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Posts: 1956
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
short answer is: guitar solos in general, especially slash -> jimi hendrix -> guitar trio -> paco -> after for years being away from an electric guitar, picking up the classical guitar trying to play flamenco -> learning compás, technique, buying a flamenco guitar, accompanying a dancer, doing LOTS of listening to flamenco -> still accompanying and composing stuff
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
I got into flamenco by accident. There was a flamenco guitar course at the cultural centre of the university where I studied. A friend knew I played the guitar (electric at the time) and asked me to come along. I borrowed another friend's classical guitar, and went to the first lesson not knowing anything about flamenco, at all, full of misconceptions (expecting it to be more Spanish-sounding classical guitar music, and having to read sheet music).
Luckily, the teacher knew what he was talking about, having studied flamenco guitar in Cordoba for some years in the 70's with Paco Peña amongst others. So I got a good start.
From there on, I've just been playing a lot, listening a lot, taking lessons with various teachers at home and in Spain (Granada & Sevilla), playing in dancing lessons, and composing falsetas.
Posts: 15725
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Neotriz
I'm curious on what paths you guys have taken to flamenco
Long story. Parents were classical guitarists so grew up with spanish guitar sound. Started learning with rock/metal, mainly from guitar magazines with transcriptions. Took a guitar summer camp as a teen and discovered Guitar trio. Introduced by my father to sabicas /Carmen amaya. After my father's death I collected recordings of Paco and other flamenco players. After about 3 years of becoming an aficionado, while studying classical guitar in college, I finally saw PDL perform live front row seat. From that day on I started to learn the flamenco guitar for real. Took a couple workshops and collected transcriptions and videos, spent tons on CDs, did my own transcriptions.
Upon graduating school I started accompanying dance classes. That lead to paid performances of flamenco with dancers and occasional singers. Met Nuñez in 1998 and was invited to his summer Curso in Sanlucar. The experience in spain changed a lot of things for me and I feel the real journey of learning flamenco began there and continues to this day. Almost any good artist you encounter in flamenco can be your teacher, at least that is how I have taken it.
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
My father was a teacher of classical guitar with a very open mind to other styles of music. I picked up the guitar myself at 9, taking lessons from my father. My first introduction to flamenco were the books/records my father had in possession (i mainly played a record of Cano) but after he took me to a concert of Paco Peña i was hooked. I quit taking classical lessons, bought all Paco's old and future records and (ear)played them on a daily base between the age of <15-18. I had a good ear for melody/harmony but no talent at all for technique, rhythm and interpretation. In 1980 i switched to playing other styles of music. A couple of years later (i just graduated as a biological analyst) my father joined hands with Paco in starting the first professional flamenco guitar school ever. Since i had nothing better to do (economical crises, zero change on a job) i became their first student. My intention was not to become a lifetime flamenco player but to use the education to become a professional and all round musician after which i wanted to focus on other styles of music, mainly developing my own style of music. But once i got hooked to flamenco singing and learned how to play flamenco solos more or less decently there was no way back anymore.
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
I was 14 and i was trying to amaze girls with the spanish romance After a few years playing Tears in Heaven, Nirvana and the spanish romance I discovered Vicente Amigo and Camarón
Posts: 4530
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
Began playing classical guitar for few months when i was a teenager (idea from my parents lol). Pretty soon after few months i was bored to death. My teacher sucked too and i was a terrible student. So he had no interest in me and me no more interest in him and classical music as a whole.
Pretty soon after that I remember i watched the movie crossroads with a friend and that was it, i wanted to play e-guitar.
learned on my own with a cheap fender copy and a crappy chinese amp or something, then bought an Ibanez and a Marshall amp after saving all my money for an year, tried to learn stuff from Garry Moore, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Tony McAlpine, etc... i was always more in to solo stuff than bands...... then after few years, completely stopped playing guitar for many years. Then again at a friends house i heard a Paco CD, then watched a concert and that was it again. Felt in love with that sound and style. Till today.
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
That crossroads clip was hilarious! Never seen that. All that fancy picking and he can't bend the e string on the 22nd fret????????? lol awesome.
