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The best way to go about compas
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Ramón
Posts: 440
Joined: Feb. 23 2005
From: La Jolla, Ca
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 RE: The best way to go about compas (in reply to bahen)
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- Karenanne's advice...NOTHING teaches you compas like 5-12 girls (and sometimes guys) looking at you like "thanks...Nice compas...." 
I learned 'wrong', like most of us away from a true flamenco scene; solo. In 'real' flamenco, you play basic chords in perfect compas, they give you a bit more. After years of great accompaniment, you THEN become a solo player, where compas has now become ingrained, without thought....
I am lucky, now, in that I've discovered I can sit in on 10-12 hours of dance classes at 4 different studios - each week. My friend Agustin, who SAW flamenco, the first time, when he lived in Spain, came home, and did NOTHING but go to every dance class here (San Diego, CA), where he is now accompanying many of the classes and shows here.
And he helps me, as do the other main guitarists - tremendously (one even made a 4-track tientos CD for me!) - as many better players admire your dedication in coming to every class, so they share with you!
But to me, it's a FREE 1-3 hour lesson, 3-5 days a week!!!!! hahahahahaahhaha.... (evil laugh inserted here!)
And better yet, you get to hang out with beautiful girls dancing for you! Beats the hell out of playing at home, night after night!
Saludos
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Nov. 2 2006 15:57:51
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Ricardo
Posts: 14861
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: The best way to go about compas (in reply to mkhn)
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quote:
1) By compas, are you referring to rythm?
2) In playing with a metronome(since I haven't yet as my insructor is kinda against it at the moment and tells me I should play to my tapping foot), are you trying to play the "beats" of the metronome at, say,each quarter note of a 4/4 song for example?
Compas is a flamenco specific meaning of the general term rhythm. Rhythm in general involves tempo or beat,meter (cycle of beats that repeats), subdivisions of the beat, style or feel or groove (accents and dynamics applied to subdivsions), and phrasing (number of metric units or bars, or even the length of a melody or rhythmic pattern). For example, a llamada or desplante could be looked at as flamenco "phrase".
You cant really work on any of the stuff in that paragraph, if you don't understand the importance of maintaining a rock steady tempo or beat. The metronome helps you learn how, so you can focus on the other rhythmical things at the same time. If you are learning to tap your foot and play, good, but use the click of the metronome WITH your foot. I always think of the foot and the click as the beat. If you think of that as quarter note, great. But there are other ways to use the metronome. The click could be a dotted quarter, or dotted half note, like in a waltz. If you are learning to tap your foot in odd groups (like 123, 123, 12,12,12,), the metronome could be clicking eighth notes (your foot taps every 3 or every 2 clicks depending). But I think the easiest is to use your foot with the click and think of that as the beat always.
But are you practicing stuff close to actuall tempo? Sometimes when practicing VERY slow, you can use both click and foot double time until you get faster.
hope this helps.
Ricardo
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Nov. 3 2006 6:43:27
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John O.
Posts: 1723
Joined: Dec. 16 2005
From: Seeheim-Jugenheim, Germany
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RE: The best way to go about compas (in reply to bahen)
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As a guitarist who spent years and years locked in his bedroom with his guitar, I could maybe help with what my experience has taught me over the past three very busy years learning accompanyment.
Most important, never give up and never expect too much of yourself too quickly. This has caused me a lot of stress in the past.
Get a flamenco metronome that counts for all the palos. Nothing hurts your head more than counting and trying out falsetas and syncopations at the same time: it makes it much harder to learn and it's not necessary. Your eyes will see the clock or number counted and you can automatically react without really concentrating on it, leaving your head open for focusing on technique and trying out new things. You won't get dependant on it, you'll get a better sense of rhythm quicker than you can imagine.
If you're not forced to focus on compas, you won't. Why should you as long as it sounds nice? Learning falsetas by heart helps you get a feeling for it, but you'll still be lost when you first play for a dance class because they expect you to play around what they're doing and chances are you won't have a falseta off the top of your head that fits exactly. You'll have to think in compas along with the dancers. This challenge will force you to focus on compas, try out, take apart, transpose and repiece falsetas, eventually making your own creations.
For this, cram as many falsetas in your head as possible. Easy ones! The hard ones won't help because you'll be limited to very little repertoire = very little understanding and you'll never get the basis only playing the complex structures PDL & Co play. Don't check out CD's from guitarists, but accompanyment CD's and albums from singers. Less flashy, easier to learn and most definitely compatable for accompanyment.
Hope I could help.
The road is very long but very rewarding...
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Nov. 3 2006 12:13:27
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Or failing that, have a look on the long thread about this from a few weeks back. I'm a dancer not a guitarist but I seem to remember that a lot of good advice was given. Karenanne
