15 Essential Flamenco Guitar Exercises

15 ESSENTIAL FLAMENCO GUITAR EXERCISES

15 of the best simple exercises to improve your technique quickly and effectively

By Fisch Rasy

Here’s a little about Fisch… Fisch Rasy is an emerging Australian flamenco guitarist. He moved from Australia to Spain in 2013 to

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learn Flamenco. He thought this would only be a | 2 short 6 month journey but over 2 years later he was still in Spain, deeply immersed in flamenco. This young artist is teaching & performing in QLD whilst preparing for his debut Australian tour later in 2016.

“I want everyone to share in the quality of teachers & performers that I’ve had access to in Spain. And that’s what I’m focused on now; getting the information out there and sharing all this awesome ‘Flamenco’ with the rest of the world”

Find out a little about my projects

Since 2013 I’ve have been managing a Flamenco Blog called Flamenco Gypsy. It started as a chance to share some of my stories from here in Spain, but it started to evolve into a place to help people learn as well. In 2015 out team launched our YouTube channel to help share our knowledge of flamenco and answer some questions we are commonly asked. Find out more here, Flamenco Gypsy.

BFlamenco is a new project I am developing for a 2016 launch. Our team have been creating a series of online courses to help people learn flamenco without having to travel to Spain. Working together with some of the best teachers & artists in Spain we are piecing together the first website where you can find everything you need to understand flamenco. It’s a big project but we really think you all deserve the knowledge that Spain has to offer. Plus all of our teachers now have the ability to reach international markets, which they are all super excited about. Check out our courses here, BFlamenco.

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About this Ebook I love simple exercises. They help you to focus on the technique rather than remembering complex pieces. If you’re looking to improve your technique fast then you need simple effective exercises and that is what I have for you.

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In this EBook I’m going to show you a range of simple exercises that you can | 3 practice every day which cover all of the techniques important for flamenco guitar. The best part is they are applicable regardless of your level. I still practice many of them every day to maintain my level.

Simplicity is Key To make the pieces easier to remember I’ve focused more on readability than correct notation. You’ll find a few musical notation errors but I want you to think about the technique. Time signatures and flamenco don’t really get along. What’s important to flamenco guitarists is keeping in rhythm and remembering all these cool falsetas off by heart. That’s why I firmly believe that if you focus too much time on correcting the musical notation you can lose sight of just playing. On the other hand if you have already mastered this “I take my hat off to you sir or madam.”

Proper Warm-up is Critical Warming up is so important for you regardless of your playing style. Not only does it allow us to mentally prepare for playing but it also prevents injury.* Regardless of your level these exercises have a place in your practice.

*Thanks Thomas Whitely for your input.

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How to practice, like a boss… Speed Accuracy and rhythm are far more important than speed. Remember that in the long run you will benefit so much more from practicing slowly, correctly

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and in time then you will by pushing your speed barrier.

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Tension is a speed killer If you are struggling increasing your speed, tension could be what’s holding you back. Take the time to locate it and relax your playing. Something that can help is thinking about relaxing your left hand while playing. This should equally relax the right hand, since it’s hard to separate the two.

Fatigue If you are getting fatigued before you have reached the end of the exercise then you are at your limit. Rather than pushing through with sloppy form, try to be content with where you are so far and remember improvements come with time.

Muscle memory Remember that most of these exercises are there to develop muscle memory. It’s important to practice the different variations because each falseta will have a different pattern.

The metronome is your friend It can be hard to get use to at first but the metronome will bring confidence to your playing. Just use any standard metronome in 4/4 or 3/4.

Pain is not your friend When you are hurting you need to rest. Injuring yourself can only make matters worse and slow your progress. This is especially important if you go from very little practice to a lot quickly.

Remember it’s perfect practice that makes perfect.

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Exercise 1: Picado Picado is probably the most difficult technique to master fast. Remember to alternate fingers and relax your hand. Also try leading with index then next time you practice lead with the middle finger. We continue the exercise using the same pattern increasing one fret every time until we reach the 9th fret, then we return back the top.

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Exercise 2: Ligado Ligados are ‘hammer ons’ or ‘pull offs.’ They can apply a lot of tension to the hand so if you are a beginner remember to rest. Use pulgar (thumb) to play each string.

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Chords for Exercise 3 – 6

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Arpeggio Exercises These exercises help us with the different variations of arpeggios, each exercise we make a small variation to the pattern. The teaching tips are the same for all exercises.  Remember to rest the fingers on the strings before you play to increase your speed.  Push through with your thumb to the next string to give yourself a reference.  When playing the 4th string (the D) remember to bring it to the one above, as you can’t rest on the 3rd string (the G) which you are about to play.

