In its most typical form today, alzapú
a consists of a rapidly repeated pattern of three types of strokes with the right hand thumb. The thumb-stroke are played in the following order:
1. First, the thumb plays a downstroke chord across the strings from a well-defined note as the lowest note of the chord that is
sounded. The note belongs to the melody and is the most important part of the chord.
2. Next, the thumb plays a strong upstroke on the same chord, hitting the strings with the edge of the nail. It is the
emphasis on this upstroke which gives the rhythm its charactersitic syncopation and urgency.
3. Thirdly, the thumb plays a single melody note with a firm stroke on a bass string. This string is either the same as
the one the next downstroke of the thumb starts from or, commonly, it is the next one lower.
The notation could look like this:
If you don´t read notation, the chord above is A. Here, we start with the single thumbstroke (normally
you start on the downstroke with the thumb as mentioned above on the A base string.
