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I mess around and sometimes write my own stuff but I don't have routine where I sit down and try to compose stuff.
How do you guys navigate composing?
And if I wanna compose better, should I make it part of my practice routine?
I'm familiar with Palos and music theory so it's not that difficult to compose, more so to remember ideas from noodling and pick out the good from the bad.
I'm working on this bulerías composition right now. Not everything here is original, one pulgar bit by Diego del Morao or maybe older than him, the second short has a falseta that's actually a very well known cante melody (Campana de Santiago). The picado is my own, arpegio and the section after it is also my own.
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to TeoFlamenco2)
Good work man. I heard a PDL falseta in the 2nd one. He plays it in cepa andaluza live. Not sure if that's where you got it from but my ears felt like it. What about the 1st one? How do you draw inspirations for ideas ?
Posts: 15821
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to TeoFlamenco2)
I normally just learn material I need to work on and compose only when I am inspired, or required to create something. It is quite enough of my time just doing that and practicing older pieces I have composed in the past. Basically no inspiration then nothing is happening.
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to metalhead)
The second one is from cante, I got it from a singer I'm working with, so Paco probably knew the melody too.
And honestly I have no idea how I draw inspiration. Usually comes from noodling and listening to a lot of cante and toque, hearing what I like, adapting it, or coming up with something different, but similar in character. It's intuitive to the point where I almost don't feel like I'm doing anything. Or at least not anything meaningful; feels like everything good's already been composed hahaha
Posts: 15821
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to TeoFlamenco2)
quote:
ORIGINAL: TeoFlamenco2
I see. Was the process the same for your old pieces or did you engage more heavily with your compositional side?
It was after I started learning some stuff in Spain that I started to really compose my own material....mostly based on phrasing and techniques that were new to me and I wanted to overcome those obstacles with my own "familiar" fingerings that captured the ideas. Ironically, as I learned more traditional material that I had sort of skipped over, being a foreigner or outsider, my composing gradually got more "orthodox" or conservative if you like. I have noticed the same thing happening to younger maestros such as Jernonimo or Antonio Rey (if you compare his very first recordings). Antonio admitted in interview that his first album was put out at a time he felt he was still just playing material of Paco and Vicente, meaning he did not have (yet) his own "compositions" ready to record. His next offerings (Colores and Alma) were much more focused in other words.
All this I feel is due to Paco and Manolo and others being involved in the "change" between traditional and modern styles. The younger generation being inspired by the modern movement which is predicated on the old school material, so we learned it top down. The other thing that helped me was teaching....observing problems with learning traditional material and seeing a need to develop an exercise or phrase that is a bit simpler than the traditional maestro material. In the end, each flamenco player seems to have his own nuance of interpreting the traditional stuff and THAT right there is where new compositions are born. My advice is focus on ONE falseta at a time, and really make it solid. Then an other. Over time you have entire pieces that are "yours". No one in history was like Paco ....do that thing EVERY YEAR for decades. Almost all other flamenco guitarists we can point to ONE album of theirs that is their "style" that they repeat for their entire career with a new falseta here and there.
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to Ricardo)
quote:
Almost all other flamenco guitarists we can point to ONE album of theirs that is their "style" that they repeat for their entire career with a new falseta here and there.
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to TeoFlamenco2)
quote:
Should one actively compose?
nah, just do it passively!
if you play for dance class and they ask for a falseta, you play one, and they say "can you make it longer" you have to get creative and invent some way to extend what you've got. If they say "can you make it shorter" then you have to chop something out and then find a way to link the remaining parts together. Also you get feedback on what works for them and what doesn't.
So after your 20 years of baile accompaniment and 20 years of the same kind of adapting the stuff you have learned to complement the cante, then you are ready to play solo!
Posts: 1961
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to Ricardo)
What Ricardo says. If you're not feeling the inspiration it's all a bit pointless. All I ever created that I'm happy with came under those circumstances. Whenever I composed something for the sake of it, I was never happy with those.
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to TeoFlamenco2)
Composing or writing songs is something you can develop. The more you compose the better you get. Inspiration is a prerequisite. For example Paco needed a special location to compose Cositas Buenas.
quote:
Where was this record composed?
In order to compose this record I went to a very peaceful area of Yucatan in Mexico where I spent four years of my life in a house in the middle of the jungle, with an ideal climate, nobody around, and for two years I was working 8 to 10 hours a day to compose the record, the location was essential.
RE: Should one actively compose? (in reply to metalhead)
I like to take other peoples ideas and change buts and pieces to my liking. But I’ve never really been satisfied with my own creations long term and always change things around or later say “what inspired this ****t”
I find comfort from tnat quote from Paco about being disgusted when realizing that the music he heard playing was his own lol
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