Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
classical guitar board
I've somehow become embroiled in an argument about looking at the left hand in the classical guitar forum. Somehow, no matter what opinion I hold, the guys over there think the opposite. I guess that shows my heart is more a flamenco than a classical. I think those guys are geeks, nerds... I don't like the way they think about guitar.
Hey Mike, Zis you stirrin' it again at the CG Forum? I read a bit of the thread. I've never really thought about it, but actually I try to avoid looking at my left hand when playing as it tends to make me screw up. Sometimes I look in that direction, but focus beyond the fretboard. If I'm trying to work something out, then I do tend to look at my left hand though. It's probably just personal perference, for there is no way that actually looking at your left (or right) hand could possibly help you when playing. The movements are too fast IMO.
I have found the main bad habit from crossing over from Classical to Flamenco Guitar, and I'm still guilty of it, is the self absorbed selfish nature of Classical guitar playing, even when playing solo Flamenco you have one half of your brain in the air or listening to your compas, a kind of freeness or openness, and because most classical guitarists are studious bald headed accountant types they have a problem with the different mind set of flamenco playing, if you have heard John Williams trying to play flamenco or Jazz, you can hear this, he is a terrible player. Dave
This is the feeling I got from the chumps over there. They wouldn't even entertain the notion that there is another way to playing guitar than sitting there and staring crosseyed at your left hand. I told them that many good instrumentalists don't look at their hands, their response was to say that Manuel Barrueco ogled his hands, so did Heifetz. Our old friend Todd K chimed in with the opposition viewpoint, predictably, saying looking at your hands or not is a "meaningless detail." I responded that sure, if you spend your time in the studio, why not, but if you actually perform, if you have to work with dancers or with other musicians, if you have to read music, it's a terrible liability. I was surprised that not a single poster agreed with me. But if you want to enlist the stereotype that they are accountant types with no rhythm or sense of ensemble, then it makes a lot of sense. Okay, I'm done venting.
Won't hear a word against them. I use them every year for tax returns and I always recover more than their costs. The UK government changes tax codings so often that the individual cannot keep up.
Looking back a couple of years, when I frankly didn't think I knew the difference between classical and flamenco, it was the rhythmic playing, the golpes, pulgar and rasgeos that marked it out for me. But above all the cante and palmas.
I cannot bear studious recitals, where the guitarists appears to be divulging a some kind of secret and audiences are so undiscerning that they clap at anything.
Perhaps flamenco is another more exotic angle to get back to where I started out as a kid. Small groups of lads (not great musicians) just playing together for fun; eventually good enough to entertain others but never to a seated, alcohol and conversation-free audience.
Paco, don't worry, we'll still be nice to you even if you play classical. I play Pachenbel's Canon and Recuerdos, but no one has said anything to me so far.
Printable Version
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread