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RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
Koella, I see you too are at a loose end on a Friday night ..(unlike our younger counterparts looking for drink, women and action...LOL!)
I can't really find any catagory to vote on here..but..
On Flamenco, I admire really great technical playing on the guitar and I'm really wowed out by it, but I'm also wowed out by really "simple" stuff too.
It's not that "OK...you're over 40 so you're into Sabicas and Diego del Gastor stuff", etc...
Nothing could be further from the truth.
What tends to bore me is hearing something full of clever chords and nuances and doesn't really say anything except "hey..check this out guys".
It's like someone telling you a joke that you've heard before, but are too embarrassed to say so, so you laugh and say great!
Does Flamenco guitar have to be "virtuoso" to be great?
I'd say "No".
Listen to this playing by Diego Amaya accompanying Capullo...
Sorry for the sound quality, but it's from a small "live" performance off a VHS tape.
The guitar technique used is hardly above a lot of the players here....but most of the guitar players here couldn't come close to it....isn't that a dichotomy??
What makes it so good?
Can anyone here deny that it's got "that sound"?
The precision, the tiny details of strumming and accent, the just being "right on the spot". No great picado or alzapua here...but what taste and sensitivity!
To me, this is what Flamenco guitar is all about.
cheers,
Ron
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A good guitar might be a good guitar But it takes a woman to break your heart
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
oh bloody hell, not another stupid poll well i voted. You forgot to put in a cpt beefcakes option. Like 'to me flamenco is just a way to get my foot in the door at the cpt. beefcakes factory'.
O.k ill try a put a serious answer in for the question. For me flamenco is a guitar style i prefered over all the others that i had heard before. Because of the wide range of sounds, rythms and techniques i think flamenco give the guitarist unlimited scope for expression with their instrument. Yes flamenco is completly guitar orientated for me if i didnt play guitar i probably wouldnt be into it. But if i was a singer or dancer i think flamenco would have had the same attraction.
That being said, im sure that if i was in spain it would probably have a completly different cultural meaning and significance and guitar would just be something you happen to do to be a part of it. But im not in spain so atm for me its completly guitar orientated and i dont think that theres anything wrong with that. Thats probably not the right answer and not puro enough for some but im being honest.
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
Just something I find passionate and powerful. And very different, it has a hint of folkloric type indian chants and strange dissonance and odd scales well it just has to be the baddest music on the planet.
Not to mention the beautiful women. hahahaa
Oops truth came out , just kidding.
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May we find God through Flamenco instead of Angels and Demons
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
There's only ONE serious choice in the poll, and thats the one about it having the right "soul and compas". But for me, Flamenco is more than just soul and compas... its a MIX of things...technique, compas, virtuosity, duende, and composition, amongst others.
But if you're asking (literally) what Flamenco is about, it does come down to compas and "The Holy Trinity" (TBC: Toque, Baile, Cante).
Interesting to see that many people said they "just play to impress the girls"... I'm guessing that was the likes of Dominic and Florian...
Jb
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¡Si esto no está en compas, esto no es el Flamenco!
Posts: 4530
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
For me Flamenco is a world you can reach by all sort of ways and disciplines and it only counts it has the right soul and compas. Therefore I like everything that has something to do do with Spain. However Flamenco guitar is the best way to show how virtuoso you can play. I just play to impress the girls but I like to be on Foroflamenco, so I HAVE to play flamenco to belong here and I don't care as long as I'm the fastest and have the hottest chick ! Flamenco for me is just a vehicle to get famous.
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
I choose to see it less romantically. It's a music form.
BUT...
It has this crazy energy that gets endorphins flowing through my veins, especially when played or enjoyed in a group. And so many rhythms, the countless palos so tightly structured, you never run out of new things to learn. It has a very interesting history tying in to a very interesting culture, which makes it even more special. A very high art form which one needs to spend a lot of time with to learn, but once one has it is extremely rewarding.
That about sums it up for me
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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
Yes John, I think so too. Flamenco sucks very much, till you begin to develope your playing to a grade which is more or less enjoyable. Usually it takes years of practiceing. But when you start to get on this level, you can have damn much fun with this instrument. (I only speak for guitar) The second good reason to learn it is, you allways have good looking chicks dancing in front of you. Ok usually >=80% not but there are around 20% left.. huhuuuuu
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to Doitsujin)
I like flamenco because I cant read music, and I need an excuse to feel superior to anyone who can.
I like flamenco because its orthodoxies are so contradictory and nebulous that I can always find a way of atacking another player without backing it up by playing.
I like flamenco because noone I know plays it and I can get away with murder when performing badly.
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
Flamenco guitar is the most "guitaristic" style of music that i know, and that is also what attracts me on flamenco. So i voted 4, but it actually has nothing to do with "virtuosity", in the sense that ONLY complex things sound good. A standard, traditional bulerias is also very guitaristic and attracts me too.
Oh, the thing with the hot chicks is simply not true. Im still searching to find a dancer under 30
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to koella)
LOL John! All married!
Henrik, you are already advanced flamenco player. You dont need accompainment IMO!
But didnt accompany alone regularly, only every now and then tried to. 2006 was crap year for my guitar playing, i didnt practice at all, only lazy noodeling . Ive met a new dancer, and will accompany her class regularly beginning next week or so. I hope then it will be a motivation to also start practising. Crap ive been so lazy
RE: What does flamenco mean to you? (in reply to blanca)
lol you bast*rd !! u know i am doing the temporary glass thing to get a better guitar
didnt we just do this question a few weeks ago ?
flamenco means alot of things to me, depending on what day u are asking
I couldnt setlle on just one I picked this 3 today:
I just play to impress the girls I don't care as long as I'm the fastest and have the hottest chick ! Find out about duende by sorting glass 11 hours a day
but serious, flamenco to me and everyone else is a personal thing, it means alot of things to many different people (every one just as justified) , none of my non flamenco friends understand it even tho some of them are spanish, i dont know how to explain it to them, i dont know how to do it justice with words, how it makes me feel and why it makes me feel like that and even if i did, whats the point they have no refference.
closest i can say is when i hear great cante, i get that knot in my troat, when i watch a dvd with some great dancing and after long footwork dancer goes into a buleria (for example) and the guitar goes into scratching and the dancer starts doing cool brakes etc, i find myself yelling out " Ole!" even if i am by myself.
when i am in the mood to listen to flamenco i never ever put on a guitar solo cd, infact the only time i ever listen to guitar solo cds now is when i am practicing, or am scouting for ideas or falsetas, i dont know, all tho it impresses me it dosent touch me nowhere near as much.
in the end i dont think anyone else can truly know how flamenco affects the other guy or what it means to him, or could ever judge or dissmiss it until they bring out a flamencometer.
not at all suggesting that you are judging it, but there are some people who are convinced that they and they alone know what it is and what it means and what it should be and are a litlle dissmisive, no song ever affects 2 people exactly the same way, unless one has just copyed the others words.
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