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Exercise 3: Arpeggio Down

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Exercise 4: Arpeggio Up

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Exercise 5: Double Arpeggio

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Exercise 6: 2 Finger Arpeggio

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Chords for Exercises 7 – 10

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Exercise 7: Arpeggio to Picado This exercise helps us transition our technique between two of the most used techniques. Remember what is important here is fluid movements. Focus on keeping the timing correct and the change in the hand position small.

Exercise 8: Tremolo The tremolo is an incredibly difficult technique and it takes a lot of practice to build speed. Focus on finger accuracy and keeping the timing correct. Remember that the flamenco tremolo is (p, i, a, m, i) meaning it includes the index twice. If you master this exercise continue the exercise by including the 2nd string then the 3rd string using the same pattern.

Exercise 9: Pulgar Super important for dance accompaniment pulgar should be strong and fast. Build this by focusing on wrist rotation, it’s the key.

Exercise 10: Alzapua This exercise helps us to build accuracy for each string. Start by focusing on the correct movement slowing and remember to continue the pattern for each string. Start this exercise incredibly slow if you are a beginner.

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Exercise 7: Arpeggio to Picado

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Exercise 8: Tremolo

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Exercise 9: Pulgar

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Exercise 10: Azapula

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Chords for Exercise 11 & 12

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These are the two of the most common Rasgueos. As this technique is really different to most other styles of guitar take it slow and focus on muscle memory. It helps to think about the fingers as flicking out, but remember let them push out rather than tensioning them against the thumb.

Exercise 11: 4 Beat Rasgueo Using all three fingers remember to include the index with an up stroke. If you are a beginner it may help to only work on one rasgueo at a time and then eventually link them together.

Exercise 12: 3 Beat Rasgueo This exercise excludes the middle finger. You must focus on separating the movements of each finger. Again practice slow and consider working on an individual rasgueo before linking them together.

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Exercise 11: 4 Beat Rasgueo

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Exercise 12: 3 Beat Rasgueo

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Chords for Exercise 13 – 15

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Exercise 13: 3 Beat Thumb Rasgueo While this rasgueo has the same feel as the others the technique is very different. We use it a lot as an ending. It’s important to note that we always end with an upstroke of the thumb. If you were wondering how to practice linking your rasgueos for exercise 11 & 12, this exercise will give you an example.

Exercise 14: Golpe without Downstroke Both of these golpe exercises are rhythms of Buleria and are a good chance for you to practice your compas as well. The intention is to separate the movement between the fingers. You can tap with you angular (3rd finger) alone or include your middle finger as well.

Exercise 15: Just like exercise 14 the intention is to separate the movements of the fingers but this time using them at the same time. The ‘x’ denotes the accent in (12, 3, 6, 8, 10.) You’ll notice that all the downstrokes are on the accent. On the other hand all the upstrokes are between the beats and are not played on the numbers.

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Exercise13: 3 Beat Thumb Rasgueo

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Exercise 14: Golpe without Downstroke

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Exercise 15: Golpe with Downstroke

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Where to go from here… Learn more flamenco!! I’ve just shown you all the techniques you need to conquer the basics, so it can’t be that hard. In my opinion the most difficult thing about flamenco is

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piecing together all the puzzle pieces. That’s what my focus is, understanding | 22 the essence of flamenco and teaching it in a simple, easy to understand format. My personal belief is: “If you can’t explain it with a simple answer, you don’t yet understand it.”

I teach face to face lessons & also group classes. So if you live in Australia look me up  I’m based on the Sunshine coast with a few days spent in Brisbane & Gold Coast every week. I regularly travel outside of QLD as well to give shows, teach & do master classes. www.FischRasy.com

We focus on:

+61 426 017 209

 Technique  Rhythm & Falsetas  Playing for singers & dancers  Confidence to play on stage

Fisch Rasy

Skype Classes I also teach via Skype which is such a powerful teaching tool. We can both be in a relaxing environment & saving travel time. Plus I record every lesson and post the important parts on Vimeo so you can review after the class.

Flamenco Gypsy

Learn online Our website BFlamenco hosts online courses for teaching flamenco. Learn from Spanish teachers based in Spain. We are slowly piecing together new courses using all the video & audio we recorded on our last trip to Spain. The first course you should take is Compas 101. It will teach you all the rhythms of Flamenco, which is really essential. In fact it’s so important this course is completely FREE, so just take it!!

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