Chords for Classical and Flamenco Guitar - Tremolo Lesson

[C] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[N] _ _ Tremolo on the classical guitar is that technique that seems to elude a lot of people.
I actually had a student once who quit the guitar after playing about a month, at least trying to play a
recordo stella lombra for about a month.
_ _ And I was green behind the ears as a teacher.
I should have
just told her she wasn't ready, but I didn't have the heart and I needed the money.
So basically she
gave up the guitar.
It was really important to her to be able to play this piece and to be able
to get her tremolo ready to such a degree that she could play this piece. _ _ _
It seems to be really
difficult for a lot of people, but I've come across a couple of ways that really work well,
I think, in getting tremolo up.
I'm going to share a couple of those with you right now.
_ Basically,
_ the most beneficial one of all is just practicing tremolo on one string.
_ So let's give it a try.
We're going to play just on the open E string, the first string.
[Em] _ _ _ And the tremolo, of course,
is P-A-M-I.
So _ _ _ _ _ _ now how hard do you think that could be?
Well, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ to get it fast and even _ _ _ _ _ is not
really that easy.
This is how I do it.
_ I _ practice very, very staccato _ with very short strokes on
one string.
_ _ _ And I plant like crazy.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ While I'm doing this, _ _ I listen very, [E] very hard for evenness of
note duration, _ tone, and volume.
_ In other words, _ _ if I hear a lopsided tremolo like that, I try to,
you know, my ear tells me my thumb is too loud.
_ _ _ Now, I have to say here that a lot of times people
can't help their thumb [Em] being louder _ because of their nail shape.
It hooks the string and they
can't help the tone.
So look at your nail shape as well.
That could have something to do with it. _ _ _ _ _
So practice with me _ very staccato like this.
Let's all go on one string.
_ I'm going to start
with the thumb, P-A-M-I.
Here we go.
Now just go along with me and try to watch my hand and see
what you can come up with here.
_ _ _ _ _ Notice my strokes.
_ _ I don't come out very far.
Again,
like no more than an inch. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ I don't want to come out so far that I can't get into the string really
fast. _
_ _ _ _ Now that we're doing this, now let's say you push pause or stop.
You're going to practice this
for a while.
That's the first step.
_ How do you build speed?
The best way _ _ _ _ _ for _ _ _ _ _ _ _ both sections,
you're going to _ _ _ do little speed bursts here. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Make the whole thing gradually faster. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Now,
eventually, speed bursts get longer and longer.
_ _ _ But _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ you always want to come back to the slow
version _ to give yourself a reference point.
_ _ _ _ Okay, now _ that you've perfected it _ on the first string,
_ time to get the thumb up [A] there because real tremolo, of course, [Em] skips the thumb around a lot.
So here we go.
Here's one thing I like to do a lot, and this helps in getting the thumb away
from the first string.
_ You start in the first string _ _ and then you go down a string each [G] time.
_ _ _ [A] _ _ This is [E] a down.
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [D] _
[G] _ _ _ Always [Em] come back to the E string.
_ _ _ _ Do it again. _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ You're _ _ a [A] _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ master.
See that?
_ _ One more
tip I have to give you.
It helps me a lot to practice tremolo, again, on one string, _ but
reverse, P-I-M-A.
And I, again, urge you to always make up your own exercises, your own combinations,
whatever seems lacking for you.
Try to be a little clever and come up with your own solutions and
make up your own combinations.
_ Basically, practicing it backwards _ is not [Bbm] really different
from [Em] practicing it the other way. _
We're listening for balance, duration, etc. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ It's backwards.
_ Now,
_ _ you also can alternate it _ P-A-M-I _ _ -P-I-M-A.
Say that twice fast.
_ _ _ Now, _ if I haven't practiced my
tremolo real hard for a long time and I need to get a tremolo piece back up into shape,
_ I will go through my tremolo piece or pieces backwards like _
[B] that _ throughout the piece and
slowly, but I go through the whole piece very staccato, very deliberate, _ and _ very mindful of
my tone, _ _ articulation, etc.
One more [Em] thing.
A staccato tremolo like that, slow, sounds very
_ ridiculously short. _ _ _ _
But the thing is, it's not going to stay like that.
It's going to speed up. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Now, when it speeds up, _ that staccato practice has already given you a very articulate and
smooth sounding tremolo.
_ _ So, with those things in mind, I wish you the best of luck.
_ [N] _ _ _