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Hi everyone and pleased to become a member of this forum.
To introduce myself...
I've been playing flamenco guitar for about 4 years now, with other kinds of guitar experience preceding. Had a teacher until about a year ago, when he moved away, and of course I've got a number of instruction books, including ones from Juan Martin, Paco Pena, etc. which I've continued with in private.
For the past 6 months I've been playing for flamenco classes in SW London, a scary prospect to begin with but now one which I am warming. Led by a flamenco professional dancer.
What I found though was that everything I learnt from solo guitar instruction had to be put to one side, and I had to reduce to basic techniques and compas, so that I could learn to follow the dancers. Anything I might do, for instance, with pretty coplas in Soleares, wouldn't work unless a) my coplas were strictly in compas and b) they worked right for the choreography. A real baptism of fire, but all the same a good one.
What annoys me now is that most of the guitar instruction available is all to do with solo playing. The best I've seen so far is the Solo Compas series from a producer in Sevilla, which at times simplifies the guitar playing although it is more geared towards bailadores. Some of these work for me, e.g. the tangos (which I play at the dance class following tientos), and fandangos de huelva I'm OK, but I am avoiding the advanced class who dance soleares and alegrias. Soleares for the moment because maybe I don't understand the choreography properly, and what chord sequences with pauses and rasgueos would work well. Can anyone help me with this? With Soleares going into Bulerias, jumping into Bulerias from the 12th beat of the Solea, and how to do this simply but effectively so I can for the moment simply follow the dancers? As for Alegrias, bearing in mind that I just want simple cord sequences and technique (e.g. using second or third finger to knock out the rhythm, and sometimes less - maybe a seq;uence of light fingering then a strong rasgueo....? I've got a reasonably good command over basic technique now, but I need some guidance on how to use it, especially for accompanying dance.
Anyway, I'll shut up now. Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
RE: Just to say HI! as I've just joi... (in reply to Greg)
Welcome Greg!
The thing about accomanying, which I'm sure you've experienced already: it's not really teachable in books. Videos would be great, but I don't know of any. Pretty much all you can do is go into a class and do it. Keep doing it and eventually things will come to you bit by bit. It's very frustrating and easier to have a teacher by your side accompanying as I did, but patience is really the key. If you could get the tapes which they practise to when you're not there you could start by learning from that to get an understanding of what goes where.
What worked very well for me is videotaping the dance. I have a digital video camera and can load the recorded dances onto my computer, cut the choreography into parts and take my time working out accompaniment piece by piece. This way I have my own instructional video for free!
RE: Just to say HI! as I've just joi... (in reply to John O.)
check out "Noches en Casa Patas " it a series of live preformances at a small stage with good camera angels. you can copy the guitar parts. it´s dance preformaneces.
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This is hard stuff! Don't give up... And don't make it a race. Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.
RE: Just to say HI! as I've just joi... (in reply to Greg)
Thanks guys, first to John for your advice. Sort of suspected that was the case, and in fact by keeping to the beginners classes I'm learning at a manageable pace. Sevillanas I got together pretty easily, just making sure that I kept a steady rhythm, and nice because the dancers just follow the guitarrist, rather than vice versa. The Tientos is coming together too, as I begin to understand the dance and the choreography. The trick I realise (I'm almost on my own here except for occasional advice from my former teacher who moved away) is to strip everything down to basic rhythm, and follow the dancers, especially the feet, speeding up with them but learning that some footwork (zapateado) is not actually doubling the pace but simply taconeos that mark offbeats (if that makes sense..?). After that it's a matter of recognising the llamadas, and the choreography of the dance, i.e. for this dancer/dance teacher's choice of the Tientos ramping up to a Tangos, slowing down, and then going for a Tangos finale (the key for me at the end understanding when to stop!).
I'm working off a couple of cassette tapes made by the dance teacher using two other guitarrists, and as I become more savvy I learn more from these. I did start with advanced dancers and it blew my head off, especially doing Soleares and Alegrias. Actually the Soleares isn't too bad, if I break it down to basic chords and rhythm, but then I don't even know how to be creative with these, i.e. what are good chord sequences to fit with the choreography before it breaks into a bulerias. Then the bulerias I can do, again, on my own at home using some fancy stuff, but to break from the soleares into bulerias on the twelfth bar, and then instead of doing fancy stuff actually use the guitar with right compas and stuff to work with the dance is a big challenge. Same sort of issues with alegrias, i.e. I can do it in bits, but I don't know how to tie it all together and make it work with the dance.
Duende - thanks for your lead, I'll check that one out.
Sorin - the "Solo compas" series I talk about is a series of didactic CDs published by a Sevillian record producer, available over the web, e.g. try www.esflamenco.com and type "solo compas" in the search. I've actually only got one of the CDs, Solo Compas Sevillanas, but it's brilliant. What I like is how they play the palo in different ways, e.g. without singer, with palmas only, and so on. I would buy more of their CDs, and probably will when I feel I know how best to use them. Meantime, the shops selling them tend to have try-before-you-buy audios that I listen to, some of which are very useful, e.g. esflamenco has a 6 minute rhythm section for Tangos which is great to play along to, and an example of the same with guitar which shows one way of playing the basic rhythm.
RE: Just to say HI! as I've just joi... (in reply to Greg)
quote:
learning that some footwork (zapateado) is not actually doubling the pace but simply taconeos that mark offbeats
Hello again, Greg,
I do know what you mean, that kind of feeling will just come to you eventually. On the one hand it's possible to theoretically understand flamenco song and dance in the sense of how many beats go how many times where, and to a certain degree this knowledge is very important.
On the other hand I don't know when I finally fully understood the bulería, must have been at least a year after I began accompanying. By fully I mean coming in at any time knowing where I am and actually improvising golpes and rasgueados into the footwork - really having fun with it.
Think of a 12-bar blues - you could probably listen in in the middle and know exactly where it's going because you've heard it so often before. Flamenco's no different, you just gotta give it time.
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It's been a while since I played blues.... corrected
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