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Posts: 247
Joined: Nov. 24 2010
From: San Francisco CA
RE: Workshop in San Francisco/Berkel... (in reply to BAFP)
Count me in.
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Captain Esteban: Caballeros! I believe you all know each other? Don Diego from San Fernando. Don Francisco from San Jose. Don Fernando from San Diego. Don Jose from San Bernardino. Luis Obispo from Bakersfield.
Posts: 247
Joined: Nov. 24 2010
From: San Francisco CA
RE: Workshop in San Francisco/Berkel... (in reply to chester)
Agree the more the better. Have a M-F job so Sat/Sun work better for me. Berkeley is just fine. Thanx for setting this up Nina.
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Captain Esteban: Caballeros! I believe you all know each other? Don Diego from San Fernando. Don Francisco from San Jose. Don Fernando from San Diego. Don Jose from San Bernardino. Luis Obispo from Bakersfield.
RE: Workshop in San Francisco/Berkel... (in reply to bule_b)
I am curious to hear the opinions of other attendees, especially because most everyone seemed to speak good Castilian Spanish or understand it, whereas my Brazilian Portuguese was of little to no use. Not surprising. (I was told there would be a translator, but there wasn't. While that was a factual inaccuracy, I don't see how I can complain. That's on me that my Spanish sucks..) Anyway, given the language barrier, there's a lot I missed, but all in all, i think it was just OK. Day 1 was very crowded. I counted 19-20 guitarists. He started by saying "don't video me. We'll do that at the end". Then he showed some material - a falseta here, a snippet of compas there - but there were so many guitarists it was too chaotic for everyone to play at once. So he switched gears and had us play some chord hits for bulerias for accompaniment. He answered various questions about accompaniment (where generally he stressed the importance of not playing some modern fancy compas for singing at the expense of something really solid and more traditional). Then at the end, he let us video 2 falsettas; solea and bulerias. Pretty basic ones, that he did slow, then at tempo.
I missed day 2.
Day 3 was a lot more Q&A, and a lot more videoing options. He also had a singer on hand and demonstrated accompaniment ideas. Throughout both days he humbly stressed that he does things his own way, but in the style of his family and his experiences.
He talked a lot more on day 3, and most of it was beyond my limited Spanish skills. I am curious to hear the thoughts of others on that subject.
He showed us some tunings he used on Orate, and played excerpts of the pieces he uses them for, but didn't break down the compositions at all. (this was day 1). And he didn't let us video them. This was a bummer, as that stuff is hard to transcribe if you don't know the tuning. It would have been great had he showed us that, but maybe it's too proprietary.
All in all, given the cost ($75) per day for 1.5 hrs, I think one would get a lot more out of a one hour private lesson.
I'd give the experience a solid "B". But for a Spanish speaker, the experience was probably much different. Anyone else care to comment?
Posts: 1812
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)
RE: Workshop in San Francisco/Berkel... (in reply to turnermoran)
quote:
I was told there would be a translator, but there wasn't. While that was a factual inaccuracy, I don't see how I can complain.
I do: it was misrepresentation; although possibly in good faith, since the translator might just not have turned up.
You could have asked for your money back; but of course you would have had to do that as soon as the lack of a translator was made clear, and then depart.
It’s a bummer that you couldn’t video, but I can see his side as well, because he doesn’t want the videos uploaded to YouTube, and there’s no way for him to be sure they won’t be.
RE: Workshop in San Francisco/Berkel... (in reply to Paul Magnussen)
@Paul - I hear you, but I would never squander the opportunity to glean some info just because if a language barrier. Plus he did let us audio, so I can listen back and work out the Spanish later.
One interesting thing was to see how quietly he plays. Especially in his own compositions. Very cool sound.
And as for not wanting his whole workshop on you tube I can totally understand. Man's gotta make a living! :)
Posts: 2007
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: Workshop in San Francisco/Berkel... (in reply to turnermoran)
Care to share some of the tunings? It looks like he just drops the low E to D on some vids, but I'm curious about other stuff. Whatever it is, it's working. I love the sound he creates.
Posts: 1956
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
RE: Workshop in San Francisco/Berkel... (in reply to Paul Magnussen)
Dani Mendez has at least a bulería in DADGAD and I've composed alegrías in that tuning...not public yet :) oh and Vicente Amigo accompanies por bulerías - (tab)
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so jealous 
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