BarkellWH -> RE: without flamenco... (Sep. 9 2011 20:00:42)
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Although I have loved to listen to flamenco LPs and attend concerts (my first was to see Carlos Montoya in 1960 in Phoenix, Arizona), and although I got my first guitar at the age of 17 (again, 1960), when I learned to play your basic three-chord folk music (Kingston Trio; Peter, Paul, and Mary; etc.), I never progressed or advanced in any guitar genre, and I never even learned flamenco. Meanwhile, I attended university, spent several years in the U.S. Air Force, and had a career as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in the Department of State. It was only after retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service that I actually bought a flamenco guitar and began taking lessons from Paco de Malaga in Washington, DC. I have been taking lessons from Paco for six years now, in between temporary consulting gigs with the U.S. Department of State. (I am now on a temporary assignment as Charge' d'Affaires at the American Embassy in the South Pacific island-state of Samoa. I Have been here two months, with one month to go before returning home to Washington, DC.) I would have to say that without flamenco my life probably would have turned out much the same, but without the joy of listening to and appreciating a music genre that has vastly enriched it. I find now, after two months in Samoa without my guitar, I am anxious to return and take it up again. Paco and I joke that every time I go out on one of these gigs, it is like having taken two steps forward and one step back. My flamenco toque improves gradually over time, but not at the rate it would if I were to devote all my time to it. But then, I don't want to give up these overseas gigs either. And I'm too old to consider a second (or third) career as a performing flamenco guitarist anyway. Cheers, Bill
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