Playing without cante

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XXX

Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005

Playing without cante

Hi i would like to hear your opinions regarding performances without cante. I have only had two occasions where i could play for cante, it was huge fun, but there is nobody im working with regularly (yet?).
I have always worked without and found it way harder, because then you have to be creative with the music, to replace the lack of a singer (well, im TRYING to...). Of course, if your accompainment is very sophisticated it can be also very musical and thus challenging, but most accompayning i hear, is more or less "basic compas", with minor variations. Thats not bad, i just mean, with cante, you can "lean back" a bit more, you can play standard accompainment/compas and it still sounds good.

One guitarrist told me, that one should always play as if there WAS cante, even when nobody is singing. I dont know what your take on this is, but to me this seems paradox. I would think, if your gonna do a show without cante, you have to be able to replace is muscially.

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Фламенко

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 23 2009 8:12:19

Ricardo

Posts: 14862
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Playing without cante (in reply to XXX)

I have met dancers that are in shock that we ever had to perform a dance without a singer. But in a lot of cases, the sections with singing are not so long. In some cases, the dancers that acknowledge this, don't do much during the cante section, or keep it real short, and we just do falsetas or something rhythmic (I mean when there is no singer).

But it really depends what is the form. For example Alegrias or siguiriyas is really hard with no cante, because the letras are longer and chords sort of boring by themselves. But something like Farruca is always fine because the cante is not so significant (rarely performed)....so lots of falsetas. Bulerias is not so bad because it is very rhythmic.

here is siguiriyas por baile with no cante:

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CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 23 2009 9:45:54

Doitsujin

Posts: 5078
Joined: Apr. 10 2005

RE: Playing without cante (in reply to XXX)

quote:

One guitarrist told me, that one should always play as if there WAS cante, even when nobody is singing. I dont know what your take on this is, but to me this seems paradox. I would think, if your gonna do a show without cante, you have to be able to replace is muscially.

Well, in many modern performances you already see complete dance without singing, but instead of singing a complete musical composition. I like that a lot.
But I also lay for danceclasses and the level is not professional. So, I play like there would be someone singing traditional letras because the dancers also have to learn the structure of every palo. If I would play only melody, that wouldnt bring anyone further. It would be hard to dance if another guitarrist would play. So,. it makes sense to play the letras in classes also if there isn´t any singer.

For shows its another shoe.. It would be boring if there is only a guitarrist who strums the **** out of his guitar all the time without any falseta or singing. Than I would definetely prefer a composition.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 23 2009 9:47:29

val

Posts: 800
Joined: Apr. 4 2007

[Deleted]

Post has been moved to the Recycle Bin at Nov. 8 2010 13:24:24

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 23 2009 10:35:22

XXX

Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005

RE: Playing without cante (in reply to Ricardo)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ricardo

I have met dancers that are in shock that we ever had to perform a dance without a singer.

Its funny you say that as i have been asked to play the melody of the letra AND the compas at the same time

. With two guitars that wouldnt be a problem, but alone? Im sure i will find a solution, but it can be *challenging* to see the expectations of dancers who are used to CDs and shows with singers and multiple guitarrists.
On the other hand, i tend to see many guitarrists kind of "hiding" behind their accompainment. Like "i dont like to be virtuoso, i am more an accompainment player". I dont see there a contradiction honestly. If you look at the masters like Antonio Rey, Diego Morao, or whoever, they are great at all fields. You can hear that their Solo playing is influenced by years of accompainment, and vice versa when they accompany, they accompany great, BUT they also add their own harmonic or rythmic variations on it, coming from solo guitar virtuosity i guess.

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Фламенко

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 23 2009 14:38:12