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At what point in your playing did you start playing/learning flamenco? What styles did you play before?
For me, I started off the usual rock route when I was a kid (in the 90's). I eventually started to add in some blues, then prog-ish kind of stuff, then started learning some jazz in my 20's. My guitar playing really his a slump for like 5 years in my late 20's, really only picking up my acoustic to play some usual riffs every now and then for a few mins, then I'd put it back down again, no practicing or anything. One day I picked up my acoustic and started doing some fingerpicking stuff, then thought "let me try this on my beater classical". From there I started watching youtube vids on flamenco techniques, which inspired me to buy a new classical (nothing crazy, just a $300 Ibanez), lowered the action, bought some flamenco books and here I am months later still practicing at least an hour a day, almost exclusively flamenco but sometimes some jazz or I'll convert some of my older songs to fingerstyle/flamenco-ish/rumba. Now I'm hooked on this style.
What are all your stories? Where did you come from and how did you get into flamenco?
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
Not saying it's not welcomed here but you can always post guitar related flamenco stuff in the general section.
Before flamenco I played classical guitar badly in high school and after steel string 6 and 12 strings with a pick. Then I heard someone sing flamenco and I wanted to try guitar, so I bought a guitar from paracho in a local music store.
The rest is history, ended up staying up all night with stinky old dudes who talked about Spain in the 'old day's' and then began my ascent up the Flamenco fish ladder to less employment and unreasonable romantic thinking.
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
Did some rumba-type stuff when I was growing up. Only formal education in music was as a percusionist. And then flamenco happened for no apparent reason. Honestly I don't remember exactly what got me into it. I do remember that my first "class" was in Salamanca next to the old university library. There was an old chap who played some flamenco, though most of the time he accompanied chara bands and didn't have much time to play anyways since he was building his house up in the sierra de gredos to retire. Now I'm a world-class flamenco guitarist who's played second guitar for Tomatito and accompaniment for Duquende and El Cigala. Psych. I still suck.
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
In 1960, my parents gave me a guitar for my 17th birthday. It was during the folk music boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s--The Kingston Trio; Peter, Paul, and Mary; The Limelighters; Ramblin' Jack Elliot; Harry Belafonte; and others (Bob Dylan and Joan Baez had not come into their own yet). I loved folk and learned to play three and four chord progressions which enabled one to play hundreds of folk songs. At the same time, I was introduced to flamenco by Carlos Montoya. He performed in Phoenix, Arizona where I was living, and I bought several of his albums. Shortly thereafter I discovered Sabicas. I loved flamenco guitar, but knew nothing about flamenco, other than I loved the sound of the guitar.
I went to the university, spent a few years in the U.S. Air Force, and eventually entered the U.S. Foreign Service and the State Department. Most of my career was spent in Maritime Southeast Asia, with several assignments to Latin America and Washington, DC. While I took my guitar with me everywhere, I did not advance beyond what I knew during the folk boom. After retiring from a career in the Foreign Service (while still doing some consulting work for the State Department overseas and with a Defense Department contractor), I decided I wanted to learn flamenco.
So, at an age when most people are thinking of where they want to retire and play golf, I found a great flamenco guitar teacher in Washington, DC named Paco de Malaga. Paco teaches flamenco guitar, and his wife Ana teaches dance. I have been with Paco now for several years, and we are not only teacher and student, but my wife and I have become good friends with Paco and Ana as well.
Through my relationship with Paco, I have learned some nice pieces on the guitar, and more than that, I have learned a great deal about the history of flamenco and the great figures that it has produced. Paco was a very good friend of Paco de Lucia (As a boy, he studied flamenco guitar under Paco de Lucia's father and his older brother, Ramon de Algeciras.) At my age, and considering my late start, I will never be a first-rate flamenco guitarist or even a very good one, but I enjoy playing and it is fun to entertain friends. And the friendship I have with Paco de Malaga is worth its weight in gold. Flamenco has added a whole new dimension to my life, and I am grateful for having had the opportunity to pursue it.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Posts: 14797
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
Van Halen 5150 era starting->Randy Roads-> Yngwie Malmsteen....just saw him last week live, fantasitic. I flashback to being 12 or 13 carrying around my Marching Out transcription book every where, I learned a lot from that guys music and rarely give him credit. From there Racer-X, all time favorite, learned tons from Gilbert's instrucitonal Vids, and finally Guitar Trio, passion grace and fire. I felt Yngwie got some very specific things from Di Meola and Mclaughlin. Paco was weird and exotic to me, I wanted to hear more. My father was a classical guitar pro, and shared with me his Sabicas Carman Amaya record in lieu of not having Paco material.
