Flamenco On Acoustic Guitar

[Robert]

PlayingFlamenco style on a steel string guitar will be rather painful I am afraid. Also, you will be getting an overly bright sound, and it won't sound anything like traditional Flamenco playing, which is nearly always played on a nylon string guitar.

With this style of playing, there are a lot of subtle things you have to know, much like classical guitar, so I would highly recommend that you do at least a few lessons with a good flamenco teacher so that you can get important things such as posture, left hand positioning and proper right hand technique down pat before you embark on some self learning.

I agree. "Flamenco" is a very specific style of guitar which incorporates many techniques that are specific to the nylon-string classical guitar. Or more specifically, the Flamenco guitar which is slightly different.Flamenco guitars traditionally have the clear-plastic "golpeador" or tap-plate on the front so you can do the percussive effects without damaging the top.Also, these guitars are frequently topped with cedar rather than spruce for a lighter and more responsive instrument.Also traditional are friction tuners, but almost no one uses these any more.

Another factor is that, compared to the classical guitar and the flamenco guitar, the typical steel-string acoustic guitar has a very narrow string spacing, at the nut, at the bridge, and everywhere inbetween. This narrow string spacing is not sufficient to play the left-hand fingerings required of classical or flamenco guitar, and is not sufficient to enable your right-hand fingers to pluck the strings finger-style using the techniques that flamenco requires.

In short, a steel-string acoustic guitar is designed for an entirely different musical purpose, style of playing, and style of music than that of a classical or flamenco guitar. So if you want to play flamenco, you need a flamenco guitar, or for starters, a classical guitar.

Don't ever play Flamenco on metal string guitar, you will break your nails. Not to mention you aren't going to sound Flamenco any way.

Rasgueados and Alzapua are all about hitting the strings with your nails.Flamenco playing is so demanding on the right hand and takes a lot of time and efforts to develop decent techniques, you have to pay special attentions to palos and the compas.

Flamenco is all about the rhythm.

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-flamenco.com/en/palos.html

You can use Flamenco technique on a steel string, but it is not the same. I use Rasqueado technique on my Rickenbacker 660-12. The techniques are fun to incorporate into many styles of music, but if you want to learn Flamenco right, get a teacher. The Dennis Koster book "the Keys to Flamenco" is good, as is the one listed above. My instructor studied with Koster, so that is what I learned.

If you want to become an actual flamenco guitarist who can play the flamenco classics from Sabicas, Ramon Montoya, etc. etc. and also accompany a flamenco singer or dancer, then I'd highly advise not learning on a steel-string guitar. Let's put it this way: you could play Van Halen on a classical guitar but you would have to adapt a lot of it, leave out some of the techniques, and, more importantly, it would be so far removed from the original that it would be a very bold artistic move that not everyone would appreciate (to say the least). Likewise, you could play flamenco on a steel-string guitar, but not that many people would enjoy it (and you run the very real risk of singers and dancers refusing to work with you if they don't enjoy the steel-string sound) and you'd be branded as a "fusion" player, not a "flamenco" player.

On the other hand, if you merely wish to take some flamenco techniques and adapt them to a steel-string guitar, why not! To a certain extent this is what Gabriela of the band Rodrigo and Gabriela has done. The abanico and rasgueado techniques she uses wouldn't be considered flamenco at all but they are clearly inspired from flamenco. Similarly, even flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia, took the picking technique of shredding and adapted it to flamenco guitar (a good example of which you can hear in his song "Tio Sabas"). Adding a technique from another style is always a good way of sprucing up your playing, provided you use it wisely!

I love the sound of steel string acoustic, and tried to play some flamenco techniques on a steel string guitar, with silk and steel strings. It sounded much better than a nylon string guitar, to me at least, but I broke my nails, and I play usually a nylon string guitar now, although I don't like the sound. Perhaps try a guitar with Martin silk and steel or retro strings, but you must make your nails very hard, don't know how.

A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar, but with thinner tops and less internal bracing. It usually has nylon strings, like the classical guitar, but it generally possesses a livelier, more gritty sound compared to the classical guitar.[1] It is used in toque, the guitar-playing part of the art of flamenco.

