This free online guitar lesson will deal with a little bit more advanced and detailed techniques. Namely the picados and alzapua. Both of these techniques are characteristic to flamenco guitar and both are really hard to master.

As they stand they are at the complete opposite of one another, the picado is alternate index and middle finger picking for fast variations, while alzapua is a thumb technique a lot different from every other existing technique.

In this free online guitar lesson we’ll start with the picado, since it is a little easier to comprehend and explain. Now, for the basic technique, it is really just alternate picking with the index and middle fingers. However, an important thing about picado is that there are actually 2 types of picado, divided in rest strokes and free strokes. The deal about these is that free strokes don’t touch any other string after the actual picking of a string, while rest strokes are called that because the finger rests on the next string from the one that was played.

Alzapua is a totally different thing. The basic technique is a combination of strokes with the thumb. First comes a normal rest stroke (explained above) on a string, then a quick one-move motion on the next 2 strings, then a backward with the back of the thumbnail quick one-move motion up 3 strings to the initial position, then you repeat. Doing this fast will create a much more powerful sound than any other technique. Sometimes the ring finger is used to hit the guitar case (golpe) when doing alzapua for an added twist.

I believe this free online guitar lesson should help you understand and develop your technique neatly. If you practice both they will help each other more than you can think of. When you see no more progress practicing picado, try some alzapua exercises and you’ll see results soon enough. Likewise the other way around works too.