Athletic Approach to a Fast Picado

Chronicling 3 Months of Exercises to Gain Speed

As a guitar player I’ve never been able to play fast using a plectrum. In fact I’ve nearly given up on using a pick all together. I’ve gained a significant amount of speed via tapping in the last 12 years but now I’m up for a new challenge. Yodeling! No, just kidding… Picado. Picado is a playing technique where a guitarist plays scale passages by alternating the index and middle fingers. Picado is normally executed apoyando (with rest strokes). To play this way cleanly and at hi speeds is a daunting task for most players. Turning to the internet for help and after many Google searches there seems to be no one clear cut way or lesson course on how to archive this. So the runner in me is saying to take an athletic approach. Just like I would give myself 3 months to train my two legs for a race I will relate the same line of thinking for my two fingers to play a decently fast picado.

I’ll have my easy running days which will relate to scale practicing.

Hill training could be something like arpeggios that involve a lot of string crossing.

Interval runs and plyometrics will be picado speed bursts.

The weekly long run will in turn be an extra long day of slow scale practicing.

And of course the all important stretching and rest day.

I’ll chronicle my 3 months of training the best I can with videos measuring notes per beat via metronome, examples of the exercises I’m using, etc.. Hopefully if this goes well it will give other players a unique perspective into time + effort = these results.

The 1^st step is to measure my picado speed now so I have something to compare it to 3 months from now.

New Challenge, Picado

For the past 15 years I’ve had this passion to play Flamenco guitar but have done nothing about it until now. Two weeks ago I purchased a nylon string guitar am I am loving it! I’ve been working out of Gerhard Graf-Martinez’s Flamenco Guitar Method Vol I book for the past couple weeks and it’s going really well. My only criticism of the book is that there seems to be nothing on picado. Perhaps this comes into play in Vol II or maybe in traditional flamenco most single note lines are only played with the pulgar (thumb). Yet, I watch great players like Paco De Lucia and Ottmar Liebert and picado is very much integrated in the flamenco music they play. To me, picado seems to flamenco music’s most challenging technique. Everything else but perhaps the Glope has come to me relatively easy. I think its best I start working on it now than later. After giving it a lot of thought about how to go about it, the runner in me is saying to take an athletic approach.

Is there such a thing as healthy brownies? Answer: Yum!!

Is there such a thing as a good tasting healthy brownie? Ahhh… no. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't have to be really bad for you. Let's face it, all the sugar and butter is why it tastes so damn good. But I’ve come up with a compromise. Here’s a recipe I’ve created while trying to be healthy by using coconut oil, dark chocolate and yogurt but still including some of the bad for ya stuff so taste like a brownie should.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 16 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup whole grain pastry flour*
• 1/4 cup unsweetened natural coca powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13inch baking pan with.

Melt the 8oz chocolate and butter in a or heatproof bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda.

In a large bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until smooth. Add the yogurt, oil and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the chocolate-butter mixture and whisk until blended. Add the flour mixture and mix until just moistened.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and sprinkle with the other 8oz of dark chocolate and nuts if using. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Dark Chocolate Elevated to Superfood Status

Dark chocolate’s a wonder. Recently elevated to superfood status. Here are just 6 health benefits.  

• improves your mood (does it ever!)
• increases circulation
• fights aging
• soothes a cough
• can reduce cholesterol
• boosts your brain power

Now you don't have to feel bad because it tastes s-o-o-o-o good.

I think I’ll post some of recipes I use dark chocolate in next.

Why I Run

I love running. I realize how strange this statement sounds to some people. When making it, I tend to get the same kind of question from non runners asking, how I could love something that causes me so much pain and discomfort. I had a friend once tell me, “I hate running. If you see me running down the street, throw a blanket over me because I must be on fire!” It can be somewhat of a challenge to express the love for running to someone with this sort of attitude and fear of spontaneous human combustion. But today, I’m digging deep and feel a need to express it. I do not expect every non runner to read this and make a bee-line for the nearest Nike outlet but, maybe just a better understanding of why we “crazy people” do this “crazy” thing.

 I started running as a teenager out of overwhelming frustration and stress (oh those wonder years). Confused about how to deal with my then situation I pulled a Forest Gump and bolted out of the house and started running down the street… and kept running. Totally unplanned, wearing blue jeans, and no water. Forget complex carbohydrates, I had pure teenage angst fueling this run. In the end I think I only made it to the other side of the next town but it was great because I was so damn exhausted to even think about all those things that were gnawing at my brain at the time. 

Gradually my runs became less spontaneous and more planned and deliberate. What started out as a way to exhaust myself from thinking had become a way to think more clearly. A running meditation if you will. No music, in tune with my surrounding, listening to the rhythm of my footsteps, awareness of my breathing, I feel like there is a real art to it and is very similar to traditional meditation in some ways. 

Besides the physically fit advantages, I feel running has helped me on life’s journey and has personally shown me a path leading to better and brighter days. I’m more confident and can step out of my comfort zone more easily because of it. When I’m on those hot and sweaty long runs I kind of feel like I’m being purified and I’m recreating a better me. American Philosopher William James was quoted saying, "Beyond the extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own".  

I don’t know if running is for everybody but it works for me. I you feel like you want to give it a go, give your body some time to adapt and you might surprise yourself by suddenly subscribing to Runner’s World Magazine. Unfortunately “Most people don’t run far enough of their first wind to discover they have a second” WJ.

Jim Green – The Wandering Endorphin