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Hi guys, I've been away for about five years. I remember fondly Ron M. and Jim O. I had a student come today asking me to teach him some flamenco. I told him I was no flamenco player or teacher, that I just dabbled in it sometime ago. Then I remembered you guys, and thought I'd pay you a visit - and you are still here!
I might get a flamenco guitar again, for more dabbling, but under £500. Looking for something far removed from the classical guitar, something with a bite and a growl, but I'm probably asking for too much within my price range.
So, hello again to all the old guard, and hello to all the new members in the last five years!
If people here have not checked out Rob on Youtube "BalcarresGuy" - then I highly suggest they do... very fine player indeed... "The Healing" which I own is pretty great too.
Very nice to see you here on the foro! I'm a great fan of your youtube videos as well. Every now and then I feel a need to watch the black and white video of the semi improvised Kapsberger piece. It always inspires me.
Nails...hmm...I doubt it. I know, I know...I'll be the only nail-less flamenco guitarist on the planet, but at least I'll have my own sound, LOL. I don't at all expect to emulate any particular player, I just love exploring the harmonies and rhythms in my own quiet way. I have a cheap classical I can do that on just now, but I was thinking a growly blanca might be more entertaining. Thanks for a link to the ebay Mexican guitar - if it was a blanca I would have snapped it up.
Ron, I gave up performing lute concerts - or any other type of concert - about five years ago, and haven't missed it. I was Musician In Residence for five years at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, but that came to an end a few months ago, 'due to the economic downturn', when about 85 staff lost their jobs. So now I teach privately, and am managing to get by.
I've played a lot of classic banjo, mainly 19th-century gut-strung banjo material - a world away from lutes or flamenco, but I enjoyed doing something I wasn't teaching (hope that sounds OK). I also played ukulele, and even did a mock-flamenco improvisation on it, with apologies to all tru lovers of the real thing:
Nice to be back...now, what changes have been made in five years?
I've never heard an ukulele played that way. :-) Nice pitch bends! Enjoyed it a lot.
A question for you.. one that you've probably been asked a lot of times.
When you play baroque guitar where do you usually have the point(s) of contact on the finger tip, and at what length do the nails become an obstruction? I would love to get myself a baroque guitar.. so I'm hoping there might be some way to play both instruments, but I'm guessing that playing the baroque guitar with nails might be as problematic as playing flamenco guitar without them.
Points of contact - at an angle across the tip. If I lift my hand to look at the tips, with the thumb on the right side, the end of the angle closest to the nail is on the left. Hope that is clear? Quite hard to describe.
Many people play baroque guitar with nails. Go to www.gordonferries.com - Gordon is a friend of mine in Edinburgh, and is a good example of what nail technique sounds like on a baroque guitar.
That's very encouraging to hear. I might begin saving for a baroque guitar now.. I hope there are some kind of student models. :-|
I watched/listened to a bunch of Gordons videos. Fine player, and his tone isn't bad at all. I would have loved if he had gone a bit more ballistic at times. For instance with Sanz Canarios. I don't know how authentic it is to go totally wild on the baroque guitar but I like it a lot. :-D
When it comes to what is 'authentic' you have to be aware of the instructions in the tutor books, which have some incredibly complicated rasgueados, and also the comments from elsewhere, such as baroque guitar players being associated with drunks and vagabonds - I doubt if they cared too much what the bewigged ponces in the French court were up to. This is what I had in mind when I did the following...just having fun:
are we still gonna be moving to the other site that we helped test recently??
??? Stu,
We're already on it.
cheers,
Ron
PS: Rob, most of the changes have been technical. Simon has moved the site onto it's own virtual server based in the UK and upgraded the software to include embedded video and mp3 as well as other stuff. "Challenges" have been introduced to encourage beginners to learn a posted falseta and upload it, plus more difficult complete pieces for the advanced players. A "Composition Challenge" was finished this year with a downloadable CD available at CD Baby. Other stuff too that I can't remember right now.
I couldve sworn it had a slightly different look and some of the features worked better... the reply box for one seemed to work better....im not complaining btw
and some of the features worked better... the reply box for one seemed to work better..
Hi Stu,
Well in addition to the above, there is also a quick search box and the advanced search works better now. I liked the "multiple uploads" function on the test forum, but for some reason Simon hasn't implemented here.
Which things worked better and why?
If Simon is not aware of any probs then he can't do anything about it.
Bear in mind though, that he just does this in his free time and is really busy at work at the moment, but by all means let's hear your thoughts and he can at least put them in the queue for things to do.
Usually the opposite is true. Simon will ask folk to test something...then hardly anybody replies..
I think what folk do is test it and if it works OK, then they think "Oh well..no point in answering"....which from the Developer's point of view is a bit like saying "Let me know if you don't get this email..."
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