Apple Using the GarageBand Jam Pack: World Music Instruments - Manual (Page 10)

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Spanish Flamenco Guitar
The passionate style of music and dance known as flamenco originated in Andalusia, at
the crossroads of Gitano (Gypsy), Moorish, and Jewish cultures. Originally, flamenco
consisted of unaccompanied singing, but soon the singers were accompanied by the
guitar, as well as hand clapping, foot stamping, and dance. Today, traditional flamenco
has absorbed influences from jazz, salsa, and popular music, leading to a new offshoot
called “Nuevo Flamenco” (New Flamenco).
The flamenco guitar shares the same lineage as the Spanish classical guitar. Both
evolved from earlier Arabian and Moorish instruments, and are made of wood, with a
figure-eight shape and a central sound hole. Both use six gut or nylon strings tuned to
the notes E-A-D-G-B-E.
However, the manner of performing flamenco is quite different from that of classical
music. Rather than re-creating music composed in advance, flamenco players have
room to improvise and express individual emotions. In order to express “the heat of the
moment,” flamenco guitarists use a variety of playing techniques, including:
 Picado: Plucking the strings alternately with the index and middle fingers.
 Pulgar: Plucking the strings with the thumb.
 Rasgueado: Quickly strumming up or down the strings, sometimes with the index
finger, sometimes with the right-hand fingers moving one after the other.
 Tirando: “Free stroke” with the first three fingers playing the upper strings and the
thumb playing the bass notes.
 Harmonics: Stopping the string with one hand while plucking with the other to
produce a higher harmonic of the note.
The Spanish Flamenco Guitar instrument gives you the ability to use all these playing
techniques, accessed using different note velocities and the mod wheel.