Traditionally, luthiers made guitars to sell at a wide range of prices, largely based on the materials used and the number of decorations, to cater to the popularity of the instrument across all classes of people in Spain.[2] The cheapest guitars were often simple, basic instruments made from the less expensive woods such as cypress. Antonio de Torres, one of the most renowned luthiers, did not differentiate between flamenco and classical guitars. Only after Andrs Avelar and others popularized classical guitar music, did this distinction emerge.[3]

In contrast to the classical guitar, the flamenco is often equipped with a tap plate (a golpeador), commonly made of plastic, similar to a pickguard, whose function is to protect the body of the guitar from the rhythmic finger taps, or golpes.

Originally, all guitars were made with wooden tuning pegs that pass straight through the headstock, similar to those found on a lute, a violin or oud, as opposed to the modern classical-style guitars' geared tuning mechanisms.

"Flamenco negra" guitars are called "negra" after the darkness of the harder woods used in their construction, similar materials to those of high-end classical guitars, such as rosewood or other dense tone woods. The harder materials increase volume and tonal range. A typical cypress flamenco guitar produces more treble and louder percussion than the more sonorous negra. These guitars strive to capture some of the sustain achieved by concert caliber classical guitars while retaining the volume and attack associated with flamenco.

Classical guitars are generally made with spruce or cedar tops and rosewood or mahogany backs and sides to enhance sustain. Flamenco guitars are generally made with spruce tops and cypress or sycamore for the backs and sides to enhance volume and emphasize the attack of the note. Nevertheless, other types of wood may be used for the back and sides, like rosewood, maple, koa, satinwood and caviuna.

Flamenco is played somewhat differently from classical guitar. Players use different posture, strumming patterns, and techniques. Flamenco guitarists are known as tocaores (from an Andalusian pronunciation of tocadores, "players") and the flamenco guitar technique is known as toque.

Flamenco players tend to play the guitar between the sound hole and the bridge, but as close as possible to the bridge, to produce a harsher, rasping sound quality. Unlike classical tirando, where the strings are pulled parallel to the soundboard, in flamenco apoyando strings are struck towards the soundboard in such way that the striking finger is caught and supported by the next string, hence the name apoyando (from Spanish apoyar meaning "to support"). At times, this style of playing causes the vibrating string to gently touch the frets along its length, causing a more percussive sound.[4]

While a classical guitarist supports the guitar on the left leg, and holds it at an incline, flamenco guitarists usually cross their legs and support the guitar on whichever leg is on top, placing the neck of the guitar nearly parallel to the floor. The different position accommodates the different playing techniques. Many of the tremolo, golpe, and rasgueado techniques are easier and more relaxed if the upper right arm is supported at the elbow by the body of the guitar rather than by the forearm as in classical guitar. Nonetheless, some flamenco guitarists use classical position.

Flamenco is commonly played using a cejilla (capo) which raises the pitch and causes the guitar to sound sharper and more percussive. However, the main purpose in using a cejilla is to change the key of the guitar to match the singer's vocal range. Because Flamenco is an improvisational musical form that uses common structures and chord sequences, the capo makes it easier for players who have never played together before to do so. Rather than transcribe to another key each time the singer changes, the player can move the capo and use the same chord positions. Flamenco uses many highly modified and open chord forms to create a solid drone effect and leave at least one finger free to add melodic notes and movement. Very little traditional Flamenco music is written, but is mostly passed on hand to hand. Books, however, are becoming more available.

Flamenco guitar employs a vast array of percussive and rhythmic techniques that give the music its characteristic feel. Often, eighth note triplets are mixed with sixteenth note runs in a single bar. Even swung notes are commonly mixed with straight notes, and golpes are employed with the compas of different types of rhythms (i.e. bulerias, soleas, etc.) as is strumming with the strings damped for long passages or single notes.

Like all of our models, our electro-acoustic Flamenco guitars are made in Spain, but equipped with the best electronics and pickups from Fishman, LR Baggs, Schertler and RMC. This marriage of tradition and innovation delivers the best performance guitars for the stage and the studio. Among our suppliers are the biggest names in guitar making: Alhambra Guitars, Ramirez Guitars, Raimundo Guitars, Admira Guitars, Camps Guitars and Prudencio Saez Guitars. These master luthiers have been producing handcrafted guitars for decades, to the highest possible standards.

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