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My experience with flamenco-lessons.com
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Munin
Posts: 595
Joined: Sep. 30 2008
From: Hong Kong
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 My experience with flamenco-lessons.com
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After some weeks of contemplation and rewatching Jason's sample lesson every once in a while, a few days ago I finally decided to go ahead and register for a trial at his site, flamenco-lessons.com and I just wanted to share my experience with it. I really feel that he deserves some more exposure for all the work he has been putting into it.
Well I think I can just say it now - I feel that Jason has created an amazing site that is well worth the price of admission. Currently, there are already countless lessons online, divided into categories, from palos to things like a technique section. One of the things I really especially like about the site is that Jason covers things you only rarely see in instructional videos etc., for example Ida y Vuelta, Cante & Dance accompaniment, and so on. Even with the abundance of learning material these days, it often seems as if most books and videos restrict themselves to teaching rasgueados and a bunch of solea falsetas (exaggerated of course) and that's it. With Jason's site I get the feeling that he is really trying to share every bit of his flamenco knowledge, and for the people who simply don't have access to Spain or a place where the less obvious things are taught, his site is an invaluable resource.
And then there's all those cool little tidbits that truly make Jason's site stand out among others and also among other learning resources in general, for example Jason uploaded a lesson where he puts Thelonius Monk's "Round Midnight" in a bulerias rhythm. Now, the purists may see this as rather gimmicky, but personally, I really loved it - you just don't see these sorts of things anywhere else.
It has to be said though that in general, I think Jason's site is more tailored towards Intermediate+ players rather than beginners like me. Even though he classifies his lessons into 3 difficulties and has a bunch of videos available to teach the very basics, the beginner stuff is often very tricky too. And there are a lot more lessons classified as Intermediate/Expert online compared to the Beginner stuff. But for those who can do it - and of course, challenge is good - there is an insane amount of material available.
There are a couple things that could be improved, for example, and this ties into the last paragraph, I feel there should be a bit more structure to tie the lessons together in general - if I was a complete beginner having just subscribed to the site, I'd feel slightly lost. The site could use a bit more written text to accompany all the available lessons, for example some guidelines for beginners. And while Jason makes a "commentary" video available for every lesson and explains things well, it's often merely used to explain the theoretical or historical context rather than explaining how to specifically tackle certain parts of a falseta, for example (this is not true for every lesson though, just a limited impression I had).
In general though - I can highly recommend the site. He keeps adding new lessons constantly, the price is very reasonable, and most importantly, his material is truly, truly unique and has a personal touch to it, not just some rehashed "let's count bulerias compas" stuff all over again. No idea how the site compares to Adam Del Monte's, for example, but overall, I think it's one of the best monthly investments one can make. (Hope I didn't sound too much like an ad  )
Are any other guys here also subscribers? What's your opinion?
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Date Jan. 1 2009 5:15:46
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Munin
Posts: 595
Joined: Sep. 30 2008
From: Hong Kong
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RE: My experience with flamenco-less... (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
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quote:
Hi Munin,
I don't want to sound defensive, but I tend to leave the commentary to cover just a general bit of info about the lesson and comic relief. When a student needs help in a particular area of a lesson, they can ask a question at the site forum or even post a video of themselves for critique. I almost always respond within a day.
How many private "real life" teachers can you call 24 hours a day and bug about things that way?
The forum section of my site is a great reference tool that goes hand in hand with the lessons. If you haven't checked it out, stop by, introduce yourself, ask a question, post a video of yourself and I will be more than happy to give you the personal attention that for most is essential to learn.
I will try and get a lot more beginning material posted soon. I have been meaning to do so for some time. Its my New Years Resolution. Also, all new lessons will be recorded in HD with a new 3rd camera angle that really shows the right hand in detail. Audio will be much improved as well.
Yeah, that indeed makes sense. It's maybe because I'm actually not used to the integration. The forum is indeed an important part of the site that I forgot to mention. Well, I stand corrected then.  In any case, I wish you lots of success with your site - you really deserve it!
Hope to hear some other opinions as well.
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Date Jan. 1 2009 23:28:50
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srshea
Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
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RE: My experience with flamenco-less... (in reply to Munin)
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At the risk of sounding like a shill, I feel compelled to offer up my own ringing endorsement of Jason’s site. I signed up last night, and all I can say is that I really, really wish had done so earlier. I’ve been absolutely killing myself trying to work out certain stuff for accompaniment on my own, and my life would have been much easier if I had gotten a hold of this material sooner. I came home wiped out after three hours of dance rehearsal yesterday and then compulsively worked into the wee hours on stuff from the site, only finally stopping when my left hand pretty much just called it a day.