I became, slowly an aficionado of flamenco guitar starting with Paco de lucia, and this lead to serious change in my playing during college. My final electric guitar thing was Extreme Nuno Bettencourt stuff that was just delicious to play with a good drummer, bridging high school to early college days. Reading him praise Paco de Lucia in an interview really sent me flying in flamenco direction, and never looked back after attending my first concert of PDL in 1995. Acquiring video footage was tough but really helped. Finally, after school I dove deep into flamenco world, eventually meeting Nuñez and going to spain etc. Meeting great players in Spain that were into Gutiar Trio re kindled my love of that type of fusion. To this day I still love it all and my car has albums from yngwie/Van Halen/guitar trio to Camaron/Maria Vargas/ Antonio Rey on perpetual rotations.
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
SLAYERRRR!!! Hahaha Thrash & death metal. Wanted to do the rodrigo y Gabriela thing at first but then when I found actual flamenco never listened to R&G again and didn't look back. Now my neighbors listen to gypsies howl and moan all night when I'm drinking.
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to Leñador)
I made my first guitar when I was 4 years old - it was a bread tin with rubber bands stretched around it that I'd play when my mother was baking.
A few years later I had a couple of teachers that did 60s folk and pop songs & I upgraded from bread-tin to nylon string.
That got ditched the moment I got given a copy of Iron Maiden's Live After Death. Garage band was formed and we transcribed a bunch of Maiden, Slayer, Metallica and Megadeath songs from tape + wrote our own stuff. We had too many guitarists in the band though and not enough drummers - had we sorted that out we'd have ruled the world Got into Satriani & Vai too but could never be arsed to put the time in to play like that.
Got myself a classical at uni and tried to teach myself Bream / Williams covers. Got good enough to have a few good party tricks. But after three years of self taught mistakes, too much tension and too many hours of practice without taking breaks I had the worst case of tendinitis any guitarist ever had. Couldn't even turn door handles, do up my flies or hold cups of tea. Curiously, holding pint glasses wasn't a problem.
After a couple of years off the guitar, I met Nick Wilkinson in Manchester, discovered flamenco & got hooked.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Leñador Now my neighbors listen to gypsies howl and moan all night when I'm drinking.
They're lucky!! Mine get to hear some English guy's squeaky imitations of howling wailing gitanos
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to Dudnote)
quote:
ORIGINAL: After a couple of years off the guitar, I met Nick Wilkinson in Manchester, discovered flamenco & got hooked.
We were class mates at Rotterdam Conservatory and friends/chess mates outside the class room. We both were addicted to chess at the time and fought huge battles both on the chessboard and in buying/studying chess repertoire (we were both pretty daring/adventurous chess players and more then once we totally forgot time, playing game after game for 24 hours on a row on just a couple of sandwiches/cups of tea). When we attended Paco Peña's summer course in Cordoba in 1994 his girlfriend and i bought him a beautiful sett of handmade Spanish chess pieces matching the ones used in the chess tournaments in Linares. Obviously i bought myself a set as well since quality pieces like were hard to find over here.
_____________________________
The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to Erik van Goch)
quote:
We were class mates at Rotterdam Conservatory and friends/chess mates outside the class room. We both were addicted to chess at the time and fought huge battles both on the chessboard and in studying chess repertoire (we were both pretty daring/adventurous chess players and more then once we totally forgot time, playing game after game for 24 hours on a row on just a couple of sandwiches/cups of tea). When we attended Paco Peña's summer course in Cordoba in 1994 his girlfriend and i bought him a beautiful sett of handmade Spanish chess pieces matching the ones used in the chess tournaments in Linares. Obviously i bought myself a set as well since quality pieces like were hard to find over here.
