Technique
The technique employed to play the Portuguese guitar is what is historically called dedilho. This technique comprises playing solely with the thumb and the index fingers and it was inspired in the technique used to play "viola da Terra da Terceira". On the Portuguese guitar the strings are picked with the corner of the fingernails, avoiding contact of the flesh with the strings. The unused fingers of the picking hand rest below the strings, on the soundboard. Nowadays most players use synthetic materials in place of natural fingernails; these fingerpicks are usually made of plastic or tortoiseshell.
Read more about this topic: Portuguese Guitar
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—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
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