First time playing for dance class (Full Version)

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Ailsa -> First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 5:54:00)

I played on my own for a dance class for the first time last night. I'd been to sit in and play along with a more experienced player a couple of times before. When it was something I didn't know he just told me what chords to use and I copied the rhythm.

When they started to learn bulerias he said, 'you can play this on your own', so I did! He said they wouldn't want any falsetas, so I just played endless variations on basic compas. I thought it would be really dull just playing the same or similar things over and over, but it was fine because it was what they needed. When she taught them a particular step emphasising 7, 8, I just included that in the rhythm too.

However at the end when they wanted to do a 'cool down', he suggested I play some Solea, and I couldn't remember very much!! OK, lesson learnt - next time I'll be prepared [&o][&o]

But generally it went OK. I'll have a chance to do some more, but I think I need to have some regular 'standards' prepared. I only have one Sevillanas!

So those who play for dance classes, what do you always have ready? What are the things that always come up in the classes you have played for?



xirdneH_imiJ -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 6:55:19)

mostly it's enough if you have a good sense of compás and know a couple of chord variations...when playing for beginners, sevillanas, tientos/tangos and rumbas come up most often, later bulerías, tarantos, alegrías, maybe a seguiriya or soleá por bulerías...i've never played a soleá in the last 2-3 years for dance, except when we had a spanish guest teacher here...
if you learn a couple of simple falsetas it helps, but if you're accompanying, either you do the music yourself or are given a recording which you're supposed to copy...



XXX -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 8:16:07)

Congratulations! You seem to be good if you have endless variations! :-D

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ailsa

However at the end when they wanted to do a 'cool down', he suggested I play some Solea, and I couldn't remember very much!! OK, lesson learnt - next time I'll be prepared [&o][&o]



Thats the part where i put my guitar away before they can ask me anything [:D]
No, seriously. Flamenco is no relaxing music. Even a Solea has much of tension (in some parts), compared to other music styles. A yoga CD or Chambao, are more apropriate. Besides, its really a bad feeling that the music you play just should function as a "background relaxing noise". It becomes irrelevant what you play, when youre asked to "just play anything". Did it 3 times and never again.



kozz -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 10:35:57)

quote:

Besides, its really a bad feeling that the music you play just should function as a "background relaxing noise". It becomes irrelevant what you play, when youre asked to "just play anything". Did it 3 times and never again.


Or just the perfect moment to throw in a nice arpeggio studie from Gerardo Nunez. Combine the pleasant with study and play for yourselves...turn the bad feeling into something positive.

quote:

I played on my own for a dance class for the first time last night.

Great Ailsa! It must have been an experience.



Ailsa -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 11:08:23)

quote:

Congratulations! You seem to be good if you have endless variations! :-D


[:D][:D] Mmm yes I guess they weren't really endless! But I was lucky that at a workshop recently the teacher taught this very thing - lots of simple ways to vary basic compas.

No Deniz I'm not at all good, I was just lucky and got away with it!



pacodegarcia -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 15:19:15)

That's great Ailsa, I've been playing for a dance class on my own now for about 12 months and have had a similar experience. What i did find was that mostly I get to play compas, compas and more compas. The students are intermediate level so we are doing some Bulerias material at the moment and its slow! which is great because I get to work on things too in the class.



Mark2 -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 15:55:37)

Sooner or later you will be asked to play everything that is danceable. But solea, sig, bulerias, tangos, alegrias, tientos, sevillanas, solea por bulerias, and guajiras probably cover 90% of what you be asked for.

The teacher I played for always wanted solea while they stretched , then she went right into SpB for ten minutes or so. Then it was whatever they were learning. There never was a cool down that I can remember. I had no problem with the warm up bit, cause that's when I could play all my falsetas or try new stuff, and if I blew a tough one, it didn't matter.



Andy Culpepper -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 16:01:49)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mark2

Sooner or later you will be asked to play everything that is danceable. But solea, sig, bulerias, tangos, alegrias, tientos, sevillanas, solea por bulerias, and guajiras probably cover 90% of what you be asked for.



Don't forget fandangos, pretty popular palo for beginning dancers.



Mark2 -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 16:03:29)

Absolutely.

ORIGINAL: deteresa1



[/quote]


Don't forget fandangos, pretty popular palo for beginning dancers.
[/quote]



minordjango -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 17:52:07)

famdangos or famdangos de huelva?

hey guys/gals. im learning as much asi can from my method books in preperation for dance classes, and one any pinpointed examples, i.e of falsetas or rhythms thats really work well , you know ones you can fall back on ?

i dont know if i have Endless array of them to fall back on, sounds like a great challenge,
well done guys for getting the oppotunities



JasonMcGuire -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 21:30:29)

Thats great news Ailsa. Its a big step in the right direction. Prepare what you can, but don't feel presured to know EVERYTHING. Just take your time and contribute to the class what you can the very best that you can do it at the time and they will be appreciative and in turn you will get valuable experience. Dance class is in many ways the place I learned the most when I was starting out. I still love to play dance classes when I get the chance.

