el frances wrote:Here are some of my tips : from a beginner

Before even touching the guitar :

Get your hands warm! It is crucial if you play in a room that is badly heated (like mine). Put on gloves and move your hands to warm them up. Otherwise : pain will appear on the side of the left hand palm quickly...
Stretch fingers thoroughly. I stretch both hands but in a different way since the left hand and right won't have to work the same way. I emphasize stretching inter finger spaces of the left hand (exercise described by Oscar Herrero in his DVD method) either using the right hand or the guitar neck. For the right hand, I start with arpeggio moves, faster and faster. Then I go on with rasgueado moves on the side of my thigh, if I want to make it gentle for my roommates

Guitar in hands

Checking the cleanliness of the guitar I don't clean my guitar everyday after practice because it takes time and whatsmore I don't sweat that much on the strings. However, when I feel I have sweat a lot (because of the room temperature or because of crazy rasgueado practice por buleria ) I wipe the guitar thoroughly with polish and I use "Fast Fret" on the strings.
Before practicing a part At that stage one must assume that the guitar is also tuned fine (normally as soon as you take your baby in your arms). Time for fundamentals : chromatic scales with the thumb and in picado (way and back). I also practice other exercises but I need to write them down. If some of the forum users are interested I can write them down and post them. Then, exercises on bar position (index) with ring finger and little finger moving. I also integrated in this part of my everyday practice a "little finger exercise" picked in Oscar Herrero's method too.

Then only I start reviewing falsetas for any palo I want to practice keeping in mind three fundamental principles :
1) Compas;
2) Compas;
3) Compas.
My master made me understand that it is pointless to work falsetas alone : if you cannot jump from a compas to a falseta and then come back to the compas, then you haven't got it yet. Working slowly is my key. No need to hurry, even for the Buleria. When I work on new falsetas, usually with recordings from my master, I use Audacity (free) to slower down the tempo and analyze the melody and everything that is not "visible" for the ears, meaning ligado, pulgar, rasgueado, picado or arpeggio. And then I repeat a hundred times or more each new falsetas. Accuracy of performance will come with time, the priority is being "a compas" since the very beginning, otherwise one shall take bad habits that will be hard to remove afterwards. No need to play bright and clear (which is hardly flamenco, I think) but getting the pulse. The quality of sound will come eventually.

Still, I'm a beginner which means that my falseta repertoire is quite limited yet. However, even though I don't have time everyday to review what I have learned before, I try from time to time to come back to "old" falsetas in order to keep them in mind. As a matter of fact, my teacher doesn't give me any part so I use my ears and memory a lot. And it's really good to train one's ear : now I can pick falsetas easilier when I listen to flamenco.

And above all : have fun!! This is really important. And don't get discouraged. I read in biography of Diego del Gastor that he used to spend from 10 to 14 hours a day working on his guitar : there is no secret to fame and glory on the long path to become a flamenco! Working hard and persevere. Even geniuses must work