Tremolo in flamenco music

I was listening to some Gipsy Kings’ music and am amazed with the speed they can play melodic phrases. This made me think of flamenco music in general and its staple, the rasgueado. Another staple is, of course, the tremolo technique. You’ll see more of p-i-a-m-i and p-a-m-i-m-a but you’ll also find p-a-m-i, our old friend. I’ve read that the rasgueado technique helps develop the extensor muscles of the fingers. These muscles help the fingers extend out from the palm. I’ve also read where developing the extensor muscles helps with playing scales quickly as well as helps with the tremolo technique. Moving your fingers out away from your palm is required when playing scales and when playing the tremolo, so I can see how this might help. Then again, the movement of the fingers in the rasgueado technique is quite different from the movement of the fingers in playing scales and tremolo. I haven’t reached a conclusion on this but will keep you posted on my continuing thoughts concerning the matter.

update February 8, 2007 - After discussing this with other guitarists, I agree with them and consider working on rasgueado to improve tremolo technique or overall speed in playing scales is not the best use of your time. Developing strength in the extensor muscles to somehow balance them with other muscles of the arm/hand is probably not necessary to execute the tremolo technique well. If you want to play great rasgueados then practice rasgueados. Incidentally, you never hear anyone say to play better rasgueados you should work on your tremolo technique. It should work in reverse right? Or for that matter, to play better rasgueados, you should work on your grip strength? Bottom line - if you want to improve your tremolo then practice the tremolo.

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