Lesson: Basic Rasgueado Exercises

No. 9 – Basic Rasgueado Exercise for Classical Guitar – From my pdf book 20 Favorite Exercises for Classical Guitar for beginner to intermediate classical guitarists. Includes: notation, TAB, fingerings, practice tips, video lessons. YouTube Lesson Link.

This exercise, No. 9 – Basic Rasgueado Patterns for classical guitar, is not intended to train you in the art of flamenco. Instead, they give your right-hand a good workout, strengthen the fingers, and increase the reflex-oriented ‘return to start’ direction of finger movements. I’ve also found that rasgueado practice is excellent for the right hand position of students. You need a certain amount of clearance as well as having to move the fingers from the upper knuckle joint. Therefore, it’s similar to regular playing but in reverse. I’ve noticed that student’s right hands are more secure, relaxed, and dexterous if they’ve practiced both classical exercises and rasgueado.

Check out more free video lessons at the lesson archive.

Bradford Werner
Bradford Werner

Bradford Werner is a classical guitarist and music publisher from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He originally created this site for his students at the Victoria Conservatory of Music but now shares content worldwide. Curating guitar content helps students absorb the culture, musical ideas, and technique of the classical guitar. Bradford also has a YouTube channel with over 94,000 subscribers and 13 million views. He taught classical guitar at the Victoria Conservatory of Music for 16 years and freelanced in Greater Victoria for 20 years and now dedicates much of his time curating content online and helping connect the classical guitar community. See more at his personal website.

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