appreciate what u got

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>General >>

Page: [1]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

rickm

Posts: 446
Joined: Jan. 23 2004

appreciate what u got

its me again. Heres the deal five years ago I was on this forum. I played at the time what I would consider pretty good. I had a injury which requried 4 surgeries to my right hand and it will never work right again. I had been downsized from my work and couldnt find any. Depressed? yeah. Angry? yeah bitter? you bit. Ever since I struggled with this idea or retirement, hated the empty days, lack of achievement the whole story.
recently I got the manzanero, something I wanted my whole life. Why? I couldnt play it. But have always loved the tone.
Now I find that Im starting to come to grips with all this. I get up in the morning and want to play the guitar. I hate to go to bed at night because I want to play the guitar. Oh my index finger doesnt move so I have to adapt and struggle but I am grateful right now to be able to play the little bit that I can. Because I remember after surgery when I had no movement at all.
Most of you have great hands, that is no critical injury that prevents you from playing. May I say that maybe you dont work at it enough., arent diligent whatever. Dont try and get past that hurdle. But we are in a constant battle to do better and do more and always want to play like those we emulate, lik Paco or Carlos or Sabicas or whoever.
Truth is you will never play like them. You will play to the best that you will play but it probably wont sound like Paco or Sabicas. But I am posting this so that whatever stae you are in you can sit back, light a smoke, sip on your starbucks and be grateful you can do anything at all. Once that has been taken away you learn to appreciate whatever you can do.
there is a story about Sabicas. At the time he was the big gun in flamenco in Europe. He was traveling and a young man came to see him and told him Maestro your not so good, I can play your music. Watch me. And he proceeded to play several of Sabicas song perfectly, exactly as Sabicas did. And then he said well see Maestro your not the most wonderful I can do what you can do.
And Sabicas looked at him and said you have truly mastered those pieces, that is a wonderful job but you have failed the art. The young man was shocked. Sabicas went on to say, your job is to take the music higher, better. if my music was the best of my time, its up to you to take it further. To play what I play is playing history. Now go and make the music better.
That then is your legacy. Give thanks to whatever demon you profess to and take the music further. H&K

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 17 2013 18:40:17

rombsix

Posts: 7816
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: appreciate what u got (in reply to rickm)

Agreed. I completely concur, especially now that I had this operation on my hand & I know how important it is to have one's health. One only realizes when something gets lost how important & under-appreciated it was...

_____________________________

Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 17 2013 19:18:46

Elie

Posts: 1837
Joined: Apr. 10 2010

RE: appreciate what u got (in reply to rickm)

thank you man for posting those great and valuable words
and you're not alone ... I am a sufferer of focal dystonia which ruined my technique
but hey don't give up ... ... seriously !! keep pushing your self .

quote:

One only realizes when something gets lost how important & under-appreciated it was...

i honestly couldn't say it any better

_____________________________

http://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarristaAD

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 17 2013 19:29:21

Erik van Goch

Posts: 1787
Joined: Jul. 17 2012
From: Netherlands

RE: appreciate what u got (in reply to rickm)

Wise words....when Paco Peña started his professional Flamenco school in Rotterdam his aim was to raise students who (at the end) would be better players than himself... by sharing all his technical/musical knowledge he hoped to give them the best possible start to raise the art of guitar playing to higher standards.....Obviously his willingness to share a lifetime of knowledge saved the students years of struggle to discover all those things themselves. A lesson showing the basic compas of fandangos in small evolutionary steps would take about 20 minutes, peanuts compared to the numerous hours (actually years) Paco had invested himself as a youngster to discover those underlaying structures.

As far as copying is concerned, i try very much not to sound like Paco, Vicente or all the other artists i admire... my ultimate aim would be to have a personal style that can be recognized after hearing just a couple of notes. Quite often i curse myself for not exploiting my talents to the fullest. I play over 40 years now and in that long/short period only 4 times i enjoyed a (4 week) period were playing the guitar "as well as possible" was my main obsession. In that state of mind i could perform magic on 6 strings, but for some reason i lost interest quite soon every single time. The last time i was able/willing to give myself to that extent was 20 years ago. I can only hope i will find another period of inspiration/high level communication with my guitar before age (or medical problems) prevents me to reach levels like that forever. Fortunately playing the guitar at (much) lower levels can be enjoyable as well every now and then and i feel very lucky that i have the luxury to play the guitar whenever i feel like it.

I think mind power and focus are highly undervalued in overcoming (physical) problems. Obviously they can't solve everything (and you have to be very careful not to disturb the healing process) but still there combined power don't stop to amaze me. Django Reinhardt had to learn to play the guitar al over again after he lost the use of 2 left hand fingers in a fire. But with his remaining 2 fingers he conquered both himself, the guitar and the world and funny enough his followers restrict to using those 2 fingers only in melody playing ever since...with the exception of his son who understands it's not a religion but a restriction.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 17 2013 19:35:18

mark74

Posts: 690
Joined: Jan. 26 2011

RE: appreciate what u got (in reply to rickm)

Great post...but you still have full use of your left hand

Chord with the left and adapt what your right hand can do...if your thumb works and middle finger works you can forgo the index and try and adapt to simpler rasguedo technique. Try tapping rhythm with your left foot and become a total master of rhtyhm and use simple, soulful falsetas without much picado

You're not competing against anyone.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 24 2013 4:40:37

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: appreciate what u got (in reply to rickm)

Rickm,
sorry to hear about that. Thanks for putting your experience up so that we can benefit from it.

If your RH doesn't work well anymore, maybe you could play with a pick? There is a lot of great music from different traditions that can be played pickstyle. The important thing is the music, not the tech.

_____________________________

Connect with me on Facebook, all the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/migueldemariaZ

Arizona Wedding Music Guitar

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 24 2013 17:56:03

clevblue

Posts: 120
Joined: Jun. 29 2012

RE: appreciate what u got (in reply to rickm)

Good post Rick, you haven't said never again, you hit rock bottom and started fighting back. Some would sit back and accept things, so that marks you out for a start.

As for the art, I see it as a personal thing, achieving goals and getting a buzz from it, I'm not out to entertain or impress anyone. I've a young nephew who knows all the chords, plays in a band, yet was jealous of my fingerstyle so I was able to pass on that and a bit of blues - that pleased me more than anything. I believe that's how Flamenco was learned by the old players, so we do what we can and are grateful for it

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 24 2013 18:46:38

Ramon Amira

Posts: 1025
Joined: Oct. 14 2009
From: New York City

RE: appreciate what u got (in reply to rickm)

Rick –

One can play perfectly good and even great flamenco guitar – if one has the knowledge and understanding – without ever using arpeggios, tremolo, picado, or alzapua.

One can play perfectly good and even great flamenco guitar – if one has the knowledge and understanding – using nothing more than thumb, ligado, and rasgueado.

Your left hand is working and so is your thumb. That’s all you need for falsetas. If you have one or two working fingers apart from index, then that’s even more to the good.

And with even one, or hopefully two fingers in addition to P, you can play a perfectly good rasgueado.

So if you take the right approach there is no reason why you cannot play perfectly good and even great flamenco.

Ramon

_____________________________

Classical and flamenco guitars from Spain Ramon Amira Guitars

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 24 2013 19:13:12