Hello from Ottawa, Canada

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wyszard

Posts: 1
Joined: Nov. 5 2016
From: Ottawa

Hello from Ottawa, Canada

Hola
My wife & I were visiting our daughter's in-laws who live in Barcelona.
Then, In a fit of total insanity, euphoria & ignorance I walked into the "Casa Luthier" store in Barcelona, tried a whole bunch of beginner Flamenco guitars, picked one out using 3 sets of ears & bought it. I am now TOTALLY HOOKED (maybe the spanish olives or the Jamón did it to me).
So a little about myself, my name is Ryszard (Richard in Polish), hence the wyszard moniker. I generally play Bossa-Nova & jazz standards with my wife Sheila who is a flute player & a vocalist. She has much better hearing ears than I do. We are amateur musicians in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, & have been associated with the Ottawa jazzworks community for the past 14 years, check out www.jazzworkscanada.com, we have jam sessions every month. I also have started playing a Cajon about six months ago and have a been playing on jazz bepop drums for about 2 years.
Now the next step is to find some other players & a good teacher in Ottawa.
I had a quick look at www.newlearningvision.com & am wondering if anyone has an opinion about their online course, or any other courses or teaching material that they liked. I have already ordered the GGM & Juan Serrano books and will get them sometime next week.
Any advice or tips for a Flamenco newbie are welcome & appreciated.

I was fortunate enough to see & enjoy Paco De Lucia in performance at the Ottawa Jazz Festival in 2011.

thank you for the existence of this forum.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 6 2016 9:00:22

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Hello from Ottawa, Canada (in reply to wyszard)

Welcome to the foro!

A few ressources you could look up are:

-the Rito y geografia del Cante series. Even if you don't plan to play with singers, cante is really the backbone of flamenco and you'll learn a lot by listening to cante and not just instrumental stuff.

-the Encuentro series are really good for picking up technical exercices from some of the greats and some of their pieces or falsetas. See http://www.encuentro.ch/ My personal favorite is the Gerardo Nunez one but that's just a personal opinion.

-if you read Spanish http://www.flamencopolis.com/ has a lot of information worth knowing. Norman's site also has some interesting stuff, particularly with regards to cante: http://canteytoque.es/index.html

-I'm personnally a fan of Manuel Granados's books. He has some free stuff on his website: http://www.manuelgranados.net/estudios-descargas/

As with any style, the most important things will probably be listening to a lot of it, getting a good teacher and finding opportunities to play.

Good luck!

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 6 2016 9:50:42

itoprover

Posts: 343
Joined: Jan. 3 2006

RE: Hello from Ottawa, Canada (in reply to wyszard)

Hi

I am also in Ottawa and play flamenco in a band with a violin, cajon, and a singer. There is flamenco jam that happens almost every month in University Tavern (I think there is one this coming Saturday). I personally don't go there every time. You can also join facebook group "Flamenco Gatineau/Ottawa" to be up to date with the local events.
Unfortunately there is no guitar teacher in Ottawa that teaches the proper way to accompany dance or singing so I would recommend online skype lessons with Ricardo Marlow or take trips to Montreal in case you want person-to-person lessons.
You can message me using private messages here on the forum if you have questions.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 16 2016 16:15:01