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anyone fancy meetin in seville/ jerez on fri eve/saturday? before heading to sanlucar? If henry is going we are gonna meet up before hand! but the more the merrier
Hey Stu! Let's do this! I'm going to be in Sevilla! Are you flying to Sevilla or Jerez? I also booked the course, the flight, Los Helechos, but not yet the nights before and after, so I'm kind of flexible.
I am the same. havent booked accom either side yet. im flying to seville, arrive abourt 8ish. will get hotel there on that eve. then probably hang out there for sat morning then head to jerez for a sat/sat night maybe and sanlucar on the sun for the welcome do.
I just spoke privately to henry and hes dong similar!
Annoyingly i broke my shoulder skiing the other week and now can’t play guitar…. Hoping it recovers in time for July otherwise I’ll just be watching and observing, eating tapas and sipping manzanilla!
Annoyingly i broke my shoulder skiing the other week and now can’t play guitar…. Hoping it recovers in time for July otherwise I’ll just be watching and observing, eating tapas and sipping manzanilla!
Aw no man! Sorry to hear this Yes hopefully youll be back to some kind of playing ability.
It is great to be able to vicariously join in with all these arrangements and others have noted it too. I'm sure you'll have a great time.
But...
I just looked at the course material in that link. I am shocked at the cost of all these units. Are they courses? It looks like €330 will buy you two hours of tuition and a gig. I thought a course was a regular daily class extended over a period, say a week, or even four days - not a one off. I have to pause when I think of that number as it seems exploitative. If there are 30 students all paying €330 that's €10,000 for 2 hours. That's Dentist level...
Or is it that things have become so expensive that that is the ordinary fee for what is effectively a limited summer school?
I attended several jazz summer schools over the years and fees were nothing like this - they were not presentations by gods no, but the staff were all at the top of any tree. There was a collegiate and shared endeavour to it. Does that exist in a two hour presentation? It looks more like an 'audience with'.
I may well be missing the point here. I do live financially in the 2000s, and everything seems expensive now, A pint of beer in Soho was £7.20 on Monday - huh? (Chad Wackerman at Ronnies - £65 for two hours). Maybe you all earn enough that €330 for two hours is acceptable. I can think of many people, i.e. most musicians I know for whom this cost is a dream. Are you being milked or is it reasonable? Or is it reasonable to be milked? Is this a market finding its acceptable level, like good capitalism always has? That is, what the market will pay?
I suspect that all similar courses in Spain will be charging pretty much the same.
Please don't attack me for my (fill in missing insult here) but I am genuinely shocked at the fee and duration. I seem certainly to be naive and would like to know if this is normal/acceptable/nae problem/seen you coming stuff.
It's not confined to flamenco of course, and I was shocked at the fee my lineage holding tai chi master wanted for a 4 hour course in London. He did have to come from Hong Kong but it was less than half what the Sanlucar course management wants.
For what it's worth, I think the arrangements for meeting up and sharing time in Spain are the point of the journey; Kitarist put his finger on it - your descriptions and accommodation issues are very enjoyable at one remove, particularly if the reader is familiar with the places. The tuition, I suppose you'll see.
It looks like €330 will buy you two hours of tuition and a gig. I thought a course was a regular daily class extended over a period, say a week, or even four days - not a one off.
Sunday night meet and greet, two hour classes every day Monday through Friday, free concerts and juerga everynight, and last night FREE paella and WINE of his own make in his back yard...that is for the E330 total. Honestly everybody gets exhausted and skips one day of class with no complaints (hangovers). Some classes conflict but as I said, the other classes are cheaper and there is no obligation to take Gerardo's class. I audit the other class so for me it is 4 hours a day of classes (he has never asked me to pay extra for doing that). Pimientito (mark) always did that with me. Out of respect I don't use my guitar in both classes only the advanced class but learn just as much by auditing the more traditional material intermediate class. We recall vividly one year he stopped doing Saturday classes and denied that it was ever the case he did classes on Saturday (his way of increasing the prices for each lesson by doing nothing but omitting one). That always worked for me travel wise anyway as I would skip the diploma presentation on Saturday mornings and head out of town. For over two decades it felt like I was robbing the guy honestly.
By the way, don't delete your comment because it is important that if you were confused they need to make it more clear what the deal is. "13-17" means those days are the classes, the hours of the classes each day apply to those dates "curso" means "course" not a single master class workshop, and "2 concerts" means Alejandro Hurtado and one other show are free, plus an evening of student guitar solos, fiesta of buleria for all students to participate, and the paella night. Each of those and the first meet and greet Sunday have a juerga with the gitanos de Jerez to close the night. They should probably clarify it that way. Typically we move the whole gang to my friend Raquel's bar for late night jamming etc. and sometimes she has free shows going on with local artists. It is too much almost.
Aha. For some reason when I read it originally, that 13-17 July bit wasn't there! It must have been added shortly after to make sense of the times of the units. Either that or I didn't f* read it. (Erm, it could be a little clearer to indicate that the units/courses are on each of the 5 days but it's probably only me who was confused.)
That is a far better deal. I well know the experience of over celebrating and the consequential under attending, but I think that's par for the curso.
Anyway, thanks. You have answered my point. It sounds fantastic - paella AND Jerez locals as well as the groups. Even value for money! Look forward to hearing about it.
I've always thought the opposite. Its incredible value. and that the stuff that goes on beyond the classroom walls is the most valuable. And the price doesnt seem to have sky rocketed due to the forces you mention that seem to have made all thos eothe r things more expensive.
Anyway, Im anxiously waiting for a reply from the hotel. Ive tried to downgrade to a single room as my family arent coming, but cant seem to get a response! perhaps ill be looking for classmates to fill it with me after all.
El Burdo, sorry if youve told me before....are you in England?
The first time I went it was about E280 so it has only gone up E50 in two decades. There was the change from pesetas to E that mattered, and of course as I said the Saturday classes were omitted eventually.
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yes! there wil be plenty.... could be time for another batch of foro flamenco tshirts for the photos...if only Pimientito were still here!
Whoa, man! Hope it heals fully! 
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