When most guitarists think of tremolo, their attention is immediately
drawn to the infamous Tarrega piece, Recuerdos del Alhambra, often
the fuelling their desire to learn the technique in the first place.
There’s much more benefit to be had from this technique than
just playing this and Barrios’ great tremolo-based piece, Una
Limosa por L’Amor de Dios; finger independence, in particular “m” and “a”,
finger placement, relaxation, and co-ordination, for example are just
a few.
How can I improve my tremolo playing?
Here, we provide some tips for improving or approaching the tremolo.
Most, if not all guitarists, seek to play too quickly, too soon, sacrificing
tone and evenness for pure speed. The key here is patience. Start
slowly and build up tempo gradually-a metronome is invaluable for
achieving this.
Starting out
Start out with the basic pami combination, however, don’t be
afraid to try out other combinations such as pimami etc. once you’ve
mastered the basics. The best exercises focus on the right/tremolo
playing hand only. We suggest using a basic E major or minor broken
chord in the first position to give some melodic variety to your tremolo
practise.
The basic movement is as follows...
The thumb “p” plays, with “a” going down
at the same time, “a” plays and immediately after “m” goes
down on the same string, “m” plays and “i” immediately
goes down, “i” then plays and at the same time “p” goes
down ready to play again. Then the cycle repeats…
Use the 1st, highest treble string, for the ami fingers and the 6,5,4th/bass
strings for the thumb, working the thumb up and down i.e. 65456 etc.
Set the tempo on the metronome to a comfortable speed, say 60 beats
per minute. The thumb will play on the beat with ami filling in between,
so 4 beats or semi-quavers per beat will be realised.
Building up Speed
Again, start slowly and build up a notch on the metronome at a time,
once mastered, don’t be frightened to move up one or 2 levels
beyond your comfort zone. This will help to stimulate the fingers.
Similiarly, once you’ve mastered a reasonable speed, say mm120
(4 notes to the beat) work back down the levels to ensure quality
and consistency are maintained. This will help you greatly in moving
up the scale more effectively too.
Practise Techniques
Playing Staccato
Playing the tremolo staccato, i.e. using the “m” and “i” fingers
to cut off the previous note by placing or “planting” immediately
after the “a” and “m” fingers respectively
have played, is a good strategy. In this way it will help create the
feeling of speed in the fingers, without having reached that actual
tremolo speed. It’s also much easier to listen out for evenness
without the notes ringing through their duration.
"Triplet" Tremolos
Practising “triplet” tremolos, pai, pai etc. is another
classical technique used. By omitting the “m” finger you
are focusing on the beginning “pa” and end, “ip” parts
of the tremolo only. This often the root cause of poor or uneven tremolo
playing and really helps to focus on improving the inter-relationships
between these sets of fingers. Once again use the metronome, and once
comfortable, build back in the “m”. You won’t be
disappointed with the result!
Speed Bursts
Finally, try the speed burst approach too. Play 2 slow cycles followed
by a couple of faster tremolo cycles, gradually increasing the proportion
of fast to slower tremolo bursts in the process. This way you’ll
build up stamina and endurance gradually, ensuring a smoother transition
to faster tremolo speeds into the process.
That’s all on tremoloes for now. Again, be patient. It will
take some time to master, maybe months or long, but the benefits it
yields to all other areas of you classical guitar playing make it
a technique well worth investing the time in. Get practising your
tremolos…
