Group 1

Blaise Laflamme you are so good Blaise! The relaxation is great and apparently and.. I can hear it! which is awesome, you do the same mistake that I do: too little time on the string. Although I am sure your time is longer because you sound awesome :). But I can see what Martin says. The hand is super stable . And the rhythm spot on. 

oh! Here they are. I recorded them and thought I had never sent them. I have to improve my planting… we will get there! 

Emma Thank you Emma and you're doing pretty well too, you feel comfortable, relaxed and your tone is good! You're right I naturally play without preparation most of the time, in fact probably the only time I would prepare is if it starts with a silence (or play staccato). If I would resume how I play in a simple way I would say that everything is legato until specified (or decided) otherwise and I also hear the music that way in my head, then produce it on the guitar. Then as soon as the music I play doesn't sound like what I hear (articulation, timbers, accents, ...) I unconsciously correct to match. I suppose my planting was over the years crafted to be as quick as possible to prevent any cutting sound . For what I can see the cuban school is way different than what I've learned and built over the years and for sure it enlarges my technique and gives me more possibilities, even if sometimes it drives me crazy .

Blaise Laflamme very good Blaise, I see your relaxation and your hand looks controlled and relax 

Emma you fingers are really returning like a spring! very good Emma! and you did all the combinations. Very good job! it looks very relaxed and not forced the movement. Slow and sure, like Martin says us. And even also.

Blaise Laflamme yes, the apparent dichotomy between legato and preparation. For me, I think this prolonging the contact , will help me to find the sweet spot of the attack. Learning  to do that. Then one day, with time and speed the touch will still be there,  diluted,  but in essence, hopefully.

Blaise Laflamme This looks spot on to me to what Martin has been showing in his examples.  I'm curious as I assume you've had plenty of prior experience with tremolo whether this technique is new to you (as it seems with all of us) and you have to unlearn how you did tremolo before.  It doesn't seem natural at first but the more I practice the more I see what Martin is getting at...

Emma Just like Blaise, it seems like you've got the spring-like/relaxing technique down very well similar to what Martin shows.   I'm getting a bit confused with the various threads but hope I'm responding to the correct video.

Nora Torres-Nagel thanks Nora, it's not perfectly aligned with Martin's approach but it has the basis. 

Brett Gilbert No I don't have a lot of experience with tremolo, I only had to do a bit of it in some piece sections but I've never really played dedicated tremolo pieces. My natural approach, without doing any dedicated exercises, was to use the same technique as I'm using when doing patterns on different strings like p-i-m-a- or p-a-m-i but on the same string. Also instead of separating each finger actions like the pistons of an engine I was focusing to combine them in a fluid movement like a dancer. As to «unlearn» I don't think you can really do that once the muscle memory is in place but you can certainly learn a new way of doing it and use this new memory as you play, like taking a new path or replacing a lego block. A lot of fun to experiment and integrate but as you're saying it's not natural at first but will be at some point in time. This is great because I intend to play a tremolo piece composed by a friend soon, then it should help me getting better!

Blaise Laflamme Excellent advice, thank you.  I like the analogy to moving like a dancer instead of engine pistons.

Brett Gilbert yeah that's also for illustrating the mind shift we have to do when isolating finger's action one by one as opposed to orchestrate them in a layered motion. As I understand the current assignments the former is used to build and strengthen finger independence using action isolation to ultimately improve and stabilize the combined movement.