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Flamenco notation

For flamenco guitar, special notation is used:

• a golpe symbol to indicate a slap on the guitar body with the nail of the ring finger
• an arrow to indicate (the direction of) strokes
• different letters for fingering (“p”: thumb, “i”: index finger, “m”: middle finger, “a”: ring finger and “x”: little finger)
• 3- and 4-finger rasgueados; stroke upwards with all fingers, ending with an up- and down using the index finger
• abanicos: strokes (in tuples) with thumb (down), little and index finger (both up). There’s also an abanico 2 where middle and ring finger are used instead of the little finger.
• alza pua: fast playing with the thumb

Most figures use arrows in combination with fingering; with abanicos and rasgueados, noteheads are printed only for the first chord.

This snippet contains some header-like code that can be copied as ‘flamenco.ly’ and included in source files.

%%%%%%%  Cut here ----- Start 'flamenco.ly'

% Text indicators :
abanico = ^\markup\small { \italic Abanico }
rasgueado = ^\markup\small { \italic Ras. }
alzapua = ^\markup\small { \italic Alzapua }

% Finger stroke symbols :
strokeUp = \markup\combine\override #'(thickness . 1.3) \draw-line #'(0 . 2)\raise #2 \arrow-head #Y #UP ##f
strokeDown = \markup\combine\arrow-head #Y #DOWN ##f \override #'(thickness . 1.3) \draw-line #'(0 . 2)

% Golpe symbol :
golpe = \markup {
  \filled-box #'(0 . 1) #'(0 . 1) #0
  \hspace #-1.6
  \with-color #white
  \filled-box #'(0.15 . 0.85) #'(0.15 . 0.85) #0
}

% Strokes, fingers and golpe command :
RHp = \rightHandFinger #1
RHi = \rightHandFinger #2
RHm = \rightHandFinger #3
RHa = \rightHandFinger #4
RHx = \rightHandFinger #5
RHu = \rightHandFinger \strokeUp
RHd = \rightHandFinger \strokeDown
RHg = \rightHandFinger \golpe

% Just handy :)
tupletOff = {
  \once \omit TupletNumber
  \once \omit TupletBracket
}

tupletsOff = {
  \omit TupletNumber
  \override TupletBracket.bracket-visibility = #'if-no-beam
}

tupletsOn = {
  \override TupletBracket.bracket-visibility = #'default
  \undo \omit TupletNumber
}

headsOff = {
  \hide TabNoteHead
  \hide NoteHead
  \override NoteHead.no-ledgers = ##t
}

headsOn = {
  \override TabNoteHead.transparent = ##f
  \override NoteHead.transparent = ##f
  \override NoteHead.no-ledgers = ##f
}

%%%%%%%  Cut here ----- End 'flamenco.ly'
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

part = \relative c' {
  \set strokeFingerOrientations = #'(up)
  \key a\major
  <a, e' a cis e\RHu\RHi>8
  <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHi>8
  r4
  r2^\markup\golpe
  <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHi>8
  <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHi>8
  <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHi\RHg>8
  <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHi>8
  r2
  <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHa>16\rasgueado
  \headsOff
  <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHm>
  <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHi>
  <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHi>~
  \headsOn
  <a e' a cis e>2
  r4
  \tupletOff
  \tuplet 5/4 {
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHx>16\rasgueado
    \headsOff
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHa>
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHm>
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHi>
    <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHi>~
    \headsOn
  }
  <a e' a cis e>2
  r4
  \tupletsOff
  \tuplet 3/2 {
    <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHp>8\abanico
    \headsOff
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHx>
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHi>
    \headsOn
  }
  \tuplet 3/2 {
    <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHp>8
    \headsOff
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHx>
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHi>
    \headsOn
  }
  \tuplet 3/2 {
    <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHp>8
    \headsOff
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHx>
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHi>
    \headsOn
  }
  \tuplet 3/2 {
    <a e' a cis e\RHd\RHp>8
    \headsOff
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHx>
    <a e' a cis e\RHu\RHi>
    \headsOn
  }
  \tupletsOff
  \override Beam.positions = #'(2 . 2)
  \tuplet 3/2 {
    a8\RHp\alzapua
    <e' a\RHu\RHg>
    <e a\RHd>
  }
  \tuplet 3/2 {
    a,8\RHp
    <e' a\RHu\RHg>
    <e a\RHd>
  }
  \tuplet 3/2 {
    a,8\RHp
    <e' a\RHu\RHg>
    <e a\RHd>
  }
  \tuplet 3/2 {
    a,8\RHp
    <e' a\RHu\RHg>
    <e a\RHd>
  }
  \tupletsOn
  <a, e' a\RHu\RHm>1
  \bar "|."
}

\score {
  \new StaffGroup <<
    \context Staff = "part" <<
      \clef "G_8"
      {
        \part
      }
    >>
    \context TabStaff {
      \part
    }
  >>
  \layout {
    ragged-right = ##t
  }
}

\paper { tagline = ##f }

---

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[ < Fingerings, string indications, and right-hand fingerings ]	[ Up : Fretted strings ]	[ Fret diagrams explained and developed > ]

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LilyPond snippets v2.25.15 (development-branch).