I was once addicted to chess and still enjoy it. My first assignment in the U.S. Foreign Service was the American Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria from 1974 to 1976, which at that time was a hard-line Communist country. During the harsh winters we had heavy snowfalls, and a colleague in the Embassy and I would spend weekends playing chess in my apartment.
My second assignment was the American Embassy in Manila, Philippines, and in 1978 the world championship chess tournament was held in Baguio City, north of Manila. The contenders were both Russian, with Anatoly Karpov representing the Soviet Union playing his opponent, Victor Korchnoi, the Soviet dissident. I went to Baguio City to see a couple of the matches. They were great matches, and, of course, there was a political component to it. Karpov won the tournament, but the fans, including me, were rooting for Korchnoi. Great chess!
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
Being the son of a classical guitar teacher the first language i ever learned was the language of the classical guitar and soon i was able to ear sing his complete repertoire including the Bach suites. When i was old enough to attend one of his concerts i was highly surprised he played those pieces without skipping/repeating parts (like he used to do at home) and when they told me they payed 2,50 for my entrance i replied i would have favored the money in stead (at precent day i would gladly pay a 1000 fold to see that concert again). Around the age of 5 i was allowed to hold his guitar for the very first time (just positioning it on my knee and placing my hands without actually playing it). Apparently i was a good imitator since the photograph he took was later used in a lesson book for children to demonstrate how to hold a guitar properly, quite ironical considering the fact it probably was the only time ever i was caught in actually holding a guitar properly :-).
At nine i started to play the guitar for real with great intents. The main reason (i was told) was the fact i wanted to become a crew member of Jacque Cousteau's Calypso and for one reason or the other believed playing the guitar was one of the job requirements. I know one of my first favorites was Crazy Horses from the Osmonds but i can't recall i actually managed to play it. I did however spend quite some time playing along with the record of Les poppys. Around the age of 11 i joined my fathers music school childrens band as a bass player. That band was quite revolutionary at the time and the violinist even had to do it secretly because his teacher was highly against the project. But since we were playing for music school commissions quite a lot one day she was precent but most fortunately our performance of Jesus Christ Superstar stole her heart and she became a huge fan. We also played that program in the lions den, the music school department of Rotterdam Conservatory were all future teachers were raised. Many opposed the idea of a children's band (at the time it was solo, duo and Orf) but that performance totally changed direction of that department. It also was the first time ever mic's and amplifiers were used within the walls of the still highly classical based Conservatory making me the first ever to play an electric instrument at Rotterdam Conservatory.
I wasn't a very good student and around the age of 12 i decided i learned enough to become self supporting and stopped taking lessons, avoiding growing demands in the process. I guess it's around that period of time (early 70ties) my father allowed me to explore part of his record collection for the first time which included a single of Sabicas playing Czardas and a single of Manuel Cano. Aside of wrestling a bit with Juan Martins lesson book (which seemed to have inspired my complete generation) i used to play along with the records of Boudewijn de Groot, Don McLeans life album "Solo" and pop songs like stairways to heaven, hotel California, dust in the wind, Simon and Garfunkel etc. which highly influenced my way of playing. Like David i did wrestle with Breams/Williams, playing on top of their (together) record. The first complete flamenco piece i learned was Sabicas Farruca played on the radio by Paco Peña.
I attended my first Paco Peña concert around the age of 13 and became increasingly familiar with his music in the late 70ties. I bought all his records (he made 1 record a year in the seventies) and played that growing stag of records all day/night long. During the day i added my own playing on top of Paco's and during the night, when i was supposed to sleep, i secretly played his records over and over again till about 3, 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, leaving me about 2-4 hours of sleep a day. I did so for about 3-4 years. Despite ear playing Paco's complete repertoire i really had no clue yet what i was doing flamenco wise, i phonetically imitated what i was hearing but had no clue there was an underlaying compas, didn't know any of the styles by name and both my interpretation and technique were highly amateurish. I never asked my father for advise and he wisely didn't offer it himself (that would most definitely have killed my fun in playing straight away).