All the material appears to be very good and very, very serviceable, and really up to date. All solid, fundamental, deeply-rooted stuff, but also good for those who hope to play with others some day and need to be playing living, breathing flamenco and not just classic bedroom type stuff.
There really is a lot of stuff that I think would be valuable to a wide range of students, from larger, long-term challenges to little bits to grab here and there. The difficulty level skews pretty fairly towards the more difficult end of the spectrum; a lot of the beginner level stuff is a handful. My own plate is already overly full with stuff to work on (one of the reasons I never signed up before) but even still I can tell I’m going to get a lot of use out of the site. So, if any of you out there are waffling, I highly recommend you check it out. Even just spending a weekend with the trial would be great for just about anybody.
More of what I’d like to see? More accompaniment stuff. I think that this is some o the best material on the site, and it’s also what makes it unique. There’s no shortage of books/cds/dvds/on-line stuff for free or pay/etc. but very little of it covers accompaniment stuff at all, least of all in an approachable way. So I think that’s one of the key things that gives Jason’s site a leg up on the competition. Of course the real work of learning to accompany comes from actually doing it, but having some of these fundamental building blocks in your toolbox as preparation for working with dancers and singers is a great head start.
I also really like the apagado stuff for tangos and bulerias, and it’d be cool to see that for all the other upbeat rhythmic stuff: alegrias, solbul, jaleos, etc.
Alright, Jason. If you’re out there you should ready yourself for an onslaught of questions on your forum, ‘cause I got lot to learn!
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Date Mar. 8 2009 17:16:33
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JasonMcGuire
Posts: 1141
Joined: Apr. 10 2007
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RE: My experience with flamenco-less... (in reply to cathulu)
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Thanks Cathulu. I have been busy with new lessons and beginning the task of working on some new technical stuff with my site. There will soon be in addition to lots of new classes most of which will deal with compas and accompaniment, huge fuctionality enhancements in how videos are delivered and such. In the last couple of weeks I have added the following new lessons......
A 2 hour bulerias dance workshop with Yaelisa.
A bulerias sixes intensive dance accompaniment lesson.
2 new "Compas Workshop" bulerias target practice lessons. (learning to cut at all places in the compas and recover falling back into the groove). All downbeats and all contrtiempos are covered.
2 new solea falseta lessons, one is a new tremolo.
A new bulerias falseta and a fandangos de huelva falseta with a Paco de Lucia inspired alzapua ending.
4 new "Compas Workshop" lessons covering improvisational compas playing for tangos, bulerias, solea and farruca.
There are new lessons for dance accompaniment too although I haven't prepared the guitar portion, they are uploaded for students to go ahead and use for practicing with a dancer and singer. These are all complete flamenco dances improvised by Yaelisa(baile), Felix de Lola (cante) and Melissa Cruz (palmas). I will get the guitar accompaniment done for these very soon. There is a complete Solea, Alegrias, Tientos, Bulerias(mentioned above), Jaleos, Tangos and Garrotin.
Also coming soon are complete dance classes of Yaelisa, with a second camera on my guitar so students can see I am doing.
We are also going to be experimenting with offering lessons for dancers. Basic stuff like marking, beginning technique etc...
After seeing some of the new dance accompaniment lessons some dancers became interested in the website so we are going to see how it goes.
I did a live broadcast too a few weeks ago. It was 2 hours long with Glenn Canin discussing and demonstrating 4 of his recent guitars all built with different wood combinations. I posted it in 2 parts on my YouTube channel if any one is interested.
I will be doing another with my friend Stephen Faulk who is a fantastic repairman and also a talented guitar builder. It will be broadcasted live and recorded for those who can't tune in live.
I have also been doing quite a few private lessons via Skype lately. It seems to work okay although I prefer Apple's iChat... The quality seems better to me. PC users can still connect to iChat using AIM. Anyone interested can send me a private message.
J
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http://www.Flamenco-Lessons.com/
http://www.CaminosFlamencos.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Bikhiyal
http://flamenco-lessons.blogspot.com
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Date May 5 2009 16:30:07
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