sight reading and flamenco

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dylan

Posts: 26
Joined: Feb. 28 2005

sight reading and flamenco

maybe all you more experienced players out there can help me out on this one..
i have heard it said that many many flamenco guitarists cannot read music..in that case, when a guitarist plays a composition by another player has he learned the whole thing by ear alone?
also, do professional guitarists usually play others' compositions? from many different albums i have it seems that there is a strong emphasis on personal composition..ie it seems that most players are playing their own stuff and flamenco doesnt seem to have a 'repertoire' as such.and that each player would generally compose his own repertoire...
have always been confused by these questions!!!
dylan

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 24 2005 0:03:34

gshaviv

Posts: 272
Joined: Mar. 22 2005
From: Israel

RE: sight reading and flamenco (in reply to dylan)

Many don't sight read, but do read tablature. I think (but I don't know for a fact) that tab is the most frequently used method for learning/writing flamenco compositions.

However, many just learn by ear. I'm learning now Impetu by ear. I do sight read (very well in fact having played classical for 15 years) but I find the experience of learning a piece by ear is totally different. I feel I connect with the music much better this way. Its way harder then using tabs or sheet music and takes much longer but I find it worth it.

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Guy

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 24 2005 1:18:24

aloysius

Posts: 233
Joined: Apr. 7 2005
From: Adelaide, Australia

RE: sight reading and flamenco (in reply to dylan)

quote:

ORIGINAL: dylan
also, do professional guitarists usually play others' compositions?

I have seen many professional guitarists in Spain quote from other famous guitarists. For example, they will be playing a buleria and throw in a classic Tomatito falseta that everyone knows, and then move on to their own material. This is not generally seen as plagerism, but as a tribute to the guitarist being quoted. They will do this in live shows and usually not in recordings. Also, this is common amongst pena and tablao level guitarists and much more rare amongst the top players whom the puplic expect to play their own material. It also depends a bit on the area - in Jerez for instance everyone throws in Morao's and Nino Jero's falsetas from time to time.

The falsetas are almost always worked out by ear or bounced around from guitarist to guitarist, and will rarely be exactly the same as the original. Tab is quite rare amongst professional players although I've met a couple of players in Seville who have used Alain Faucher's transcriptions.

It should also be noted that a "composition" in flamenco usualy changes through time and hence is a very different animal from the typical classical composition. In Spain if you see a guitarist play live just after they've released an album they may play some pieces virtually the same as the recorded versions, but see the same guitarist a couple of years later it it will have mutated, and will often contain new material or be mixed with older material of the same palo.
-Aloysius

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 24 2005 4:56:10

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: sight reading and flamenco (in reply to dylan)

Hi Dylan.

The most used way to learn flamenco is to sit in front of a teacher, and learn the stuff from him, without it writing down. Remember that a lot of people coud not reed normally books in the Gipsy community, so, sight reading was out of the question.

20 years ago, there where nearly no books at all, so you allmost had to learn it this way.
Then a few books came on the market, and it began to open up a litte.

Ofcourse with the internet, it speeded up enormously.

Peter.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 24 2005 8:51:06