Played metal on and off for 12 years or so. Had a girlfriend whose Dad was a classical player and bought her a lil yamaha classical so when I was at her house I would noodle on it. One day I decided I should learn how to properly play it rather then playing Testament songs on it. Started doing a youtube search for classical/flamenco stuff, soon realized they were two different genres Then realized one was WAY better then the other . From there I was pretty hooked, the more I learned the more I wanted to learn.
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
I'm a beginner as of last January, but here's how I got here: classic rock guitar and bass since middle school until family/college came along ~10yrs later, dropped music for ~10 yrs in favor of engineering studies, got back into classic rock after that for about 6 years then picked up a classical guitar and started noodling with stuff I hadn't touched since my first CG attempt in high school. Got hooked and spent 2006 - present learning CG (South American and Spanish classical mainly) from good instructors, master classes, workshops, etc. I always was looking for that "phrygian" sound, and finally found it in Flamenco. Traded in my Traphagen for a proper Flamenco guitar and have been on it since.
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RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
Total newbie. Learning from that crazy Ricardo fellow who posted above... That crazy ass mother Ricardo, knows his stuff, and every lesson I walk away feeling a toal dumb ass, because of the sheer knowledge that man has!
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
I´d been working as an independent guitar teacher and learnt as an autodidact after 2 years of classical lessons at the local private music conservatory. In the 1990th years I bought the first flamenco methods to work on. In 1994 I won some buckets in the lottery. So I went to Málaga to place an order for my first handmade flamenca. The luthier introduced me to the peña Juan Breva. There I met with Gabriél Cabrera who I took lessons with. We are still in touch.
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
I started a long time ago in the UK before the Internet, even before Juan Martin! Forget the flamenco guitar, even the classical guitar was a novelty. In the city where I was studying mathematics, you couldn’t even buy classical guitar strings. I met a student who could play a bit of flamenco and in my second year of study I got the Ivor Mairants book and taught myself for a bit. A month in Spain helped.
When I moved on to further my studies in London I found a notice in the window of the Troubadour Bar advertising flamenco guitar tuition. I went to a small flat over a shop in Notting Hill where I met Aziz Balouch. Check this out if you don’t the story of the Pakistani who sang with Pepe Marchena.
Aziz wasn’t a guitarist and recommended that I should go to the guitarist who was currently accompanying him on a series of BBC World Series broadcasts. This is where my good fortune started. I got a strict grounding in technique and compass. My teacher was playing in a group with a “boy” (Paco Pena) who was in London for a few months. When Paco returned to Spain to develop his solo playing I got a job as a second guitarist. In order to survive I had to practice hard, learn fast …. and then keep learning.
Nowadays my only learning is new techniques to enable me to still play a bit of flamenco with my poor bent fingers.
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to RobJe)
After I got the basics down I mainly played funk on an electric (loved Vai and Buckethead as well).
Time to go to college (didn't want to do manual labor forever) and I met with the guitar professor. Classical player who blew me away with some simple carcassi etude. Studied that for a while and picked up flamenco to merge my new found love for finger style nylon strings and funky rhythms.
Moved to the bay area (lucky break), took a couple of lessons with Jason and tried my hand at dance accompaniment. Honestly didn't excite me much. Now I'm doing my own thing, grateful I had the bug and grateful I got over it.
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
I can't say I've learned flamenco, but I first became interested from Miami Vice. Sonny Crockett used to get coked out of his mind and then play soleares for his pet crocodile that he kept on his sailboat that was docked in Biscayne Bay
RE: So how did you guys learn flamenco? (in reply to Neotriz)
quote:
So how did you guys learn flamenco?
I'm curious on what paths you guys have taken to flamenco
did? like the learning was all in the past?
better to ask "do?" as in the present, I don't think the learning ever stops, does it?
I took an LP out of my local library by mistake (ie. I didn't really know what it was) about 20 odd years ago and was instantly hooked from then on. Found a local teacher for a while. Then a dance class playing with another guy.
Took lessons and workshops from anyone passing through, including Gerardo Nuñez when he did one of his courses like he does each year in Sanlucar here in the UK (just about blew my head off! ), travelled to London for lessons and courses and then Spain for same.
In between all that studied a lot of vids, Oscar Herrero, Encuentro vids. Still playing for dance classes. I learn a lot from the two teachers I play for, they both sing a bit, but it's not like having a real cantaor.
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