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1) Is there any particular compas associated with minera, or is it always free?
2) If there's no distinct compas, then is there any particular chord progression distinctive of minera?
3) If there's no distinct compas and no distinct chord progression, then is the only (relatively) distinguishing factor the fact that it's normally played in one of several tunings (e.g. G#phrygian, C#minor, or E major)?
4) What makes Vicente's "Ventanas al Alma" a minera?
RE: Four Questions about Minera (in reply to machopicasso)
Minera is a songstyle from eastern Andalucia. It can be found in all mining areas there. It is always free style and can be played in numerous keys. Male singers normally prefer F#phrygian just like tarantas, cartagenera, murcianas etc. And very often you sing mineras together with one of the others.
In solo guitar, more or less whatever is accepted in minera and a lot play it it in G# but I´m not the one to ask about solo guitar...
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Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)
RE: Four Questions about Minera (in reply to machopicasso)
There are basically two answers, depending on whether you’re a singer or a guitarist :
The songs from the mining regions around Linares, mostly (unsurprisingly) about what a pain in the butt it is being a miner, are, generically, called the cantes mineros. The most common, as I’m sure you know, is the taranta, which is normally played in F# Phrygian, is in the fandango group and is free. The a compás version is the taranto, which, however, has the compás not of the fandango but of the tango.
However, in 1936, Ramón Montoya recorded a solo taranta in G# Phrygian which he called a minera; and this terminology has been taken up (for instance, by Paco de Lucía), so that now "minera" means the G# version — to guitarists.
But you will still occasionally hear singers referring to tarantas as mineras — as indeed they are, cantes mineras*.
As to chord progressions, all the fandango family have the same basic structure: so as the fandango de Huelva (for instance) relies on Am-G-F-E, modulating to C for the verse; so the minera (in theory, anyway) relies on C#m-B-A-G#, modulating to E.
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Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Four Questions about Minera (in reply to machopicasso)
quote:
ORIGINAL: machopicasso
1) Is there any particular compas associated with minera, or is it always free?
2) If there's no distinct compas, then is there any particular chord progression distinctive of minera?
3) If there's no distinct compas and no distinct chord progression, then is the only (relatively) distinguishing factor the fact that it's normally played in one of several tunings (e.g. G#phrygian, C#minor, or E major)?
4) What makes Vicente's "Ventanas al Alma" a minera?
1. Often sections can be in 3 such as arpegios and tremolos, other sections hint at 2/4 or 4/4 as per baile...characteristic section on the E7 chord that ends with F natural to E in Tomatito's minera (4:26 the sound, since it's out of synch) for example is very old school despite the rest of the piece being more free or in 3.
2. Same as taranta fandango etc, but transposed to G# for guitar solos, or G# F# or whatever key you play for cante. Taranta, taranto etc all evolved from Malagueña/Verdiales type structure similar to fandango.
3. G# is the root but it is phyrigian mode...the other keys you name C#m or E major are relative so you are not really saying something different. All fandangos forms are rooted in the key of some phyrigian tonic, but for cante they modulate to parallel major key (would be E major in case of minera) and follow a speicific structure moving through IV-V-I (A-B7-E)often using secondary dominant chords to pass through (example E7-A, F#7-B7 etc) until final resolve back to phrygian tonic (A7-G#) Important thing to note is when it comes to CANTE accompanient, one need not always accompany minera in G# in fact F# is used actually most often for all cante de la mina family.
4. It is a guitar solo, almost all guitar solos called "minera" follow above structures in key of G#. Romerito talked about a minera composed by Chuscales in C#, as one can see a similar type of voicings occur DOWN a set of strings in the same way Taranto ->granaina are related, or por or Arriba-Por medio for fandangos.
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