Is there a name for this style of strumming?

[LiveMusic]

Playing by strumming with the backs of all four fingernails simultaneously. Obviously, this is only for downstrokes. Only applicable to fast songs. I just kinda bang on the strings with my nails. Is there a name for that? Painful might work. Occasionally, I strike the strings with the skin adjacent to the cuticle and it's getting kinda raw. I wonder if that would toughen up with continuous play. Or just start to bleed.

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by LiveMusic:

Playing by strumming with the backs of all four fingernails simultaneously. Obviously, this is only for downstrokes. Only applicable to fast songs. I just kinda bang on the strings with my nails. Is there a name for that? Painful might work. Occasionally, I strike the strings with the skin adjacent to the cuticle and it's getting kinda raw. I wonder if that would toughen up with continuous play. Or just start to bleed.

Simultaneously, or in succession? The latter has a Spanish name, from the flamenco, classical style. I don't remember it, offhand. (EDIT: I BELIEVE THE TERM IS RASGUEDO. I'M PROBABLY CLOSE, BUT NOT QUITE RIGHT ) Actually, I do this in both directions. It's a technique I learned (Ahem... am learning. It takes a LOT of time to get down.) from Doyle Dykes. He said he'd noticed the "flam" technique of drummers, where they hit two notes in quick succession, so it sounds like each pair is actually one note with a slapback delay. He figured if that could work for drums, perhaps he could "flam" two fingers over one string, while playing melody on other strings. Listen to Nothing's Too Good For A Friend. He's using the technique at the beginning of the tune. It's on Sounds Of Wood And Steelm Vol. 1, from Windham Hill records, but I don't know which of Doyle's own albums has it.

[Beagle1]

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'Rasgueado' is the correct spelling, I think...close enough ;-)

 

Neil - yeah, I'm a big fan of Doyle Dykes, too. His Taylor-sponsored workshops are amazing! I love the way Doyle combines classical/flamenco techniques with Travis-style finger-picking.

 

Regarding 'Nothing's Too Good'...isn't he using tremolo at the beginning rather than Rasgueado strumming? I remember Doyle discussed this at a workshop I saw and he described how he arrived at his own bastardized form of tremolo by accident: he uses a p-i-m-a pattern in the right-hand as opposed to a p-a-m-i pattern, which is what a classical player would use. The intro to Gitarre 2000 also uses a tremolo in tandem with natural harmonics. For the Rasgueado strumming stuff, some good examples of Doyle's formidable technique are 'Howling of the Wood' and 'Birmingham Steel' from the 'Zelf' CD.

[LiveMusic]

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

[QB]

Originally posted by LiveMusic:

Simultaneously, or in succession?

 

Simultaneously. In succession, yeah, I've seen flamenco guys do that, it's really cool. I'm talking about just thrusting the fingers open and shut and striking the strings with the fingernail tops. And also striking the strings with a downward movement of the hand just like you would do with a flatpick to strum all the strings except the "pick" is the top of all your fingernails.

[AlChuck]

I think it's rasquedo with a "q," not a "g."

[Tedster]

(Homer voice):

 

Mmmmm...quesadillas...fattening...

[AlChuck]

Nope, I'm wrong (again)... it's rasgueado

 

Some info at

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Lessons/rasgueado-technique.txt