Flamenco · Guitar
Flamenco guitar rhythm: seguiriya rasgueado
The flamenco guitar rhythm in 12/4: a rasgueado roll (R) marks the accents. Beat by beat, one mark per beat, with · where there is no stroke: R · R · R · · R · · R ·. Play the audio here in your browser, set the tempo anywhere from 50 to 200 BPM and follow the grid, which marks every subdivision.
Sound summary
The Flamenco pattern is a rasgueado for the guitar, in 12/4 straight (even subdivisions): the chord comes out as a rasgueado (R) — the fingers open in a fan, one after another. To the ear: AR — AR — AR — — AR — — AR —.
How to count it
There are 12 beats per bar (12/4), split into one strum per beat. Speak the count: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. Keep the beat with your foot and follow the grid: each box is one beat.
The rhythm grid
A = chord · R = rasgueado (finger roll) · — = no stroke
How to play it
Right hand
The signature stroke is the rasgueado (R): roll the fingers in a fast downward fan — pinky, ring, middle, index — each finger a separate attack, one just after the next, landing on the beat. Don’t stop the arm on the rests — it keeps moving in the air, it just doesn’t touch the strings.
Left hand
Keep the chord well pressed through the whole pattern — the left hand rules pitch, the right rules the bar. Only release the shape at the end of the bar, moving the hand ahead to the next one.
Example in E
With an E held, let the same chord ring under every stroke — close your eyes and follow just the right hand’s rhythm. Then change only the left-hand shape to take it into any song.
Common mistakes
- Freezing the arm on a rest. It should keep going in the air, off the strings, and land on the next hit — the continuous motion is what holds the time.
Guided practice
- The roll, slowly. Practice the rasgueado (R) on its own: feel each finger open the fan, one at a time.
- Fit it into the bar. Place the roll on its beat and fill the rest with the plain strokes.
- Take it up on the metronome. Start slow, keep the pattern clean, and add a few BPM at a time.
You already get the logic of the groove. Now put it in time: hear the pattern, follow the count and practice slowly until the roll lands cleanly on the beat. In Chord and Fret, the Metronome and the Rhythm Trainer help with that drill, free.
Open the trainer →Variations & related patterns
With the strum steady, take it to Flamenco progressions, putting rhythm and chord changes together. In Chord and Fret’s Progressions by Rhythm, the progressions come with diagrams and audio, free.
Train with progressions →