In 1980 (aged 18) my musical interest shifted from Paco Peña/de Lucia to the records of Harry Sacksioni and Flaick, a multi instrumentalist group mixing various genres of music. Again during the day i played along with their records (at the time i owned and played classical guitar, sitar, banjo, bouzouki and violin) and during the night i secretly played their records till the early hours. At the time i studied Zoology/Histology, started with straight 10's for most subjects but soon decided i rather favored B's so i could spend more time with my records/playing. I ended up playing music all day long, school rates gradually dropped to c-f and as a result i had to repeat the final year of school leaving me even more time to play the guitar since i only had to do parts of it again leaving me 5 free days a week. In 1983 the 16 year old Vicente gave a concert at Rotterdam Conservatory which inspired me to pick up flamenco again or better said to ear play 3 of the 4 pieces he played that day (soleares, tarantas, granainas). In 1984 i graduated in zoology/histology, finally got myself a 12 string guitar (the main weapon of Flaick composer Erik Visser) and played it all day for a year (it was in the middle of the recess so no jobs were available).
In 1985 my father joined hands with Paco Peña and Ricardo Mendeville starting the very first flamenco guitar academy in the world and since 10 years of self study had left me being quite amateurish i decided to join in as a student. So i auditioned playing Sabicas farruca, Vicentes 1983 tarantas and above 12 string pieces (to show what i had been doing the past years) and passed on my ear playing abilities rather then my playing skills. At the time i was quite handy in ear playing without knowing a single chord or note by name (with the exception of the open strings). Nor did i know how to picture myself a 3/4 or a 4/4 beat let along a 12 beat flamenco compas. I learned all that and reading at the conservatory (to practice the art of reading i used my fathers Bach transcriptions which i knew by heart since i was 4 so i would notice if i played a wrong note).
I remember the first time i entered the building to meet the other students i could hear Paco play together with another player who was equally good. When i entered the room it turned out it wasn't Paco but 2 of my future class mates and the other 8 turned out to be equally good as well (obviously in retrospect that was more a lack of distinctiveness of my part). So after 10 years of self study i became a student of my father again (he provided most of the lessons) and it turned out i had to start from scratch again. We worked on technique, interpretation, sound and compas awareness quite a lot and it took me about 3 years before i had rebuild my technique to manageable levels. Were previously i had to repeat a year on lab school dude to playing guitar al day, at conservatory i soon became a chess addict (played it almost 24/7) and as a result spent 8 rather then 5 years on the conservatory before i was able to pass the final exam (i did it more for the conservatory as for myself since only 3 students had graduated during those first 8 years). Still those 8 years were great fun and basically 1 big vacation especially since i became friends with Flairck as well. 2 years after my graduation i became a full time postman.
_____________________________
The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to Erik van Goch)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Erik van Goch
quote:
ORIGINAL: After a couple of years off the guitar, I met Nick Wilkinson in Manchester, discovered flamenco & got hooked.
We were class mates at Rotterdam Conservatory and friends/chess mates outside the class room. We both were addicted to chess at the time and fought huge battles both on the chessboard and in studying chess repertoire (we were both pretty daring/adventurous chess players and more then once we totally forgot time, playing game after game for 24 hours on a row on just a couple of sandwiches/cups of tea). When we attended Paco Peña's summer course in Cordoba in 1994 his girlfriend and i bought him a beautiful sett of handmade Spanish chess pieces matching the ones used in the chess tournaments in Linares. Obviously i bought myself a set as well since quality pieces like were hard to find over here.
Fantastic!! I wonder if I ever used those chess pieces?? The few times I played chess with Nick it was a total white wash. It was generally more interesting and far more entertaining watching him play someone his own level. I first heard of your Dad through Nick's classes - small world!
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to BarkellWH)
quote:
ORIGINAL: BarkellWH
They were great matches, and, of course, there was a political component to it. Karpov won the tournament, but the fans, including me, were rooting for Korchnoi. Great chess!
