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Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
Please help me with a bulería sugge...
OK, I am back on the guitar after a long break from playing. Work didn't give me much time but I am missing my Anders blanca.
I would like to start afresh with a solid bulería. Can anyone suggest to me a tab and perhaps a MP3 sample (a YouTube reference would be better). I would say I am a very rusty lower intermediate.
A good mix of alzapua, picado and rasgeos would be ideal. Nothing too complex but with plenty of opportunity to swing please.
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: Please help me with a bulería s... (in reply to Arash)
Thanks, Pepe is my favourite BTW. Might have to downgrade myself to a beginner again Still, I have been practising this evening and somehow I keep remembering things. My finger memory is there, no need to look at the fretboard and taking the guitar into the garden loosened the pegs. The wife locked me out accidentally and I froze my butt off but at least I had the guitar
Let me think about this one - I need to so some basic exercises for a while.
Posts: 4530
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: Please help me with a bulería s... (in reply to Escribano)
yes this buleria from pepe is intermediate / advanced for sure,,,,, but with lower speed and some alterations, you could make it easier and suitable. it still sounds very good if you play it slower. thats the good thing about it.
RE: Please help me with a bulería s... (in reply to Arash)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Arash
yes this buleria from pepe is intermediate / advanced for sure,,,,, but with lower speed and some alterations, you could make it easier and suitable. it still sounds very good if you play it slower. thats the good thing about it.
RE: Please help me with a bulería s... (in reply to Escribano)
My recommendation is not to learn any complete piece beginning to end but rather many basic falsetas and rhythmic passages (as frequently recommended by others on this forum). The rhythmic passages can be from anyone you like, and for falsetas you might want to focus on Morao, Parrilla, Cepero, Moraíto, Paco de Antequera... The material for my bulería falseta collection was taken from over 700 cante recordings, and I suggest you do something similar.
Learn at least 5-6 rhythmic passages (could be just one compás of A to B flat and back to A) and 10-12 falsetas. By learning, I mean working them out, knowing that they work and committing them to memory. Play them (from memory) for a few weeks, discard the ones that you don't like so much, and look for more. That's "all" there is to it. Obviously, all the while, you want to be on the lookout for variations from other players and try transposing to other keys.
IMO, it's best to focus on keeping things simple because you're inevitably going to deal with a few sources of frustration. Here are some examples (of frustration):
1) Discarding a learned falseta, as mentioned above. You have to get to know the falsetas at different tempos, and that might involve days or weeks of practice. You might discard a falseta because it can't be played at the same tempo as your other falsetas (it's best to have slow and fast falsetas, but not many guitarists seem to do that), or just because you don't like it anymore.
2) Getting only bits and pieces of a falseta that you're learning because it's too hard. Everyone gets in over their head sooner or later, because there are some excellent sounding falsetas with crazy levels of technique. Sometimes you just have to give up (for the time being) after a few days of hard work.
3) Discovering that you've got a falseta worked out wrong. For example, you come across a video one day and realize that you have to relearn the falseta, or maybe you find a mistake in the transcription, or you might notice weeks later that you're not playing it in compás any more, etc.
If you look for variety and keep things simple, you'll probably have fun while you play and continue to do so for years to come, which is not only the whole point of it, but is also a very good way to develop hand strength, skills, compás, etc.
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: Please help me with a bulería s... (in reply to NormanKliman)
Thanks Norman, a comprehensive and useful reply. Since my request, I have been working through the simple falsetas in Granados book 1. Back to basics but interestingly since taking a break and listening rather than playing, I have picked it up better then the last time. I feel the compás and do not play without a metronome. Thanks again.
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Still, I have been practising this evening and somehow I keep remembering things. My finger memory is there, no need to look at the fretboard and taking the guitar into the garden loosened the pegs. The wife locked me out accidentally and I froze my butt off but at least I had the guitar 
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