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It's been said throughout the years that the 5 note tremolo is a "flamenco tremolo" and the 4 note tremolo a "classical tremolo". While it's true that today most flamenco players do in fact use the 5 note tremolo and classical players the 4 note, this was not always the case. In Juan Serrano's book, Falsetas De Mi Padre, Juan's father, Antonio El Del Lunar, uses the 4 note tremolo only. The great Spanish guitarist Vicente Gomez played the 4 note tremolo in his flamenco arrangements. Probably the best source of reference - for the historical evolution of the tremolo technique - is Rafael Marin's flamenco method from 1902. Below is a copy of a page, with right hand exercises, from Mr. Marin's monumental work. Observe exercises 69 - 72, it seems that 110 years ago the tremolo technique was rather well developed indeed.
It should also be noted that Rafael Marin played both flamenco and classical. And, while we are on the subject, Mr. Marin's guitar, though looking like a "flamenco guitar" with it's friction pegs, had a rosewood body. A "flamenca negra"?
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RE: The Tremolo Technique: A Histori... (in reply to Ramon Amira)
quote:
Perico del Lunar was not Juan Serrano's father.
Perico el del Lunar's 'real' name was Pedro del Valle, born in Jerez in (I beleive) in 1894? Interestingly, he was a payo, not gitano.
By present-day standards his playing technique would probably be considered somewhat primitive (but still very poweerfull!). But in his day he was probably one of the most knowledgeable authorities on the earlier and more traditional forms of Flamenco.
He was responsible for compiling the celebrated work; "An Anthology of Cante Flamenco" , the three-LP disc series covering all 33 cantes, produced back in the 1950's (?).
( I still have my original set of three vynil LP's complete with the booklet of words, valuable sleeve notes, etc. I may leave it to the Foro in my will. . . )
RE: The Tremolo Technique: A Histori... (in reply to dformell)
Hello,
Thank you everybody for the corrections, sorry about that. I meant Antonio and for some reason typed Perico. All of this complicated flamenco music has got me confused! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the post. BTW, I'm working on translating Mr. Marin's book into English, the project is slow going as I only have one person helping me. When the project is finished it will be posted on scribd.
RE: The Tremolo Technique: A Histori... (in reply to dformell)
Hi Dan,
Marín's method is an interesting resource. It has a granaínas tremolo that was recorded by Montoya and Borrull hijo and I think by Niño Ricardo but I can't find the recording.
I've uploaded a scan and some audio samples to my site:
There's a bit more to the tremolo on the next page of Marín's method but the scan will give you a basic idea. If you slow down the audio sample, you'll hear that Borrull plays it p-a-m-i, as did Javier Molina and many others, and Montoya plays it p-i-a-m-i. In the last two staves, the dashed line and symbol C-2 mean that the tablature numbers are based on second-fret position, so a zero is really the second fret.
RE: The Tremolo Technique: A Histori... (in reply to dformell)
Hi Norman,
Thank you for that most enjoyable post! On a personal note, I've enjoyed your website over years, it has some really good material. The rest of Mr. Marin's tremolo falseta por granadinas can be found below:
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RE: The Tremolo Technique: A Histori... (in reply to dformell)
quote:
ORIGINAL: dformell
It's been said throughout the years that the 5 note tremolo is a "flamenco tremolo" and the 4 note tremolo a "classical tremolo". While it's true that today most flamenco players do in fact use the 5 note tremolo and classical players the 4 note, this was not always the case. In Juan Serrano's book, Falsetas De Mi Padre, Juan's father, Antonio El Del Lunar, uses the 4 note tremolo only. The great Spanish guitarist Vicente Gomez played the 4 note tremolo in his flamenco arrangements. Probably the best source of reference - for the historical evolution of the tremolo technique - is Rafael Marin's flamenco method from 1902. Below is a copy of a page, with right hand exercises, from Mr. Marin's monumental work. Observe exercises 69 - 72, it seems that 110 years ago the tremolo technique was rather well developed indeed.
Look at Ex 72. Is it pmiami tremolo?
In his youtube video del Monte shows pmiami arpeggio as a warm up exercise. He can do it damn fast. I haven't seen anyone doing pmiami tremolo though. Anyone have audio or video showing this tremolo?
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Posts: 2879
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
RE: The Tremolo Technique: A Histori... (in reply to devilhand)
Hey Norman! welcome back man!
oh no wait.....2012 again.!!
Devilhand for heavens sake lad! You'll get more activity if you start a new thread about tremolo! I love tremolo talk. Go do it! I promise I'll join in if you do!
RE: The Tremolo Technique: A Histori... (in reply to Stu)
quote:
Devilhand for heavens sake lad! You'll get more activity if you start a new thread about tremolo! I love tremolo talk. Go do it! I promise I'll join in if you do!
I thought this thread was perfect for discussing tremolo. The title and the size. It has only one page. Yes, tremolo is good. But one has to master arpegio first. So I opened a new thread about arpegio. I hope you'll join in.
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