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Flamenco Practice Guitar - Rt. Hand
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Robug
Posts: 28
Joined: Apr. 18 2014
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Flamenco Practice Guitar - Rt. Hand
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In 1964, I had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with the flamenco great, Juan Serrano. He was performing at an intimate jazz club for a week in our city. He showed me a device one of the luthier's in Spain made for him as a practice instrument for traveling. It was a simple board with pegs, a bridge and six strings. Of course, it made no sound (except for percussion) and was useful only for rt. hand techniques but he was very pleased. Five years ago, I searched for such a device (it apparently has no real name) and I found and purchased the one in the embedded picture. I have found it to be very useful as it can accompany me everywhere (traveling, waiting for my shopping wife, etc.), is silent and attracts little attention, and has hastened my mastering of tresillos, rasqueos, golpe, tremolo, arpeggios, alzapua, and others. It is true that it does nothing that a real guitar could not do better, however, there are many times when I want to practice that a guitar is either unavailable or inappropriate. Even rumba rhythms can be mastered with this device. (I hope the image is visible, it is my first attempt to post such on this forum) Peace from my Panamanian Paradise….
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Date Apr. 18 2014 21:18:49
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Erik van Goch
Posts: 1787
Joined: Jul. 17 2012
From: Netherlands
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RE: Flamenco Practice Guitar - Rt. Hand (in reply to Robug)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Robug Erik, is it possible your father's art works are visible online? I would certainly love to see what he has done. I would also encourage you to chronicle your father's life story as it is very interesting. Those who are of his age have seen and experienced much change and much will be lost with his inevitable passing. …… I am keenly aware of the loss of such information as my father passed many years ago and with him also passed most of his life experience. I send you and your father Peace from my tropical paradise. I don't believe my fathers art work is visible online. Most paintings are made to please himself and not mend to sell or to leave the house. Only a handful of works were sold/given to archives, companies and friends. His last works were also made with the intention to make /sell high quality copies so he is not keen of me sharing these works. I should indeed annotate his life one day. It is incredible how much the world can change in only 1 generation or even a couple of years. With the internet the world basically has become our backyard. When my father became a musician there wasn't even something like television. As a matter of fact television ended his career as a performing musician since it totally changed the way people spend their spare time (one of the very first hours of television in the netherlands happened to be a special of the band of my father). He continued his career as a music teacher, both teaching at Rotterdam conservatory as well as teaching children in the surrounding villages. At that period of time (60ties/70ties) he could still tell from which village people came because every village had it's own small text variations in what is known as sinterklaas liedjes, a dutch tradition involving a man with a white beard, a red costume, a horse and many helpers (the now world famous zwarte pieten) giving presents to every child in december (in america sinter klaas became known as santa clause). So back in the 60ties every village had it's own local text variations, but when television picked up the phenomenon (fallowed by LP) the songs soon became standardized in every little detail. I always keep this in mind when i think of the evolution of flamenco. If over here people were unaware of text variations practiced 1 or 5 miles away from their hometown, how much more isolated must local flamenco has been in the early years when records were still very scarce. As a matter of fact, when my father started studying the Bach suites he still had to surge/find them in the archives of a specialized museum, one by one so every now and then he or others discovered another Bach suite not known to the local scene yet. My father is the second generation players in the Netherlands and when he started his career only a very limited amount of people over here could play the guitar at decent levels. Sometimes people would not believe he could play certain pieces and when he played it to them the reaction was not necessarily admiration but often "oh, if you can play it it must be less difficult as i thought it was". I'm afraid a lot of knowledge is indeed lost when my father leaves this planet but at least he leaves a couple of self made hand puppets, stuffed birds, furniture, paintings, a couple of records, his arpeggio board and stags of hand written partitures, among which a complete flamenco didactic developed for/used by Paco Peña's flamenco academy (not available for the general public but probably a future treasure to find for upcoming generations of music archive searchers). Peace and best wishes to you and all others as well, a tropical paradise sounds like a nice place to be.
_____________________________
The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Apr. 21 2014 1:21:23
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Robug
Posts: 28
Joined: Apr. 18 2014
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RE: Flamenco Practice Guitar - Rt. Hand (in reply to Erik van Goch)
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Erik, thanks once again for sharing such fascinating stories. I learn much of your culture, past and present, from your well-crafted letters. If my father were still present, I would have so much to ask him. He could explain old photos, ones filled with incredible information but now almost completely mute as he is not here to comment as to where, when, who, why…… I know almost nothing of his family except his grandmother was and American Indian. His history would change nothing but would be of great interest to me, just as are the things your father experienced are interesting to me. You know, I find the life experiences and stories of simple people to be the most interesting. I rather avoid reading about the lives of famous and infamous historical figures. But, it is almost impossible to find honest writings of a simple person's experiences. And, the truth be known, there are not enough good, insightful writers. Most, in my opinion, prostitute their true artistic skills just to survive in a highly competitive business. Anyway, thanks again and please share more at your pleasure. And now, I will enjoy this glorious Panamanian day by doing what I do every day which is to do ONLY things I find interesting and pleasing. I will start with a breakfast of papaya, maracuya (a type of passion fruit), quinoa with plantains (a type of banana), mango, and the world's finest coffee which is grown 3 kilometers from my house. Combine all this with the morning's music selection (I think it will be some Argentine Milonga's today), the perfect companion, and a clear view of Vulcan Baru's summit…… Nirvana…. I have truly earned my local nickname, El Hedonista. I send you Peace and Happiness….
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Date Apr. 21 2014 14:40:00
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