Now that you have gotten comfortable with using your left hand to get familiar with your guitar’s fingerboard, it is time to move on to developing a firm foundation for a great right-hand technique.
There are two basic techniques that Flamenco guitarists use to pluck the guitar’s strings: the rest stroke and the free stroke.
To play a rest stroke, rest your plucking finger on the next (adjacent) higher string (nearer the top of the guitar, not higher in pitch) immediately after plucking the first.
The free stroke appears on the video clip below at approximately 0:20. To play using a free stroke, follow through with your plucking finger after you pluck, similar to how you would follow through after throwing a ball or hitting a ball with a golf club.
Whether you are playing in free stroke or rest stroke, be sure to alternate (switch back and forth) the fingers i and m throughout the entire exercise or piece of music. Unless we give specific directions otherwise, use this i-m alternation as the default technique when playing melodic passages (parts of the music in which you are playing the melody).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/embed/4bE7Ixb0lss[/youtube]In our next lesson, we will work on coordinating both your left hand and your right hand for a smooth and efficient technique.
Next, let’s move on to your right hand–and build a strong technical foundation for your plucking hand.
