Four-Finger Rasgueo

Now comes the four-finger rasgueo, starting with the little finger. I have used the letter l for this finger. After thorough practice of the three finger pattern, this will seem easier. However, without the prior work to free the ring finger, it becomes a meaningless scrape. Following the example above (rhythm of Malgueñas), we have a triplet instead of the two sixteenth notes. Expressed in words, tum ta-ta tum ta-ta tum becomes tum tiddly tum tiddly tum. The four downward strokes time to the tiddly tum. It is still important to try for clear sounds. Here it is in notation:

As before, all strokes are in a downward direction.

Once you can play this, try the Malagueña study that follows. I have simplified the notation in the same way.

Study Note

Although most of this study is rasgueado, there are some short segments of single notes (punteado). For simplicity, I have marked these with a v mark over the notes. Try to keep the count of three going throughout.

A. Here is the first segment of single notes marked with v.