Chill Flamenco Guitar Warmup (Right/Strum Hand)

Hey everyone! Here’s something that you might enjoy!

Here’s something that has (I believe) helped me a lot.

1. As a warmup before playing more intensely
2. Improving the consistency & timing of my rasgueados, abanicos and alzapuas (more subtly over time).

I find it’s a great way to warm up and practice some of the basic right-hand (strumming hand) patterns on guitar at a slow speed.

Disclaimer: I am still very much a beginner student of flamenco!

Peacefully Practice Fundamental Flamenco Strumming Techniques

This warmup utilizes a lot of the foundations of flamenco right-hand strumming technique.

There’s no golpes, though you could add them at the end for the rumba groove.

And there’s no picado – golpes, picado and many other right-hand techniques are amazing and an important part of flamenco guitar playing. But this is more designed as very mellow warmup – before doing a lot of the other more intense techniques, etc.

What the Warm-Up Includes

Here’s what this warmup includes (in basically the order that you use the different techniques)

• very slow Rumba strums
• Rasgueados
• Triplet strums (Abanicos)
• Alzapúas
• Grooving in a basic rumba compás at a slow tempo (so it’s not all about ‘technique’, there’s some focus on groove)

Video Explanation and Demonstration of the Chill Right-Hand Flamenco Warmup

How to Do the Warmup

Here’s how I do it.

1. I tune up,
2. then set the metronome to about bpm=36.
   1. I use 3 beats a measure.
3. For each measure (3 beats), I move up to the 12th fret (and then back down) to the next chord
4. All the chords are in the same key (E major).
5. I play the basic E chord, then slide up to the next chord (and still let the open ‘E’ strings (both the low and high ‘E’ strings) and ‘B’ string ring.
6. When I get to top, I come back down again.
7. After all the “warmup exercises”, I play a rumba by doubling the click speed. So if it was 36, then I change it to 72.

How the E major Diatonic Chords are Created for this Warmup

Here’s the info about creating the chords (based on the E major scale) and TAB for those chords =, too.

• E Major Diatonic Scales, Intervals, Chords, Open Strings (Sheet Music & TAB)

Hope this helps!

Flamenco Right Hand Warmup Sheet Music

You can view the Flamenco-Guitar-Right-Hand-Warmup pdf or download it here.

Here’s the sheet music on the screen, if you can’t see it, just click on the link about to go to the Flamenco-Guitar-Right-Hand-Warmup pdf.

Also, in case anyone was curious, I like to call it: The Waterfall by the Sea. I like to think of being in a waterfall when playing this, both for the imagery and to help my relax while I am playing!

Question? Ideas?! Guitar Lessons!

If you have any questions, suggestions and/or ideas, please leave a comment below and/or contact me!

If you’re interested in coaching and lessons, I would love to help you on your musical journeys (as much as I can). Please check out:

• Correspondence Guitar Coaching & Lessons!
• Skype/Zoom/FaceTime online guitar lessons

My Current Warmup (2020 & early 2021)

Here’s my current warm-up.

I like to all the different parts, but depending on the day, I’ll start with the first one and go from there.

Note: Whenever I do play flamenco and rumba flamenca, I do usually warmup with the Chill Flamenco Warmup (that I showed above). It really has helped me over the years a lot!

1. A little bit of solfeggio with simple scales on the guitar.
2. Chill Flamenco Warmup
3. Playing Scales and Improv to a 2-3 Son Clave
4. Play-a-long with So What by Miles Davis
5. Villa-Lobos, Etude #1

Check Out Some More Guitar Lessons and Ideas!

All the best!

• Rumba Flamenca (How to Play a Basic Strumming Pattern)
• Basic Rasgueados for Flamenco Guitar (Learning the Forms)
• Compás, part 1 (Bulería, Alegría, basic counting)
• Six 5-10 Minute Groove Practice Ideas!
• Play what you sing, Sing what you play!
• Learning Songs: Listen, Sing, Play