Essential Flamenco Guitar Technique

Welcome to Essential Flamenco Guitar Techniques for Beginners!

In this online self-paced course, you'll learn five core right hand mechanisms of flamenco guitar. Flamenco uses the right hand in some unique ways, so even if you’ve been playing guitar a while and have excellent left hand technique, this course will be an important and relevant introduction to flamenco. If you’re new to guitar, I’ll be keeping the left hand demands as simple as possible, so do give it a try.

We’ll cover simple exercises for:

• Thumb Technique - we often use thumb rest stroke in flamenco, meaning that when your thumb plays one string, it lands on the string below it.

• Arpeggios - using the right hand fingers (thumb, index, middle, and ring) to play the strings one at a time, often in a repeated pattern. Flamenco arpeggios are similar to arpeggios in other guitar styles, though they often include thumb rest stroke.

• Picado - using your right hand's index and middle fingers (alternating) to produce a strong rest stroke for fast melodic lines.

• Rasgueos - strumming using the right hand fingers. There are many kinds of rasgueos; we'll introduce a basic one to get started.

• Alzapua - using the thumb in a combination of rest stroke and down-up strumming to produce an intense burst of rhythm.

To conclude, I'll show you a falseta (short solo) for the flamenco style Soleá.

Once you complete this course and get the hang of each technique, you'll be well prepared to continue on to the course Introduction to Flamenco Guitar Rhythms and Styles, where we explore the styles Soleá, Malagueña, Farruca, and Guajira.