Intro to Rasgueado

Here’s an elementary intro to rasgueado. Since folks love to quibble, I will say that this is simply what works for me, my students, and just about every good player I know. There may be other ways to do it, but this one works.

As for three finger vs. four finger (i.e. 16th notes vs. quintuplets), I’ll say that the three finger is by far the more common today, while the four finger was more common back in the day. I learned the four finger one first (I started out super traditional), but I think that the three finger gives you a better shot at learning to play your rasgueado evenly, and that’s what I like to hear. You can always choose to go for an uneven sound later, but if you don’t learn to play evenly you don’t even have the choice.

Eventually you’ll apply exactly the same technique to a four finger as well as a two finger version of the same thing. Remember that since the index plays twice (once on the way down, then again on the way up) a two finger rasgueado gives you triplets, a three finger gives you 16ths and a four finger gives you quintuplets.