Hiya. I have question about how we should angle our fingers relative to the strings when playing rasgueado. Should they be mostly perpendicular to the strings (i.e. pointing towards the floor when extended -- I've seen Sabicas do this a lot) or perhaps a 45 degree angle can be suitable? Some problems that I am having with this technique (with the bent thumb) are sometimes my fingers miss the strings entirely (in particular my middle finger); this seems to be fixed more or less when I angle my fingers perpendicular to the strings, but then my thumb naturally straightens and becomes parallel with the strings which can tense up the muscles in my forearm a bit. And if my thumb is too bent and too perpendicular to the low E string, my forearm muscles (the ones that activate the 'flick' of the fingers) also tense up and my rasgueado becomes more of a texturized roll which then leads to me messing up the next downbeat.... this seems like a fine tuning process lol
and one last thing: in tablature, you will see rasgueado notated (for example) with strings 5 to 1 being hit on the downstroke with the index (playing A), then only the trebles hit on the upstroke with the index. How important is it that we are able to precisely play the strings we want and/or are notated in tablature? Would it be okay to strike only strings 1 and 2 on the upstroke for instance? Same thing with alzapua -- sometimes i'll see that only 2 or 3 adjacent strings (for example 5&4 or 4,3 &2) are supposed to be played on the downstroke of an alzapua, but is it okay to hit other strings? Perhaps this is allowable only in situations where it is okay to play the harmonies of the other strings? Or perhaps I should just learn to play precisely those notes/strings that are called for or that I wish to play?
I know I asked like 20 questions sorry about that lol I just have a lot of questions :P
Hey - good questions!
As you've seen, different players have different angles for rasgueados. Mine's a little more 45 degrees than perpendicular, but sometimes I'll go more perpendicular for a specific sound. In general, though, you want a default angle that's comfortable and sounds good. Until it's relaxed and comfortable, I'd prioritize that over sound. So find the position that feels best and get as relaxed as you can. If you're actually missing the strings with any of the fingers I'd suggest you adjust (that's kind of a deal breaker as it messes with your rhythms), but other than that a relaxed rasgueado is the most important thing. Once it really works at whatever angle you choose, you'll find that making small adjustments when you want a different sound won't be as big a deal.
As for the rasgueado and alzapua and how many strings to hit - that's one reason I hate notating either. For rasgueados I find in some instances not all fingers are even hitting exactly the same strings, but the totality of the rasgueado gives the chord the way I want. Again - missing completely with one or more fingers is a problem, but short of that I'd go for relaxed hands and even time before worrying about exactly which strings to hit or if the upstroke is identical to the down. Kind of the same for Alzapua. Generally you don't need to hit more than two strings of the chord, especially if you're going fast. Sometimes you'll hit an open string and it just sounds plain wrong, so in that case you know to avoid those (same with rasgueado). And don't worry if you hit different strings on the way down than on the way up - this sort of happens naturally until your alzapua gets really under control. As long as it sounds like the chord you want and you're happy with the sound, you're good.
And really that's the bottom line with all of this - if it sounds good, it is good (as long as you're also relaxed so you can keep doing it a lot!).
Cheers,
Kai