First gig with a singer

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Pimientito

Posts: 2481
Joined: Jul. 30 2007
From: Marbella

First gig with a singer

Hey guys

Last night I had my first solo gig with a singer. As a non spaniard I would say it is about the most difficult thing to learn to do well in flamenco (apart from maybe perform la Barrosa) I have acompanied cante before, mainly in bars accompanying some of the locals singing fandangos and a bit of rumba. I have also accompanied other palos but mainly with another guitar player who knows the changes or with other dancers and musicians.

Last night was the first time i sat on stage and was the only musician accompaning the cante. Not only that, but it was in a malaga village in a very noisy environment with a 90 percent Spanish audience.

I have been nervous about gigs before but they have usually been big audiences. I find playing for the half the forumites at Sanlucar nervewracking too. However although the venue was small i could hardly keep out of the bathroom.Talk about sweaty palms!! Enter Pimientito and Patricia. Although very welcoming, you just knew the novelty of an English guy walking on to play flamenco (and possibly screw up) was a cause of great mirth to the locals. Leather faced, ducado smoking horseman with 3 day stubble chuckling "olé mi niño" After warming up with a couple of solos, we enter with a Tangos by Estrella morente. This goes down well, lots of applause and then an alegria de cadiz which seemed to go on for ever.
A few more solos and then part 2. We got through a solea (just about) a tientos/tangos (which went surprisingly well), fandangos another tangos (total cock up) and some rumba at the end (which went horribly wrong too but noone noticed)

My next day feelings about this experience are

1. The room was echoey and the sound was awful behind the speakers. we had no monitors. Either do it acousticly or make sure the sound is set properly!! If you cant hear the singer, you wont know where the chord changes are.
2. The good songs were the most practiced and the most simple.
The Estrella Tangos is always the same and there was no room to improvise.
the same for the Alegrias. Everything went as practiced.
3. The second Tangos was too complecated. Attemting to be Tomatito and Cigala without experience is madness. Dont throw in complecated changes and falsettas unless you can do basic changes . A buleria with 3 chords done correctly sounds better than 10 chords played wrong.
4. Do not let the singer improvise or throw in new verses from what you have practiced - no matter how much the adrenaline, alcohol, atmosphere urge and aire make them want too. You have to know your material and the artist really well before you can start throwing in improvised stuff. That rumba went so wrong it was embarressing.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 3 2007 12:38:57

Kate

Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía

RE: First gig with a singer (in reply to Pimientito)

Olé mi amigo. Brave man but sounds like you took the bull by the horns so to speak. Shame about the sound but that is typical, even big professional venues or peñas that should know better or just dont bother to invest in better equipment dont seem to realise the importance of the sound, not just for the audience but for the artists.

Enhorabuena,

Kate

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 3 2007 13:15:50

Adam

Posts: 1156
Joined: Dec. 6 2006
From: Hamilton, ON

RE: First gig with a singer (in reply to Pimientito)

Eh, reminds me of the issues at the Eshavira that Harold was talking about, with the sound system. I remember one of the shows there, there were some real problems!

Glad you seemed to come out of it OK, Pimientito - an Englishman playing guitar for Spaniards is impressive enough, and it looks like you (as Kate said) took the bull by the huevos and pulled it off!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 4 2007 0:44:09

Ailsa

Posts: 2277
Joined: Apr. 17 2007
From: South East England

RE: First gig with a singer (in reply to Pimientito)

Wow Marcos - well done. I don't think I would dare to perform a dance in Spain

quote:

another tangos (total cock up) and some rumba at the end (which went horribly wrong too but noone noticed)

It's always worse for you because you know what you intended. No-one else knows so won't think anything of it.

I bet you looked the part too - got any pics?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 4 2007 0:58:53

Guest

[Deleted] (in reply to Pimientito)

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 4 2007 1:44:39

Ricardo

Posts: 14889
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: First gig with a singer (in reply to Guest)

quote:

ORIGINAL: romerito

quote:

4. Do not let the singer improvise or throw in new verses from what you have practiced - no matter how much the adrenaline, alcohol, atmosphere urge and aire make them want too. You have to know your material and the artist really well before you can start throwing in improvised stuff. That rumba went so wrong it was embarressing.

Actually trial by fire is a great way to learn albeit very uncomfortable.
I don't think flamenco is always comfortable.
If it is you aren't doing it right.

Congrats on the gig though. Awesome.

I strongly second that. It is MUCH better to make those mistakes with an improvising singer than to have a song worked out. That is how you learn and get better, and that is the whole thing about the art of accomp. flamenco singing. How you handle those surprises that are thrown at you. I just did a show with two singers that I have worked with before, and I still make some mistakes because they improvise. But the idea is to learn from them and pull off a good performance or good remate or whatever, and be more prepared the next time or for a different singer. Anyway, congrats man!

Ricardo

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 4 2007 17:31:14

Pimientito

Posts: 2481
Joined: Jul. 30 2007
From: Marbella

RE: First gig with a singer (in reply to Ricardo)

Thanks Guys

Will try to find if someone took photos.
I guess the cante is something I should have been doing a lot earlier but i have always found it problematic...Particularly if the singer is bad. Often a guy in a bar will say "accompany this" and expect you to know the changes from the lyric. If you dont know the song, you have to rely on hearing the chord change. If the singer cant make it, the change doesn't come, the song goes wrong and then invariably you get accused of being a guiri who doesnt know anything about flamenco.

Finding a singer who can actually sing is obviously the first step. You can hear the changes which is half the battle. I guess my second point about improvising was that if coplas are thrown at you that you know, you can always join along. The problem is that if a complecated verse by someone like Potito or Cigala comes up, it wont have a standard chord structure and those things really throw you off. At least in Alegrias or solea the chord structure is the same most of the time.

However point taken, if flamenco was easy, everybody would do it well and we wouldnt have to spend our lives sweating over this stuff. I am sure i will have many more cock up moments on stage before i feel like an accompianist but will keep plugging away

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 4 2007 20:02:09