Cantiñas is a group of cantes consisting of alegrías, cantiñas, caracoles, mirabrás and romeras. When this kind of music is played on the guitar without accompanying singing, it is usually called cantiñas or alegrías. All of the aforementioned styles share the 12-beat asymmetrical flamenco rhythm (compás), along with soleá and bulería. Here are three picados with three variations in the keys of E, C and A to play over beats 7 to 10 (referred to as cierres). The first variation starts on the second degree (second tone of the major scale), the second on the fifth degree and the third on the seventh degree. Accompaniment is usually in C, but it depends on the voice, and it's important to develop your playing in all three keys if you want to do it well (Javier Molina and Niño Ricardo played in G, the latter recording it). The rhythms of these styles provide an excellent context for development of picado. You can expand these ideas beyond the rather ordinary confines of beats 7 to 10 by starting a bit earlier (e.g., between beats five and six) and leading up to the first note in the score.
