Are you better at rest stroke or free stroke?

I am playing in a quartet with Pepe Romero in May, in Austin Texas!! He’s even more amazing and inspiring in real life.

I can do what Pépe does when he plays  one note. After that it starts to fall apart.

Thanks Cody. Maybe soon the guitarists of the world will be asking you how do you play so blisteringly fast?

The rest stroke is the most basic and important technique on the guitar. It produces a strong, punctual and round sound that is imo the identity of the instrument.
The problem with using only free strokes arose from the generation of players who sought to play "lika a piano", with a completely uniform sound.
I admitt that personaly I fell into the same trap, and it was years later that I realized that our instrument apart from it's shortcomings, has an unmatched beauty, especially when played using it's strong points (apoyando, rasgueado, pizzicato, ponticello, harmonics, glissando, portamentos etc).

Great video! Good to see Pepe. I studied with from 1973-1980. He is amazing. Tell Douglas Hein says "hello!" and that he still has the 1969 AM Ramirez.

These videos are absolute gold. Appreciate your posts every day man. Mastering my technique and proficiency with nothing more than the right youtube videos.

Keep up the good work, Cody.  My own playing slowed down a bit after nine surgeries on my hands.

My problem exactly. My fingers strike the string but the relax portion is too late, or too slow.

Nicely combed hair, Cody

flamenco players have great rest stroke speed and power, but have trouble playing classical scales with refined more subtle tone.   They are built strictly for speed.   There is always a compromise somewhere.  You can't do everything well.  Adam Del Monte is the closest i've heard to mastering both.   look him up.  He has the best Sevilla  of any classical player ive ever heard.  AND he can play with flamenco dancers, compose and is a master improviser.

When I'm looking for some rest stroke motivation, I always watch Kanahi Yamashita (Kazuhito's daughter). She is jaw-droppingly clean and elegant with her rest stroke usage. Her Chaconne is out of this world!

Cody your commentaries are spot on !

In my humble opinion one should start practicing rest strokes alternating  i and m ( apoyando) with the right hand only on each string. The finger motion starts not from the air but the finger is put on the adjacent lower string before commencing the stroke then it stops on the adjacent higher string as Pepe Romero says.😀

What Pepe is talking about is called flex and release (or sometimes ballistic motion), and it is used in both rest stroke and free stroke.  The fact is that strokes at high speed cannot reverse direction without fatigue because they are so short, they must have a release of tension in between them.

Please interview  🙏 John Williams that would be amazing if you canget him to speak👏

Incredible.  Thank you for your analysis 😊

Another thing to note is that Pepi seems to have a nearly 90 degree position on the 2nd joint of the finger.  I have seen many fast players who don't do this but I think it's important to his way.

That is good insight! We also seen someone with a pick on steel string or nylon, single picking point is as fast as rest strokes. So there is this always someone will break the rules guitar playing, such as heavy metal guitar playing in a non classical guitar posture.

He talks about that in his method book released  back in the early 1980's. It was re released a while back with some new content.