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When do I get to play my falseta???
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John O.
Posts: 1723
Joined: Dec. 16 2005
From: Seeheim-Jugenheim, Germany
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 When do I get to play my falseta???
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Hey guys,
more and more I'm getting to the point where I can accompany standard palos and know for the most part what's going on, where the letras, escobillas are etc...
One question I have though is about my falsetas. I mostly see falsetas played following a signal from the dancer, sometimes accompanying footwork. I know for Alegrias, Canas and others there are the traditional melodies you can improvise on during the escobillas, but for example a dancer told me I should accompany the footwork of her a zorongo with a falseta after the first llamada because it would otherwise be too boring.
Is this something that always has to be spoken about beforehand or is there a general rule in the traditional accompanyment? Can I just fill up the footwork with nice melodies however it fits and sounds nice as long as I stay in the background?
Another question - in German I've always heard "escobilla" used to describe those parts of alegrias, canas, soleáres starting on count 1, usually with arpeggios or melodies, otherwise the footwork in-between letras is called "Fußteil"=foot-part. Is there an English word for these parts and more importantly is there a Spanish word for these parts which differentiates them from the escobillas?
My biggest weakness is knowledge of terms...
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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things
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Date Nov. 27 2008 0:09:44
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JasonMcGuire
Posts: 1141
Joined: Apr. 10 2007
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RE: When do I get to play my falseta??? (in reply to val)
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Great dancers know what to do with falsetas. Most of the dancers I work with regularly have become accustomed to improvising their solos. When improvising a guitarist will play a falseta when the inspiration calls him. In that situation it is up to a dancer to work with what has been offered. If they stomp all over the falseta it only makes them look bad. I improvise most of the falsetas I play for dance and they are never the same so the dancers feel "special" that I am not using the same old falsetas for every dancer and they know that they have to pay attention because unexpected things tend to happen in an improvisational context. When I started accompanying years ago, the norm was to rehearse (to death) every compas and completely mount entire choreographies. I can't tell you how much nicer and more "flamenco" it is NOT to do things that way. I don't mind learning a couple of breaks, but when an entire number is rehearsed it always comes off cold to me. The communication on all parts (singer,dancer and guitarist) stays open when you are improvising. I would and do urge all students of accompaniment as well as dancers to improvise as much as possible. A well improvised performance will usually beat even the most complex rehearsed arrangement in energy and soul. I owe my respect to Yaelisa for showing me the importance of improvising in a dance setting. The many dancers who have studied under her have taken that lesson to heart as well.
I realize that this thread was more about falsetas, but it really opened the door for discussing some of the ideas I feel most passionate about regarding baile.
Improvising used to be the norm in flamenco, but somehow in the past 20 or so years, flamenco dance became an over-rehearsed product for the most part. Improvising is hard and it takes a true artist to pull it off consistently. I remember thinking how impossible it seemed at the beginning. Now I wouldn't have it any other way. I am fortunate to be surrounded by people that feel the same way.
Starting falsteas in the last part of the compas is a great way to "get your foot in the door." If afterward a dancer complains about your contribution to their solo, you simply tell them how much their dancing inspired you and that it moved you to make a musical statement. Most will feel honored more than perturbed if it is put that way.
Regardless of what has been said (all guitarists have complained about most dancer's controlling nature at one point or another), Flamenco in performance is greatest when it is an open discussion between the artists onstage sharing with each other their points of view. It is much like a conversation between intelligent and courteous people. The conversation can take many turns, get heated and passionate, but there are cadences and other pauses which offer its participants a chance to reflect on what has been said. Conversations need not be rehearsed. Flamenco doesn't necessarily need to be rehearsed either as long as your knowledge of the art form is deep.
Happy Thanksgiving and prayers for those in Mumbai. My friend and flamenco percussionist Sudhi Rajagopal has family there and thankfully they are okay.
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Date Nov. 27 2008 12:50:37
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John O.
Posts: 1723
Joined: Dec. 16 2005
From: Seeheim-Jugenheim, Germany
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RE: When do I get to play my falseta??? (in reply to Florian)
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Usually when uncertain I give a heavy aggressive remate and end with muting the strings to wake up dancers when my part is done. When they see me staring at their feet with a distant expression they have their heavy aggresive golpes to wake me up with 
Jason, that's a great point to this thread actually, I've always wondered how much of flamenco is really improvisation, and there's a flamenco guitar technique to match just about every rhythm the feet of a dancer can make. What you described having so much fun doing is exactly where I want to go, too.
Starting accompanying classes about 4-5 years ago I always tried to begin or end compáses with little interesting melodies, fit a falseta in here or there and really had a lot of trouble doing anything but just chords. Now I'm at the point where I use progression structures as ideas and play them differently every time, transpose for different palos, see the dancer go in a circle - "whoops llamada's coming and I'm on C, how do I get down to Ephrygian in one compás in an interesting way?" In the past half year I've relaxed so much and it's like opening a whole new chapter of things to learn.
My question was mainly because I always read critiques on shows and one point made is always whether a guitarist knows how to stay in the background - there's surely a fine line between entertaining accompanyment and showing off the whole accompanyment through. Thanks for all your input guys, I'll be working on getting a lot more creative in the future.
And BTW when I hear things like Comparación Imposible from Monste Cortes all the great accompanyment that's possible with ONLY chords it just blows my mind... 
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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things
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Date Nov. 28 2008 1:12:54
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mark indigo
Posts: 3625
Joined: Dec. 5 2007
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RE: When do I get to play my falseta??? (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
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quote:
Great dancers know what to do with falsetas.... etc.
This is a great post Jason, thank you. It's a topic i think about quite a bit, and play around with a fair bit too. Not that i'm anywhere like at the same level as you or in the same league as you, but i have played for dancers/classes (sometimes for classes, sometimes performing with dancers who take classes, sometimes performing with dance teachers) on and off for 15 years or so.
Although I started off trying to learn whole choreographies (most teachers seem stick to a set choreography for classes, at least at lower levels), I have ended up not trying to learn whole dances as set pieces, and just get to know that i can play this when they do that etc., and if they change things around by accident or design i can just go with it. Some of the dancers I have played with have improvised a bit, and lots have made mistakes such as changing the order of steps or leaving bits out, and I'm fine with that, it keeps it fresh and interesting, even if the basic structure is more or less set. When i mentioned this to the teacher of the class I'm going along to at the moment she said "we don't improvise, and we don't make mistakes". My heart sank....
Great link to the solea, thanks for that too, I saw/heard Manuel quite a bit over the years when he was living in London, any idea what he's up to these days?
Just wondering what your take on this is, what to play if you don't have a singer? Most of the guitarists I have played with and/or learnt from have played the relevant accompanying chords (or version of), but I have spoke to guitarists who say if there isn't a singer just play falsetas over/in the letra section of a dance.... maybe it's a question of the level of the dancer? The guy who told me this was living and playing in Jerez at the time....
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Date Nov. 28 2008 2:18:56
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its either your intro or your falseta....judge it like that and youl never ever be wrong in rehersals, then just remember the spot for the concert...the second u hear silence ...u might as well get up go get a coffe cause its not your part 
" 