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Yes I heared his name! I will look for it! Hmm..Im not very creative, too. So..maybe I can compose some sweet rumbas in future. I would be happy enough with that. Its enough for me at the moment to be able to play mas o menos ok more advanced nice compositions like alegria or buleria of others... I already gave up much time ago to play good enough for these dancers who allways arent happy with my playing. Only for my best friend I still try it.
I think the point Ron was making is not really what Jon was frustrated about. I think he said he actually DOES have technique and skill, but can't find a place for it in the context of dance accompaninment, and feels that his playing is ranging from "uninspiring" to just plain "wrong" in the eyes of some of the dancers. I know exactly what he is complaining about and have felt those same frustrations and still do sometimes. There is some difficult "hazing" that any one must go through to get "inside" of certain music genres, just like many other things that are a bit closed off.
I remember the best drum student in music school got treated REALLY harshly for not knowing certain standards, making minor mistakes and such for jazz ensemble. He really wanted to be great and pro at jazz, so the jazz teacher really put a lot on his shoulders. The other instrumentalists did not have such a hard time, because their job was not so important as the drummer. The flamenco guitar accompanist has a similar situtation. You have to know the right thing to do, and if you are serious about, you have to go through some tough hazing. The point of the hazing is to make it challenging, they ones who are not serious give up. The reward is gaining knowleadge, experience, acceptance, respect. But you have make sure it is worth it, and that is what you want. There are some friendly videos that try to bypass this "hazing" to help others learn and get "inside", but to be really respected, you have to be a bit of a mind reader.
RE: Major major frustration (in reply to Doitsujin)
Thanks all.
Ricardo pretty much nailed it. It's definitely worth all the stress and insecurity really, because on a good day it's just really really really damn fun and when I do play the right thing and see a smile on the dancer's faces it more than makes up for it
It's funny, I tend to be the one who listens to what everyone in the area says but never talks too much himself (I have this forum for that ), in doing that you eventually get to know what everyone thinks of each other and to be honest, it can be quite sickening. Doit was talking about the flamenco police, here we have the flamenco Nazis (please note that has nothing to do with being in Germany here, I only mean behavior).
We have the dance teacher who elegedly stopped taking dance lessons too early and opened her own studio, we have the dance teacher who elegedly stabs people in the back and never pays on time, we have a musician who elegedly claims to never make mistakes, a musician who elegedly plays the same thing every time, a musician who's elegedly not really a flamenco performer but plays flamenco (whatever that means), I'm the musician who elegedly learns everything by heart. The funniest is when the students who've only been there a few years get wind of this and snicker and complain along. Being subject to all this doesn't help, but it's the same with any art form, I think.
.....aaaaaanywho, thank you all again for the comments!
Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada
RE: Major major frustration (in reply to Doitsujin)
Allegedly. Ahem.
Now that I've gotten that little bit of pedantry taken care of:
When it comes to people and their comments etc, it's always better for their own self esteem to see the flaws in other people or to blame the results of their own shortcomings on other people. People can be schmucks. On the up side, you can always beat them with a stick.
Just curious, do you have any discussion with the dance teacher as to what her(?) lesson plans are for the next class or week of classes? I'm just wondering if it's possible for you to arm youself with more advanced information than her students so as to be better prepared than them...
I'm at a private flamenco school in Wiesbaden. On the 14th there's going to be a festival where all the students present their work and yours truly will be accompanying most of it. Alone tiento, taranto, polo, garrotin, farruca, Asturias complete with castañuela accompanyment, in a group alegria, fandango, rumba and a sevillana to end the evening on a light note.
Alongside this I have an 8-10 hour job, it's no wonder I'm burning out...
Then we have vacation for a few weeks. Once the new classes get going, I can start putting new ideas/falsettas into the dances that the dancers can get used to from the beginning.
hi john ive been reading the post through. i hope it goes well with the dancers, im sure it will, just takes the mountain that has to be overcome. i still havent approached it yet for playing with dancers like that! btw did you know your video is the first that comes up when you search 'tomatito' on youtube!! nice!!
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