Learning La Pompe

periclimenes

Hi All,

I'm very new to GJ and I am working through Gypsy Rhythm and Denis Chang's DVD. I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on what's right/wrong with my fledgling pompe.





Thanks,

peri

MichaelHorowitz

I'd say you're really forcing it too much....it sounds very heavy and doesn't really swing.

Try brushing the strings more with the pick. You need to try and get a lighter "swooshing" sound to your rhythm. Also work on making your upstroke faster....it's too slow and sounds very gallop like.

Good work though..keep at it!

'm

periclimenes

Michael - thanks for your speedy reply!

When you say to try brushing the strings more, do you mean alter the pick angle or just not be so heavy handed? or both?

Also, would you (or anyone else) please comment on the body/wrist positioning? I have watched a lot of the videos on the site and am trying to emulate that and remain relaxed...

Thanks,

peri

MichaelHorowitz

periclimenes wrote:

When you say to try brushing the strings more, do you mean alter the pick angle or just not be so heavy handed? or both?

The more angle you put on the pick the more "swoosh" you'll get.

'm

The Los

Hey man, in regards to body position, wrist, etc, etc... Just a quick thing I noticed... I think you're playing too much with your arm. I see a lot of elbow movement. Try to keep the your strumming movements limited to the wrist area. This was the hardest thing for me to get down. But once I did it helped my playing tremendously (since you use less energy this way). That's all. Keep it up!

dennis

same comments as michael, but one thing that can possibly help with the 'swoosh' is to think of lighting a match, it's kinda the same movement, you're brushing the strings very fast so you don't hear pick noise (clack clack clack) but just a smooth swoosh... it helps to use a bit of flesh/nail as well from the index finger

dennis

oh ya "the los" is right about the forearm too, sometimes you can use the forearms for certain things or a certain effect, but it's better to get used to the wrist first...

btw i noticed you're doing the exercise fapy showed me hahaha i hope he doesn 't see this

periclimenes

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I think I understand the wrist/shaking a match thing, but I'm a little confused about the role of the rest of my arm. In reading Gypsy Rhythm, I thought the arm was heavily involved in the downstroke. For example, in figure 9 in the book, it looks like the whole forearm is lifted up so the hand is level with the upper bout. Then in figure 11, the whole forearm is down so the fingers are almost even with the bottom of the guitar. Is this not the case when doing a full speed la pompe? Should I be trying to execute la pompe with mostly the wrist?