As Nigel said...... compas, compas and more compas. Compas is what most students lack and sooner or later out of boredom you will get very clever at varying the compas that you "know" and develope the flexibility to play "off the cuff"... improvised. By repetition those compas that you know well will get drilled in so much they will become a solid basis for everything you do down the road.



Florian -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 2 2009 23:37:19)

Thats excellent Ailsa congratulations


there are no standards besides the really common ones...buleria, tangos alegrias, solea por bulerias, seguirillas, sevillanas etc.. the rest is what ever your school decided to do at that time...

but if you have those prepared you should be fine...really all you need for the time beeing is the llamadas and about 3 or 4 variations of rithm for each..thats it ...later on to make it more fun for yourself u can add falsetas, runs etc...as u are more comfortable playing in front of this people

quote:

However at the end when they wanted to do a 'cool down', he suggested I play some Solea, and I couldn't remember very much!! OK, lesson learnt - next time I'll be prepared


lol yeah that happens...feel free to play repetative chords and arpegio falsetas there too..or just do different litlle rithm variations...or cante chords etc..anything..but you have to make sure you are 100 % aware of were the compas is at all times...so better do simple stuff u are comfortable with and know for sure the compas is 100% then pretty falsetas that sound good but the compas is shaky..infact use that formula for the whole lesson

noone cares if a note is nice and clean but its out of compas....better an unclean in compas note...i am sure u dont but just to be sure...dont compromise the compas for anything..really compas is what you are there for..

in time you learn how to get the most out of the lesons for yourself..and use them for your own practice...when they do repetative footwork i practice my picado timing and volume over it ( or a falseta, or a variation i made up) ...it dosent matter what you do if the accents and volume is there for them to hear...but it took me about 9 years to learn how to do picado in class and wich ones.. that helps and not distracts....so dont rush that.,.


but in time i think its important that you take full advantage of the situation and use it for your own practice, push yourself..dont just go on auto pilot because they are repeating the same steps...they might be but you dont have too...u can create, push yourself...try it double time..try diff things.. if its something slow and simple do a picado run with your M and A..( when they practice sevillanas..i play the simple picadoish traditional ones with my M and A amd than I and A fingers) and try to do the volume so that noone besides me knows

make it work for you and take full advantage


good stuff, congratulations again..i hope you find some of my suggestions helpfull..some of it is stuff u can worry about in the future ..for the time beeing just keep it less complicated for yourself...but i wanna make sure u dont fall into the trap or thinking that :oh its repetative and slow so its boring" it dosent have to be...theres a million ways u could be using that time to better your playing

everything you know should work with everything they do..if it dosent its not because its the wrong thing for dancing...its most likely because you are doing it wrong...practice that and find out for yourself why it dosent...technically all falsetas should work with dancing too..its just a question of accenting to go with the feel of the dancing instead of against..


**** i just looked at how much i wrote..i talked too much !! stop now .....[sm=rolleyes.gif]



val -> [Deleted] (Apr. 3 2009 2:58:59)

Post has been moved to the Recycle Bin at Nov. 8 2010 13:23:47



srshea -> RE: First time playing for dance class (Apr. 3 2009 16:05:44)

Hey Alisa,

Congrats on finding a class to play for. I think it’s definitely more satisfying than playing alone, behind closed doors!

Plenty of good advice from the others as to what to work on and get under your belt, so I don’t have anything to add there (Though you’re definitely gonna want more than one sevillanas!). One thing I would recommend is to talk to the teacher and try to find out, in as much detail as possible, what she plans to work on in the class. It could be that she just works with a small handful of styles with the beginning students, so you might not need to know a wide variety of stuff just yet. I’ve spent a lot of time busting my ass all week to learn something for class, something I though we would be working on, only to show up and end up working on something else entirely, something that I hadn’t been preparing for. So if you can get as much specific info about what you’re going to be working on from week to week you can put your practice time to the best possible use by working only on what you need at the time, instead of trying to build up a full repertoire all at once.

I’ve only been doing it for about five months now (though it feels like it’s been a looong five months). It’s gotten easier in some ways, but it also still feels like a non-stop hustle to get things worked out, and I always, always feel like I’m way behind where I need and want to be in what I can play. So, I think Jason’s advice about not feeling pressured to know everything all at once is really important (I wish I could follow that advice, myself!). Always try to remember to enjoy yourself and see the value in the experience even, and especially, when you hit some rough patches and make mistakes, get frustrated with yourself, etc. (I just realized that you might not be as neurotic as I am, so maybe this last bit of advice isn’t necessary. [:D])

Oh, one other thing that I’ve learned is that it’s a good idea to have a lot of really easy-to-play default stuff to fall back on, simple stuff that you can play in your sleep. If your hands get tired, or if that bulerias compas that you can play comfortably at 150 bpm starts to fall apart when the teacher unexpectedly asks you to play it at 190 bpm, it’s good to be able to revert to some super-basic strumming or tapado patterns as a fail-safe.



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