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I have a tendency to include references, appositions, and other errata in my text as I write. As I realize that not everyone cares for such digressions, however, I generally "hide" them in scripts. To access this "additional information," just click on the boldfaced text. To expand all errata at once (brave soul!), click here.
Flamenco Rasgueado (2/2)
[part 2 of 2--read part one here]
Variations
Which rasgueado variations you use will depend on, among other things, the palo you're playing and your personal style. Some easy ways to vary the exercises on the previous page are to vary the accents of the rasgueado in order to strengthen individual fingers or to start the rasgueado on different fingers (for example, instead of starting the four stroke rasgueado on a try starting it on i and then follow with the other fingers in sequence).
In actual flamenco pieces, I still don’t often play rasgueado exactly the way it's written in these exercises. Rather, I use these basic forms as building blocks to create the rhythmic pattern I need. Here are some examples culled from videos (and tabs) here on the site:
Example #1 is a slight variation of the four stroke rasgueado in a Tomatito falseta. The main melody uses the same right hand fingering as the example on the previous page, but I close the phrase with some minor syncopation and an accent on the last note (played with the m and a fingers together):
Example #2 demonstrates the five stroke rasgueado played across even 16th notes (i.e. 16ths grouped in "fours"). The first 16th note grouping is straightforward: ch a m i. The second grouping, however, starts on the upstroke of i and then continues with ch a and m. The benefit of using a five stroke rasgueado here is 1) that the 16th notes are easier to play smooth and uniformly accented (i.e. not accented in groups of four) and 2) that you begin the following beat (the first note of the bottom staff) with a strong index down stroke that allows you to bring out the heavey accent. Although I'm not doing it in the video (why not I don't know), this pattern also allows you to play a golpe on that first accented beat of the following phrase:
Example #3 shows a use of the triplet rasgueado in mid-phrase. These rasgueados are common at the end of a section or at the end of an entire song as the final wind-up. As seen here, however, they can also turn up lots of other places:
Example #4 ends with a double triplet rasgueado. This particular example is not the most common use of this rasgueado; you're much more likely to encounter it in soleá and other slower palos. You can see here, however, the "rolling" quality of the double triplet rasgueado. Notice how this rasgueado "fades in"-- the goal here is more to create a "texture" of sound than to play every note. You'll also notice there's an extra i down stroke after the two 9-beat groupings: this is so that the phrase can end on an i up stroke (which just happened to be my preference at the time):
Of course, these variations are only a few of the countless possibilites with rasgueado you'll encounter in flamenco. Techniques range widely from player to player. It's well worth investigating other styles to find what's right for the kind of sound you want to produce. The four basic techniques I've given on the previous page are by no means the only rasgueado techniques you'll run into, but, as I hope I have shown, by being creative with how you accent and syncopate your playing, even with these few techniques you can generate a lot of versatility.
Practicing Rasgueado
As I mention above, this article is meant as an explanation of the rasgueados I use here at Ravenna Flamenco, not as a lesson. I view my own rasgueado technique as still a work in progress and hesitate to strike an "expert" pose in making suggestions to other learners. That caveat made, there are some
pointers I have found that improve my own playing and I don't mind sharing those:
- Think About Velocity
Crisp, clean rasgueado is less about playing fast than it is about playing distinctly. "Velocity" refers to the quickness of your individual fingers when you play, not to the speed or tempo of the music. Even when you play slow rasgueado, your fingers should strike the strings with the same quickness as when you play faster. When you do play faster, if you strike each note with sufficient velocity, you will have fully sounded all the strings with the first finger of your rasgueado sequence before your second finger begins to strike. This makes for a clean, crisp sound. As you might guess, practicing high velocity rasgueado strokes at slower tempos makes the transition to clean rasgueado at faster tempos easier.
- Practice Slowly
Slow practice of rasgueado may feel counterintuitive at first. It is, however, a good way to build an awareness of individual finger velocity. And it is also a way to focus on building strength in each finger: if you practice your rasgueados slowly, you can make sure that each finger strikes with equal volume. This pays off in dividends in terms of evenness and clarity when you play at speed.
- Stay Relaxed
Some degree of force is necessary for strong rasgueado, but it's important to apply it in the right place: i.e. to the motion of the finger striking the strings. Tension on your hand (from trying to muscle through a rasgueado) applies force every which way, which can actually slow you down as a result of the muscles in your hand working against each other. In the triplet rasgueado, for example, your wrist should be very loose--the force in the rasgueado comes from the smaller movements of your fingers and thumb. If you tense your wrist up, you'll lose the velocity it provides.
As with the rasgueado patterns themselves, these are only a few of the myriad practice suggestions out there. These techniques and tips have helped me in my pursuit of better rasgueado--I hope some of them make a useful addition to the way you learn and practice as well.
I also hope this discussion clarifies some of what I'm doing in the videos here at Ravenna Flamenco and that it provides some insight into how the basic patterns of flamenco rasgueado can be varied to produce a wide variety of rhythms and inflections. Like much of the technique in flamenco playing, rasgueado is the kind of thing that takes time to get comfortable with and settle into. With a bit of persistence and focused practice, though, anyone can do it.
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