Tips in Playing a Flamenco Guitar style
Flamenco guitar has been around for centuries. I love pop and rock but this type of classical guitar playing made me impressed with its romantic beauty 
I do not have a formal guitar tutorial on this but I learned some peculiarities in technique compared to other style of guitar playing.There are actually three different playing techniques of flamenco. The most important is “Rasgueado”. This is the strumming technique of classical guitar and does not require advance skills to learn. Let me illustrate using this video from you tube:
TECHNIQUE 1: “Rasqueado”
The essence of this technique is to play 3 fingers so fast!
Video courtesy of www.learnhowtoplayguitar.com/
Actually this is just too fast. You can break it down creatively by using rest between strums I will illustrate this at the later point.
TECHNIQUE 2: “Tirando and Apoyando”
Tirando is known as “guitar plucking” in popular guitar world. This is also a tricky technique because it requires fingers to be bent a exactly 90 degrees with respect to your hand. The objective is easy guitar playing. If you will not bend your fingers it cannot play that fast. I started doing this since 12 years old and I am pretty sure I have bent fingers now. Common mistake of most beginners is to rush in practice without purely learning the fundamentals. Take note that you will have to undergo the difficulties in finger adjustment as well as hitting those guitar strings clearly, this is normal and you should pay attention to it.Apoyando is aimed at playing notes, much analogous to “lead guitar playing using guitar pick” in popular guitar world. Apoyando does not require notes to be bent but requires greater care to give excellent performances.
Check out this video on how to bent fingers to play the tirando and apoyando technique.Actually, the first part of the video is illustrates the APOYANDO technique (playing strings with straight fingers), but the 2nd part of this video illustrates the TIRANDO technique, you can noticed when he stars to bent his fingers to play the note. Play it slow first.
Courtesy of : Fridrikur
TECHNIQUE 3: “Golpe”
Have you seen Antonio Banderas “Desperado” Movie? Remember when he was attacked by bandits inside the church and he is bringing a guitar. Have you noticed that as he stepped slowly he struck the guitar with his fingers creating a “soothing rhythm”? This is called “Golpe” and requires hitting the guitar wood to bring the beat.Golpe is used to creatively make a percussive technique creating a beautiful Spanish dance rhythm.I play Golpe using my thumb but there are lot of useful techniques such as below:
Video courtesy of : Quergitarre
Combining all flamenco guitar techniques in one song:
Actually I have written “Flamenco del Natividad” performed by Jeanine Maningo. This is a pretty romantic song with slow start and flamenco dance finish. Listen below how I performed Rasqueado, Tirando, Apoyando. Song copyright by EMERSON MANINGO. All Rights Reserved.
Link to This Site:
It will appear on your page as:
Make your own song:Free Music Lessons and Songwriting Courses
Loading ...
October 12th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
The most important thing at the early stages of Flamenco, or possibly any other style, is rhythm, not speed. The actual finder themselves do mot neccessarily need to move fast if they are in perfect timing. Technically, “Rasqueado” is much like another great guitar technique, tremolo, but with the fingers moving in the opposite direction. That’s what makes it so hard to pull off!
“Tirando and Apoyando” think of as free and rest strokes. They are the basic tools of classical guitar technique.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Hi Mark Antony,
Thanks for your comment. I agree with it and these are basic for playing flamenco