nails. If you lose a nail, you’re basically out of work — you have to go get a fake nail put on or wait for it to grow back and hope you don’t have any performances scheduled. There’s a whole science to looking after your nails, and the two main things for me are keeping the nails moisturized and filing them every day, so I don’t get jagged edges and nothing gets snagged up on my clothes. It’s a whole sort of lifestyle you develop.
Did you always fingerpick?
Yeah, I don’t even know how to use a pick. I wish I could use a pick, because you can make some things sound better on a nylon string and you get a really nice crisp and clear tone. But I think I’ve made up for not being able to use a pick with some of the other techniques I’ve developed.
Which guitars did you use on Elevation?
I just use one guitar on all of my solo albums — a Maldonado custom guitar made in 2006. I really like the cutaway — it gives me good access to the frets and has a really nice rounded heel. It’s a wonderful instrument.
How do you decide which instruments to add to your songs?
A lot of it is putting on your producer hat and figuring out what will sound best on which tune. It’s a creative process that I like to take my time with after I’ve composed the songs. Very often, I record the guitar first and let the tune settle for several weeks before I think about which instruments would enhance the songs.
This is something I’ve always wanted to ask a musician — how do you title your instrumental works?
That’s sort of difficult for me. I have pretty good writing skills and I was an English major in college, but for the life of me, titling songs is torturous. I have these ridiculous working titles, like “The Bossa Nova Tune,” “The Reggae Tune,” “The Rumba Tune.” I stick with those working titles until the bitter end, when I’m forced to title them. With Elevation, the album title came a little earlier because I had titled the title track early on, which is unusual. Elevation became a motif throughout the whole album, where the song rises up to an elevated point in the middle and then comes back down to Earth. Quite a few of the songs have that same structure, so that title sort of infused the whole rest of the project. Normally, it’s such a struggle to come up with titles that aren’t cheesy.
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| Flamenco guitar against wall |
Without this exchange of musical ideas and the rich cultural influences also transmitted, music would rest compartmentalized. Fixed and rooted to one location. One Culture. One Historical identity. It would touch only the locals. Not the World at large. St. Francis' words "Life is a book. If we don't travel, we only see one page" apply equally to Music.
This is especially true for the Spanish Flamenco Guitar and it's music. To fully grasp the evolution of this instrument, we must travel back in time to Cordoba, Spain. The operative date is 711. Just after the Islamic invasion. Accordingly, Cordoba had become a focal point for Islamic musicians.
It is there, at that time, that the Spanish Flamenco Guitar was born. It began as the Oud, to which a fifth string was added. The name given to the resulting instrument was the "Moorish Guitar", or "Andalucian Nuba."
The next instruments to contribute to the "melting pot" that was the creation of the Flamenco Guitar were the European Lute and the Guitar Latina. Centuries later elements of the "Moorish Guitar" were combined with these two instruments. The result was the Vihuela.
In it's most developed form, the Vihuela had six double-strings (paired courses) made of gut. Vihuelas were tuned almost like a modern guitar, with the exception of the third string, which was tuned a semitone lower. Viheula bodies were usually made from cypress, with a spruce or cedar top.
After the creation of the Vihuela, there would be three more stages of evolution necessary to arrive at the Flamenco Guitar. The first descendant of the vihuela was the baroque guitar.(MORE)
It became the precursor to the CLassical Guitar. From which the Flamenco Guitar evolved.
Flamenco Guitar Music has an equally rich and captivating History. Although it's rarely accurate to place a definite date or time on the "birth" of movement or genre, there are always people and or events of obvious importance.
Three of those people, who each passed the torch of their accomplishments on to the next, were Ramon Montoya, Sabicas, and Nino Ricardo. Montoya, the son of gypsy cattle traders, was the first to perform solo on the Flamenco guitar. Thus elevating it from it's background role accompanying singers and dancers in cafes - to the concert stage.
"Sabicas" - noted for his amazing technique and flawless sense of rhythm, further refined and evolved Montoya's accomplishments. History also remembers Sabicas as the first guitarist of his genre to introduce genuine Flamenco Music Internationally.
