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Posts: 503
Joined: Jun. 14 2014
From: Encinitas, CA USA
RE: Niño de Pura 'Essential techniq... (in reply to johnnefastis)
I also have been impressed with Nino. What I think is important is that it teaches how to improve technique while providing pieces that are challenging but not impossible, interesting and motivating, and sound like real music you can play for an audience. I spent a lot of time with Juan Martin books and while they were a good place to start I am glad to move on. I also signed up for the Javier Conde web site lessons which are very good for technique, but are not really music, just exercises. Here is a preview I found:
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Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
RE: Niño de Pura 'Essential techniq... (in reply to johnnefastis)
I got it last week. I am just watching it at the moment. I find I play much better after watching the DVD for 20-30 minutes!
I like his playing, and have his albums with the Guajiras and Tarantas, really like that Guajiras, so that and his take on technique got me interested. I get a lot out of just watching really good players close up, so the above joke is kind of serious too.
The technique section of the DVD is interesting, mostly picado, some interesting ideas and exercises, including arpegio/picado combination - also an evil arpegio exercise! Alzapúa and Rasgueado too. (but no "Pulgar" - get the Nuñez DVD for that!) But he doesn't actually explain the unique way he moves his thumb across the strings in picado.... (the only other person I'm aware of doing this is Manolo Sanlucar in the b/w rito film accompanying Maria Vargas, so maybe an experiment of Manolo's that he later dropped, but not before passing on to Niño de Pura?) I should say also that the "exercises" are all quite musical, based on nice chord sequences etc.
The normal speed versions of the pieces are accompanied by cajón, the slow versions without any percusión/metronome. But the slow versions of the pieces have a really annoying "compás clock" in the corner of the screen that is really distracting. I emailed La Sonanta to ask if there's a way to turn it off and they said no, and that it was a "necessary" part of the "method". I have been playing for dance classes for 20 years and really don't need a "compás clock" on screen. (I don't see how anyone that does need a "compás clock" on screen could ever play these pieces in any kind of convincing way.) I think I will stick a piece of cardboard over the screen to cover the clock when I study the slow versions....
The playing is of course immaculate, as you would expect. The "extras" are couple of pieces from live concert and I think I have seen them on YouTube, maybe not all of them.
The interview is interesting and also in places funny.... he likes his mealtimes very punctual!
RE: Niño de Pura 'Essential techniq... (in reply to johnnefastis)
Brilliant review thanks Mark,
I may get it in the future, my main reservation was that the technique section might be really short like the Paco Serrano DVD and then I would be left with 3 really challenging pieces, that I probably wouldn't tackle for ages. But it sounds like the technique section is a bit more involved and musical towards the Nunez DVD. So tempting
RE: Niño de Pura 'Essential techniq... (in reply to johnnefastis)
The DVD is not as long as the Nuñez one (maybe half the length - 3 compositions). But the approach is similar in creating interesting little pieces of music to use to work on technique. I don't have the contents page in front of me (you might be able to see it on La Sonanta's site), but the first picado exercise uses E maj scale in 3rds as string crossing exercise. There are several exercises for picado with bursts. One where he throws a faster burst into a regular scale, and another that's more a series of bursts strung together.... there are two arpegio exercises, the "evil" one requires you to get your I finger onto the top string after playing I, m, a on strings 4, 3 and 2 respectively.... the other arpegio exercise is a more straightforward double arpegio (ie. sextuplet) exercise. Also a tremolo exercise I forgot to mention.
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