Bill
Pity you were not precent at the Fisher/Spassky battle 4 years earlier. I can't find any trace of it on the internet but if i remember well i attended a (WK?) game between Karpov/Kasparov once in Oud Beierland near Rotterdam.
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The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
Computer guy for 34 years now.
Lead guitar since I was 13, then bass in an Indy band, then (via Segovia & The Gypsy Kings) to flamenco because of a Rough Guide to Flamenco cassette that I bought on a trip to Ronda. Got hooked and ended up in Granada for three years.
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
Started on trumpet as a 10-year old. Got good enough to get into some neat classical and band stuff as a teenager. First trumpet in state champ high school band at 14, all-state band, had a band in high school, played in a pro mambo band when I was 16, played in Washington DC Summer Symphony, etc. Had some good classical training.
Third year at university my science major schedule precluded playing in the the symphony or symphonic band, so I started on guitar. Couldn't find a classical teacher I liked in the late 1950s. Ran into some students of Edward Freeman, the Dallas flamenco teacher. Freeman clearly knew what he was doing. Picked up technique tips from his students, but didn't think I would get along with Freeman myself, though his students loved him.
Got to where I could play all of the Mario Escudero pieces that were published, copped stuff off records, played classical and flamenco for years.
Many, many years later I started to get numbness in the last two fingers (3 and 4) of the left hand, along with short episodes of severe neck pain. Probably due to a pinched nerve in the neck from an old motorcycle wreck. Quit playing for about five years. Probable bone spur in the neck likely got busted up when I turned my head in an odd way and heard something go "crunch." Neck stopped hurting, fingers still numb.
Retired and started trying to play again. At first the left hand pinky wouldn't even go to the right string, but I made (slow) progress. After five years I can now play again, in some ways better than ever, in some ways not quite as well as when I was in my twenties. It's amazing how the peripheral nervous system and the brain can re-wire themselves.
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
Played rock bass in my teens and 20s (King's X and Rush wannabe) along with singing in pub bands. Stopped guitar entirely early 20s. 20 years pass. Till 5 years ago when I bought an electric from a junk shop on a whim and played some indie / rock stuff (White Stripes etc). Got bored quickly, but discovered i'd gotten over the -can't do 6 strings- thing I'd had in my teens.
Year later I was watching MotoGP in Jerez de la Frontera, and the hotel we stayed was opposite a touristy flamenco tablao place. The guitarist and a couple of his mates would sit outside for hours before and after playing 'stuff' I'd never heard before. Something clicked...
Posts: 1868
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: What's everyones' guitar backgroung? (in reply to soclydeza85)
I became interested in blues and rock guitar playing around 1972 at about 14 years old. Saw all the greats from B.B to EVH- Beck, Page, Albert King, Freddie King, etc, etc. Jazz guys too. I just loved great guitar playing. I had played baritone in the jr. high school band and trumpet before that. My older brother played drums and became pretty good in short order, and his teacher started giving him gigs when he was in high school. He joined the marines and on leave he encouraged me to start learning the guitar, saying we'd put together a band when he got out. He was killed in an accident, and in his memory, I studied music and guitar with passion. At 21 I left university to go on the road with a band and in the next five years played in many bands playing everything from disco to jazz fusion. After making a record with an Italian artist and a tour of Italy I returned to San Francisco. We started a new band but got little traction. One night I played him a Sabicas record I had and we both decided on the spot to learn flamenco. I found a teacher from Spain and studied with him for five years till he told me I learned everything he had. Did a lot of gigs and some memorable concerts. Learned to play for dance, all the while playing with a rumba group and doing rock gigs too. About 20 years ago I moved away from playing for dance and became a surfer, finding the same thrill riding waves as playing gigs. I never stopped practicing, almost always flamenco, but without the urgency a booked gig creates. Three years ago I put my name on Lester DeVoe's waiting list. My mom passed away a month ago, and on that day I received an email from Lester that my guitar was done. I don't know if it's going to re-ignite a passion for performing-I kinda doubt it, but the pleasure I derive from playing that guitar is more than enough to keep me playing and learning.
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