The saddest note in that period's History was sounded with the untimely death from liver failure of Nino Ricardo. "Little" Ricardo, hailed as the foremost guitarist of his day, began his career composing and playing in the bars of his native Seville. Those long years, in those conditions, quite probably contributed to the illness that was to claim him at age 68. Nino's upwardly curving fingernails produced a truly individual tone that other guitarists, try as they did, were unable to duplicate.
The evolution and innovation of the Flamenco Guitar Music we enjoy today, is a direct legacy from the accomplishments of these three "Fathers of Flamenco."Flamenco music highlights improvisation along with strong harmony and rhythm playing. It doesn't use the traditional "blues scale" seen in many forms of rock and blues songs. Flamenco uses modal theory for improvisation. Check out this great feature on flamenco improvisation at http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/music_styles/boxes_riffs_and_how_to_improvise_in_the_flamencospanish_style.html?no_takeover.
Now before we get started I'd like to say that this lesson will NOT teach you how to play with singers and dancers, as that takes rehearsal and most of the time the soloing is composed. This lesson will teach you how to come up with flamenco/spanish style licks and chord progressions on-the-fly.
This is also my first lesson.
So lets get started. For this style of music, you would use the Phrygian scale, which most of the time is played in either E or A. We are going to use E for lesson. It should be an easy scale to learn because it uses the same notes as the A minor scale! Only it uses E as the tonic. The scale uses the notes E F G A B C D. You might also notice that the only difference it has between it and the E minor scale is the 2nd. The 2nd on the E Phrygian is flat.
There are 2 main reasons why this scale has that certain "spanish" flavor.
1. The Half note between the tonic and the 2nd. (E and F)
2.This scale is very close to the E minor scale, but the rote note, or tonic, is an E Major.
Here is a diagram:
Here are the different "boxes" or modes that you can use for practice and use to learn the fretboard for this scale.
You might've noticed that I left out 2 modes, but that is because I gave you the 5 most common modes, which do connect you all the way across the fretboard. But if you would like to learn the fingerings the name of the two scales I left out are F Lydian and B Locrian.
So lets get to the riffs. Here is something similar to what I use alot.
Since you aren't going off of any tempo I would start off slow by ringing out the first F and then slowly picking up speed and by the time you are playing on the E string you be at your fastest speed. There aren't really any rules to this, because you are the only instrument and are playing freely.
Spanish style also uses many chords over the tonic or "E" which means you would use the chords F/E and G/E quite often.
They can be used In a way such as this.
In Measure 1 you would quickly strum and E chord and then slide up on fret to an F/E and then up 2 more to a G/E
In measure 2, you would start off by srumming the top three strings (this is all in rhythym with measure 1) with your thumb then using your index or middle finger (picking hand) to start the picking on the g-string.
I want to break down this section below. What you're going to do here is use you're index finger (on your fretting hand) for the e-string, your middle finger for the B-string and your ring finger for the first 14 on the g-string. After you hit the first 14, you will then bar the e and B string with your index and put your middle finger on the g-string. You will add the ring finger back on to the D-string when you hit the E major chord.Flamenco guitar is more than scales though. This style uses a technique more similar to classical guitar, so there is a lot of work to be done on your playing style. Find a good introduction to flamenco finger technique here at http://ezinearticles.com/?Online-Flamenco-Guitar-Lessons:-Learning-Rasgueo-Techniques&id=6086902.
Now I still want to talk theory about this section. As you can see I put the chord names over the arpeggios (picked chords). This is where some Flamenco theory comes in. Normally, the F/E might be called a C/E or an Em6. But since it uses the F's 5th (C)and not the E's fifth (B), in Flamenco/Spanish, it has a sound of an F/E. Especially after hitting the F/E in Measure 1.
And here is one last riff. The first 5 notes are from Van Halen's "Spanish Fly." It kinda has that "F/E" sound I've been talking about. It is really useful for starting out your piece, or after you've just ended a solo.
