Rasgueado (also called Golpeado, Rageo (spelled so or Rajeo), Rasgueo or Rasgeo in Andalusian dialect and flamenco jargon, or even occasionally Rasqueado) is a

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

finger

strum In music, strumming is a way of playing a stringed instrument such as a guitar, ukulele, or mandolin. A strum or stroke is a sweeping action where a finger or plectrum brushes over several strings to generate sound. On most stringed instrume ...

ming technique commonly associated with

flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...

guitar music. It is also used in classical and other

fingerstyle guitar Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of guitar picking, playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with ...

picking techniques. The rasgueado is executed using the fingers of the strumming hand in rhythmically precise, and often rapid, strumming patterns. The important characteristic of this strumming style is the fingernail (outer) side of the finger tips (as opposed to their fleshy inner side) is also used, and in such case, in reverse of the way it is done when the fleshy side of the finger tips is used, namely downward (index, middle, ring and little finger) and upward (thumb).Chapman, Richard (2003). The New Complete Guitarist, Dorling Kindersley (revised edition), pp. 66-67.

History

Prior to the 19th century, the terms ''battuto'' (from the Italian) and ''golpeado'' were sometimes used to describe the technique. Although originating in the classical tradition, the technique is most often associated with

flamenco guitar A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar, but with lower action, thinner tops and less internal bracing. It usually has nylon strings, like the classical guitar, but it generally possesses a livelier, grittier sound compared ...

. Its use in classical music is limited today, but examples of pieces employing rasgueado are "

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

" (composed for piano by

Isaac Albéniz Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the post-romantic era who also had a significant influence on his con ...

but often played in arrangement for guitar), Manuel de Falla's "The Miller's Dance" (a

farruca ''Farruca'' () is a form of flamenco music developed in the late 19th century. Classified as a cante chico, it is traditionally sung and danced by men. Its origin is traditionally associated with Galicia, a region in northern Spain. An instrumen ...

from '' The Three-Cornered Hat''). It is also heard in the Rodrigo

Concierto de Aranjuez The ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' (, "Aranjuez Concerto") is a concerto for classical guitar by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo's best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the ...

. Modern applications of the rasgueado technique can be seen in Luciano Berio's "Sequenza XI" and

Tristan Murail Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the " spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work ''Gondwana''. Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His f ...

's solo guitar piece Tellur. This technique is used in the arrangements of

Pepe Romero Pepe Romero (born 8 March 1944, in Málaga, Spain) is a classical and flamenco guitarist. Biography Early life Pepe Romero was born in Spain, the second son of celebrated guitarist and composer Celedonio Romero, who was his only guitar ...

Paco de Lucía Francisco Sánchez Gómez (; 21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamen ...

and other representatives of the style of "

new flamenco New flamenco (or ''nuevo flamenco'') or flamenco fusion is a musical genre that was born in Spain, starting in the 1980s. It combines flamenco guitar virtuosity and traditional flamenco music with musical fusion (with genres like jazz, blues, r ...

Technique

In contrast to ordinary strumming, which is usually done either with a plectrum, or with several fingers as a unit, rasgueado generally uses only one digit (finger, thumb, etc.) for each strum; this means that multiple strums can be done more quickly than usual by using multiple digits in quick succession. Furthermore the outer (fingernail) side of the finger tips that is also used and, as a result, in that case, the strumming direction is reversed from the usual one, so it's a downstroke for the four fingers and an upstroke for the thumb. Flamenco guitarists often build up their fingernails using layers of silk and superglue to protect the nail from breaking. There is some loss of tonal quality with this practice, but without it, rasgueado is likely to break most fingernails after a time. The wooden table of the guitar is protected from the reinforced nails by a plastic plate called a "

golpeador A pickguard (also known as a scratchplate) is a piece of plastic or other (often lamination, laminated) material that is placed on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument. The main purpose of the pickguard is to protec ...

" which is stuck to the front beneath the soundhole. There are several types of rasgueado, but the two main divisions are those that employ the

forearm The forearm is the region of the upper limb between the elbow and the wrist. The term forearm is used in anatomy to distinguish it from the arm, a word which is used to describe the entire appendage of the upper limb, but which in anatomy, techn ...

and

thumb The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...

in conjunction and those that incorporate only the

finger A finger is a prominent digit (anatomy), digit on the forelimbs of most tetrapod vertebrate animals, especially those with prehensile extremities (i.e. hands) such as humans and other primates. Most tetrapods have five digits (dactyly, pentadact ...

s. Of course, both approaches can be combined to allow for the use of all digits on the

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the Koala#Characteristics, koala (which has two thumb#O ...

Application

Application of the technique is generally required to achieve the rapid strumming and complex rhythms used in flamenco music.

References

External links

Rasgueados Are for Everyone:
rasgueado method ebook on Internet Archive {{Guitar picking Flamenco Guitar performance techniques Symbols of Mato Grosso