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Compas Revelation
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n85ae
Posts: 877
Joined: Sep. 7 2006
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 Compas Revelation
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Since I'm learning via, book, and forum, and have no time outside work
for getting a teacher, maybe this is something that took me a while to
grasp. Anyway - Hope this helps somebody learning in similar fashion.
A long time ago, on the forum Ricardo said go off, and work on basics.
That there was a youtube vid about the movements that made up bulerias,
that this was the real deal, and from it you could learn the basics.
Well I took this to heart, and have been working like mad doing just that.
After all this time, and learning Graf-Martinez, Manuel Granados stuff, Tom's
handbooks, etc. I've mostly been learning chunks of compas, 12 beats at a
time, simple falseta's, and some entire bigger pieces in tab.
Saturday night, I was looking at the tab, and it occured to me that these
right hand patterns could be learned as 2-3 beat fragments. Rather than
just as 12 beat chunks ... Maybe a bunch of you are out there, thinking ok
of course, so what's new. Well to me it was like a revelation.
I took this approach on a tab I was learning, it was really giving me a hard
time because a chord change from Bb to Amaj happened on upstroke, golpe,
upstroke with the first upstroke on A, then the second on Bb. So I divided it
into two little fragment and learned them individually, the first was "down/up,
up, up" and the second was "golpe/up, up". I started looking over some other
compas examples, and pattern 1 for example is very common and is used
on beats 12,1,2 or 3,4,5 or 6,7,8 etc. frequently. So now I have two little
patterns that are learned. If I learn a half dozen little patterns like this how
many things can I assemble from them ... A lot. PLUS if they are three beat
patterns I could play "pattern 1, pattern 1, pattern 2, woody woodpecker"
and I know exactly where I am! Right back on beat 12 again.
Anyway, that really woke me up, and all of a sudden a lot of stuff became a
bunch easier to play in just 1 day and a new way of looking at the same old
stuff.
Jeff
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Sep. 25 2007 15:43:50
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guitarbuddha
Posts: 2970
Joined: Jan. 4 2007
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RE: Compas Revelation (in reply to n85ae)
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Hi Jeff, sorry if I am falling into the old habit of bamboozling you again  .
Instead of thinking A and Bflat just think a home chord and an alternate. So every rhythm that you play with these two chords you can play with any other pair so C can substitute for A and G7 for Bflat.
As for the bit about playing 'white' my apologies if it is not clear. I know promised to upload something explaining this months but my big push to use the my computer more actively for muscic died on its a## when upgraded to vista. Reasons my webcam wont work, my USB mic disables my computers output and records at a whisper, my yahama MIDI guitar needs a USB midi adaptor and I am too lazy to use sibelius input one note at a time and I can't play keyboard.
So sorry for all the excuses but.... I honestly think that by jove you've got it !! All that that suggestion was that if your are thinking Afor 3beats Bflat for 3 and then Bflat for four with beat ten being A for two (bog standard buleria compas playing )you could play only on the downbeat say for the A chords and and restrict yourself to improvising only on the Bflat bits, or vice versa. This should help you relax and feel the compas without having to fill it with notes. This is particularly good when you want to get used to playing at speeds above 200 without feeling under pressure.
An example would be (counts in brackets are not played )
A 1(2,3), Bb1+2+3+, A 1(2,3,4) , Bb 1+2+.
Keep up the good struggle. (with guitar that is .... not understanding me).
D.
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Sep. 25 2007 23:09:11
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John O.
Posts: 1723
Joined: Dec. 16 2005
From: Seeheim-Jugenheim, Germany
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RE: Compas Revelation (in reply to n85ae)
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Llamadas usually start at 1 and you'll know one is coming when the dancer makes a signal (step back, raising arms for example) and doesn't accent beat 12.
As a beginner you'll feel a 12-beat compás starting on 12 differently than one starting at 1. Switching back and forth between the two feelings was tough for me as a beginner.
I was at a workshop with dancers doing llamadas after a half compas forcing me to pay attention to the rhythm in 6's. I started trying things out like accenting 3, 6, 9, 12 or 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 waiting for llamadas to come.
Again theoretically this could be the completely wrong way to approach this. But this helped me think less in terms of counting in 12's and more feeling the rhythm. Being able to freely interchange between half compáses in 2's and 3's helped me feel the rhythm and hold a strict 12 beat compás better.
Could be I'm just writing BS - possibly some logic just works for certain individuals.
_____________________________
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Sep. 26 2007 16:15:28
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