I'm sure my tablature was a little confusing at the end. The 0~ meant that you let the open E ring out a little before hammering back on, instead of quickly doing the last hammer-ons and pull-offs. For example, the 8p7pb5p0~hb30~ meant that you would pull-off to the 5 and start bending it, then you would realease and let the E ring out before hammering and bending the 3.
The word "rasgueo," embraces all of the Flamenco strumming techniques using one or more fingers of your right hand. "Rasgueado" (from the Spanish verb "rasguear") is an alternative term you may hear when discussing these techniques. Here we meet two of the commonest kinds of rasgueo, the single stroke with the index finger and the longer roll of the four-stroke rasgueo. Note that we will be using the traditional classical guitar notation for each finger: p for the thumb, i for the index finger, m for the middle finger, and a for the third finger.
The Index Finger Rasgueo
This technique has two components: downstrokes and upstrokes. Begin learning the index finger rasgueo with the downstrokes. To perform a downstroke, first place your right hand in a position in which your thumb rests lightly beside the sound-hole of the guitar on the rosette. This stabilizes your hand, keeping it relaxed. Next, flex your index finger from the knuckle so that its nail nearly touches the base of the thumb. From this position, flick it forwards, striking downwards across all six strings. The movement is as if you were flicking a small object lying on the sixth string clear across the strings to just beyond the first string. When you are just beginning, perform these strokes quite gently. Keep the line of movement straight across the strings, at right angles to them.
Upstrokes: Once you have started the rhythm going steadily with downstrokes of the index finger you can begin to introduce upstrokes after each downstroke. On each upstroke the index flicks back towards its position at the start of the downstroke, hitting the higher-pitched strings so that only the first four (strings 1, 2, 3 and 4) are sounded. You should try to get a "spring" in the movement in order to give crispness and an elastic sort of 'bounce' to the rhythm of alternate down- and upstrokes.
The 4-stroke Rasgueo
This very important technique consists of a rapid succession of downstrokes by the four fingers of the right hand, in the order e, a, m, and i. The hand position is the same basic position as above, except that the thumb now rests on the sixth string without touching the front surface of the guitar, instead of resting on the rosette. The thumb adopts this position to stabilize the hand in playing rasgueo when, as here, only the top five strings are to be sounded. The fingers are first flexed so that they nearly, but not quite, touch the palm. Each finger in turn is uncurled so that it hits the strings, brushing downwards across them with the same sort of movement just described for the index downstroke. You can start by doing this slowly and gently. Try to get an even succession of strokes by the four fingers so that each is heard distinctly. Each finger moves independently of the others and you should try to give each equal force, although this will be hard initially with e and a. Resist any temptation to push downward with the whole hand so that your fingers are dragged across the strings. Keep your hand and wrist stationary and very relaxed.
Practicing the 4-stroke Rasgueo without a Guitar
You can build up facility and strength by practicing this rasgueo at any time, at home, at work, on the bus. To do this, flex your fingers so that their nails do actually press into the palm of the right hand, then flick each out separately in the order e, a, m, and i against the resistance provided by the ball and base of the thumb. Alternatively you can balance the thumb on the top or edge of a table, the side of your thigh, your seat on the bus, and then use the surface or edge as the resistance against which you flick the fingers. The important thing is to learn to control each finger at a time, making the separate stroke of each equally powerful. With continued practice you should be able to repeat the sequence e-a-m-i-e-a-m-i, etc., in a smooth, unbroken rhythm without a pause between the i of one rasgueo and the e of the next. Once you can do this, you have the basis for longer or continuous rolls on the guitar.
Mastering this fundamental skill on the Flamenco guitar is one of the keys to making progress in learning to play. Learning these concepts, then internalizing them as your muscle memory takes over, will help build your Flamenco guitar technique.There is a lot more to learn about flamenco guitar, but this should serve is a good introduction. This is a beautiful and passionate style of guitar playing that will benefit all guitarists. Mike's Guitar Talk is your first source for all guitar information. Subscribe now for direct access to all this great content and so much more.
Have fun and stay tuned!
Mike
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