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Just been watching the Sabicas DVD, and I have to admit that the dude is pretty good! I think I like the first song the best. One thing though, I noticed he used quite a bit of harmonics in his playing. By harmonics, I mean "natural" harmonics. There was one song where he played a whole phrase just using harmonics. Personally, I find it quite difficult to get a harmonic out of most frets, apart from 5, 7 and 12, but he seemed pretty good at it. So are harmonics widely used in Flamenco, and if so, can someone point out a few examples that I might hear it in?
RE: SABICAS... & HARMONICS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
if yr thining of zapatadeo he used harmonics quite a bit in that. listen to randy rhodes and van halen for extensive use of harmonic, I cant tell you if it is common in flamenco, Sabicas used them a little in the Lecuno version of malaguena as well. IT is fairly common in classical and the technique is a little different than electric but fun to play with.
RE: SABICAS... & HARMONICS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
quote:
So are harmonics widely used in Flamenco,
No, James even less so than tremolo these days... In the old days, when the Gypsies used to dance around the campfire, there was really nothing more than guitarists playing harmonics, that was the main thing. But these days not I'm afraid.. In fact, apart from Zapateado en Re, I can't really think of another... Probably Carlos Montoya does it, but I don't have those albums.
i thought he was playing artificial harmonics in video.
You may be right. Its hard to see his fingers whilst he's actually doing the technique. But I thought natural harmonics were touched above the fret, then plucked, whereas artifical ones were fretted, plucked then "clipped" with another finger. But if you're right, it might explain why he does it so easily...
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RE: SABICAS... & HARMONICS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
"But if you're right, it might explain why he does it so easily... "
I spent quite a few hours watching Sabicas up close, during after hours juergas at Fidel Zabal's night club La Zambra in Manhattan in the early '60s. Sabicas did everything easily. Even stuff that was impossible for normal humans, like his machine gun picado where the left hand could go anywhere on the fingerboard without breaking rhythm, or his rasgueados where you couldn't follow which fingers were doing what, because they were just a blur. The most impressive thing about watching Sabicas (not about listening to him) was that everything always looked easy all the time.
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